HEURISTICS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRODUCTION PROCESSES FOR HOUSEHOLD CHEMICAL PRODUCT

MANUFACTURING

Hunter, M. M.

School of Bioprocess Engineering, Northern Malaysian University College of Engineering (KUKUM), Perlis, Malaysia.

Email: murray@unimap.edu.my

ABSTRACT

The development of production processes for new household chemical products must take account of new product designs, formulations, substance form and characteristics of packaging to meet the changing needs of the market. New products require new forms of processing systems and it is often the case that existing equipment available from suppliers is not suitable for the specific application. Further, there is no knowledge of theory or practice available in scientific literature as the intellectual property required is usually kept by competitors as trade secrets and proprietary knowledge. This requires the company to develop their own processes, through it’s own knowledge development. This paper argues that the most important aspect of this process development will come from heuristics, rather than theory based application and that the use of heuristics in process development is a source of innovation for the enterprise and possibly an area where competitive advantage can be developed. This paper will run through an example to demonstrate the approach. Keywords: Process system engineering design, product development, heuristics, innovation.

INTRODUCTION

Heuristics is a very old technique brought to prominence in the 1940s. Heuristics is something belonging to logic, philosophy and psychology1, a thinking process something between the algorithmic and stochastic approaches2. Stafford Beer likened heuristics to a living organism, its DNA and existence developed along an algorithmic blueprint, but sustaining survival in the environment through heuristics3. Heuristics prescribe general rules for reaching goals, which we cannot reach algorithmically, because we are not sure of the exact route to get there, as there are a number of potential paths and these paths are at the point of beginning, unknown to us. Heuristics is the way we actually live our lives, although we believe we are living life algorithmically with rules. We need heuristics to make decisions, although we are not aware of this. When heuristics are mentioned, we think of it’s contribution to artificial intelligence, but heuristics is the reality of how an engineer develops new manufacturing processes for products that the actual details of the production process, although in principal is known, is mysterious in finite detail to the engineer when starting out. This paper explains through a case study how in reality heuristics is the method we solve our problems and reach our final goals.

The fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) market is a dynamic environment dominated by some of the largest conglomerates in the world. The FMCG market and particularly the household chemical product market is very intensely competitive, with companies continually looking for new products that will provide them with a competitive edge in the market. Due to this intense competition, product differentiation based the primary image builders of advertising, promotion and price is difficult to utilize as a means to gain competitive advantage over competitors. Secondary image builders like packaging, fragrance, product form and types of ingredients used in the products is taking on more importance4. Due to competition and changing consumer expectations, products are not designed to last in the market for long periods of time5. Companies plan a succession to their product, once its lifecycle is expected to end. Thus

Proceedings of the 20th Symposium of Malaysian Chemical Engineers, Organised by Universiti Techologi Mara, December, 2006

companies will utilize the same branding for the new product, relying on their corporate goodwill for success with the succeeding product6.

Succession products may be designed to solve the same consumer problem as the discontinued product, only that it may take another physical form. Most product categories follow a particular evolution and change physical form as the example below shows.

Figure 1: Product Evolution of Laundry Detergents

Laundry LiquidsDetergents

Concentrated Laundry Powders

Detergents with Special Additives

Laundry Detergent Tablets

Laundry Detergents Powders

Solid Soaps & Powders

Laundry Blue

Laundry Detergent Bars

Pre 1900’s

Up to Late 1940’s

1950’s until present

1980’s until present

The company’s strategic market development depends on the linkage between marketing and manufacturing to change process technology at the factory level to facilitate the product successor. How well the manufacturing organization of the business can achieve developing a new process technology to enable the production of the new product depends upon the ability to develop process technology. This has a great influence over the firms overall competitive strategy. This inter-relationship in many organizations is not without its problems, as marketing and manufacturing tend to view the same problems and issues according to their disciplinary priorities7. Thus successful new product launches depend on an amicable working relationship between these two parties in the firm. The development of a new manufacturing process to produce a product suitable for the market cannot be dominated by manufacturing people, who will in probability offer options that will be below the marketing group’s expectations, because of a different set of project criteria and lack of full knowledge of marketing expectations.

THE FIRM’S PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

The product development process will generally follow the steps outlined in table 2 below. Our discussion will be limited to the formulation development and manufacturing system design aspects.

Figure 2: The Product Development Process

Ideation

Developing Product Specifications

Market & Product Planning

Concept & Prototype Generation

Product Registration Packaging Design

Further Formulation Development

Manufacturing System Design

Final Packaging & Formulation Review

Marketing Review

Further Formulation Development

The initial formal beginning of this process will be a meeting of various people in the firm, including marketing, sales, industrial chemists, production engineers and finance people. Committees are set up along either functional lines (production, sales, marketing) or an integrated functional matrix (materials manager, product manager or marketing manager). During the initial meeting, the new product concept will be the result of the ideation stage of the process. An ideation is an idea developed usually in line with what the marketing people feel is needed to be offered by the firm to the market to create the maximum competitive advantage. Sometimes this process is contracted out to firm outsiders, like advertising agencies, who have given no consideration to formulation of the product, packaging constraints and production processes.

Industrial chemists and production engineers when commissioned with a new product concept begin to think laterally and try to conceptualize what type of formulation is necessary, how it can be produced through a process and how the packaging requirements can be handled and whether there is compatibility between these three issues. The basic relevant questions production engineers will ask are as follows;

1. The type of product requires what type of process?2. What are the capacity and technological considerations?3. What specific process technology can be used and what type of workflow pattern can be follow?4. The number of workers required and what skills they will require?5. The scheduling, coordination and control systems required?6. Inter-relationships with other facilities? (i.e., synergies and cross contamination threats) and7. What provision for expansion will be required?

INDUSTRY SOURCES OF TECHNOLOGY

The household chemical product industry is not an industry well known for publishing the latest technology in journals. Information about production processes is considered more important than the formulations and usually kept as a firm’s proprietary knowledge, with access to employees on a need to know basis. The latest products are usually on the market before a patent is approved and published into the public domain. Thus many new products are launched on a patent pending status. Published information in the local domain is usually years out of date describing processes for products that are already in numerous numbers on the market8.

Usually specific products require applications of chemistry and production engineering that institutes of higher learning have not looked into. Tertiary education background in the fields of chemistry and production engineering, will only provide some theoretical knowledge on basic principals that may or may not be applicable to a specific project.

Sometimes the planned new product may be a copy of another product in another market or a product manufactured for another application. If this is the case, the chemist and engineer have a model to work back from in a re-engineering process, to understand the relationship between packaging, formulation

Test Marketing/ Pilot Production Optional Today

Refining of Product Before Major Launch

Major Launch

(materials) and process. Usually experience and exposure to a wide range of different manufacturing processes and procedures in the industry will assist, rather than any formal product analysis. Intuition is the key to learning. Working backwards or re-engineering can be supported by suppliers of chemicals and processing equipment. Networking in the industry in is a valuable and important asset to the firm.

Although the household chemical industry has a number of suppliers who are able to supply turnkey plant and equipment for most conventional products like soap, detergents, shampoo, cosmetics and aerosols, etc, many new and novel products have little history of manufacture, thus suppliers are unable to build specific plants. In these cases, it is up to the firm to develop its own plant layout and process methods. This may require building a new plant from complete scratch or assembling bits and pieces of equipment designed for other applications and modifying them to suit the specific purpose.

The process technology the firm has available is thus the sum of equipment suppliers’ knowledge and the processes and systems that can be devised by either re-engineering an existing product or visualizing a potential production process by deduction. Thus plant and process equipment in the household chemical product industry tends not to be designed through definite design and fabrication, but rather through a heuristic process leading to a great amount of trial and error until the final process layout and individual material processes are developed into a working process.

ACASE EXAMPLE OF AN INCISTERN BLUE BLOCK (TOILET BLUE WATER BLOCK)

The toilet cleaner market is worth approximately USD 20 billion worldwide, with incistern blue blocks approximately 30% of this market. The main world manufacturers are Sara Lee, Reckitt-Benkeiser and S.C. Johnsons. They share approximately 30% of the market each, with smaller national and regional based companies sharing the remaining 10% of the market.

An Extruded Block A Molded Block

There are two primary methods of manufacturing this product. One method is through extrusion of a tungsten lined converted double worm plodder, operating at a psi of between 1500-2500 and the other method is through the molding of melted surfactants into the packaging components, allowing the emulsion to set into a hard block. There is little difference in unit cost between both methods, except extrusion is a semi-continuous process and molding is usually through a batch process, except where an inline mixing process has been developed. Both processes have occupational safety issues, extrusion plodders a susceptible to blowing out the front when psi becomes too high due to a lack of moisture in the process and the molding process is potentially dangerous due to the need to maintain a constant steam jacket pressure throughout the whole process. Both processes tend to spread cross contamination to other areas of the factory and therefore processes must be housed in sealed areas, isolated from the rest of the factory. Drawing 1 shows a rough break down of each product.

A molded block An extruded block

DEVELOPMENT OF MOLDING PROCESS

The author developed this product in the mid 1980’s while director of Research and Development for New Approach Products Pty. Ltd., in Melbourne, Australia. During 10 years involvement with this product, both methods were developed and used in commercial production.

The initial development was the molding method. This method was selected due to unavailability of a second-hand soap plodder at the time. One product one the Australian market was produced by the then Reckitt & Colman (now Reckitt Benkeiser) along a similar method. The initial development involved an understanding of the way the product worked and then working back to conceptualise a probable process the product was manufactured by.

Samples were purchased, some tested in their recommended application, while others soaked in water, simulating the environment of the toilet cistern to observe the product’s behaviour. The packaging was taken apart to understand its production process. The period of observation led to some understanding about the product, deducting ideas about formulation and production process.

The vital bits of information gained through this exercise led to an idea about formulation and process design :

Table 1: Information Gained from the Molded Product through Observation and Testing Characteristic Observation Leading to DeductionThe product was molding through a hot process into the actual packaging

1. Shape of block inside packaging2. Can observe liquid flow in block while it was a liquid

Product was primarily formulated using surfactants

1. Texture2. Odour3. Feel4. Dissipation in water

The formulation contained ingredients which controlled dissipation

1. Observation of block in water2. Observation of efficacy

The formulation contained agents that prevented the block from dis-lodging and moving around in the toilet cistern compartment

Observation during use of product

The above observation and deductions led to the development of technical criteria the formulation, packaging and production process must adhere to;

a) the packaging (blue plastic blister) must withstand heat during the filling process,b) The filling process must be precise (50gram without causing any splashing as it would ruin the

product presentation),c) The surfactant used must be in a solid form, with a reasonably high melting pointd) A single or number of dissipation agents must be utilized to control longevity of the product

during use (equates to number of flushes),e) A gelling agent must be used to assist in dissipation control and prevent the block from being

dislodged in the toilet cistern, andf) The production process must not reach too high a temperature to oxidize the dye during

manufacture.

A probable process was drawn out in the example (Drawing 2) below;

The above investigation indicated that there was a critical relationship between packaging, formulation and production process to ensure that a 50 gram liquid could be poured into a small plastic cup, without melting the cup or splashing the outer flange, which would later be heat sealed onto a cardboard backing card. At the same time, the production process needed to be hot enough to enable surfactants and dissipation agents to melt completely. Thus temperature coordination would be crucial to the whole process. Next, a formula had to be developed to be compatible with the following process below.

Figure 3: Overview of Production Process for Molded Incistern Blue Block

Blending of Raw Materials into Product

Pre-melting of raw materials

Reduce product to filling temp. and travel to filler

Filling Process Packaging Process

Through natural cooling and heat bands installed around piping

Volumetric with hydraulic shut-up controlled through

Steam jacketed tank

From the information developed through deduction, a formula was developed to suit the process. At the time of development little information in the public domain existed. Moreover patents, utilizing this method did not exist. Development was based on trial and error and with continual communication with suppliers and use of reference books about surfactants to understand material properties. The formula must create a suitable combination of ingredients that would a) have satisfactory efficacy in the intended application of the product, at least good enough to match the market leader, b) would flow through the production process without creating any problems, c) would solidify quickly once poured, but have a high re-melting point once in the marketplace and d) was cost effective and economical to produce. This period took nine months to develop a final formulation9;

Table 2: Final Molded Incistern Blue Block Formulation Ingredient % w/w Comments1 Tallow fatty alcohol

polyethleneglycol ether (50 EO) 68.5

A relatively ‘soft’ surfactant with melting point around mid 50s C. This made a satisfactory base where dissipation could be inhibited through use of other materials.

2 Tallow fatty alcohol C16-18 10.0 This ingredient, primary used in shampoo preparations was found to be an extremely good dissipation control, as it is almost insoluble in water.

3 Coconut monoethanolamine 4.0 CME blended with TFA improved the solubility of the dissipation control aspect of the formulation. It has a tendency to become paste in water and in the correct portions had great influence on dissipation control.

4 Zeolite A 10.0 Primarily selected because of its suspension characteristics in the chemical blend and its free flowing capabilities in the pouring stage. STP tended to block the filling nozzles.

5 Xantham Gum 0.25 This ingredient helped to attach the block to the wall or floor of the toilet cistern. The material in combination with the others also influenced dissipation.

6 Acid blue dye 7.25 Commonly used dye in toilet blue products. Not prone to much oxidation during continual high temperatures.

The plant was constructed once the final formula was developed. The production process is a simple blending of materials in their molten state and then their release to the filling head for dispensing into the plastic blisters. Due to viscosity and temperature, a number of modifications and enhancements were required to be made to an old cosmetic crème filler (see drawing 3 insert) to enable it to become a filler for this application. These modifications included, a) leather stopper at the back of the piston, b) a compressed air driven shut off value at the from of the piston, and c) heat elements placed along the pipes to maintain temperature during the filling process. The basic system can be seen in drawing 3 below. Please note, this was the actual drawing used for fabrication.

DEVELOPMENT OF EXTRUSION PROCESS

In the early 1990’s it was decided to switch from the molded to the extrusion process in an effort to keep up with sales volumes. Although the process is more complex, the learning experience through molded production, enabled the company to develop the method quickly. The primary issue was to develop a formula suitable for the extrusion process. This could not be achieved in the laboratory, as extrusion could not be satisfactorily emulated, so the plant and equipment was built before any formulation development work was undertaken.

The extrusion process is basically the same as for soap making, where the raw soap in the form of a soft doughy substance is usually rolled and fed into the plodder. In the manufacture of incistern blue blocks, the materials are fed into the plodder in a powder form with much less moisture content. This creates much higher pressure levels in the plodder. The critical issue was the moisture level; too much moisture making the material too soft and not hard enough to produce a suitable product and too little moisture would build up too much pressure in the extruder, either jamming the plodder, which could destroy the hydraulics or in the extreme case blow out the front of the extruder. This issue could only be solved through trial and error and skilled material preparation. Experience also showed that the moisture level also had to be varied according to different humidity levels during the year and different batches of purchased raw materials. The basic process can be seen in drawing 4 below.

Trials showed that the basic soap plodder had to be rebuilt with more powerful hydraulics and tungsten lined screw to handle the materials. The extrusion process required a completely different formulation, which bears very little relationship with the molded formulation as shown in table 3 below10;

Ingredient % w/w Comments1 Sodium alkylbenzene

sulfonate 75.0%A hydroscopic material which can compress well and absorb the dye component

2 Polyethyleneglycol ether (MW 20,000) 8.0%

A reasonable hard material excellent for controlling dissipation

3 Sodium Sulphate 6.5% A filler and regulator also aided in product dissipation

4 Sodium Triployphosphate 5.0% Dissipation agent in this application5 Guar Gum 0.5% Aided in fixing the block to the cistern during use6 Acid Blue Dye 3.0% Common dye used in toilet blue products7 Water 2.0% Regulator during the production process

DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION

At the time these two sets of plant and equipment were built and products formulated, no third party contractor or machinery manufacturer had the knowledge and know-how to supply a turnkey plant for the specific purpose of manufacturing in cistern blue blocks. Therefore if a firm wanted to enter this exclusive market at the time, it had to be able to build their own plant and equipment and formulate the product. Similarly, no literature had been published in the public domain about the formulations and methods of manufacture for this type of product. Thus it was completely up to the firm to develop the project with their own knowledge. This paper has demonstrated that the only method a firm can utilize is heuristics in the

Basic single screw soap plodder

The ribbon design critical

development of such chemical applications as specific application theories are unavailable in their entirety. The advancement of specific applications relies on trial and error to learn.

Developing a production process requires a number of both practical and multiple technical considerations without the support of a full body of knowledge to use as a reference. The development may require the utilization of particular chemical materials, processes and packaging integration within the process itself, which are already known and in common practice, but only the use of a heuristic approach is suitable in development and scaling up of the production processes of the new product. This is compounded by the problem that the procedure to make up laboratory quantity samples on a small scale may not reflect the procedure required in scaled up production. A list of considerations that must be reviewed during new production process development is listed in the table below11.

Table 4: Primary Dimensions for Plant ChartersMaterials Used Production Processes Products Produced Customers/Markets

ServedVolumeSourcesSpecificationsAvailabilityTransportationLocationHandlingCostPreprocessingLead Times

FlexibilityThroughout TimeCost StructureScale EconomicsLearning CurvesAutomationYieldSkills RequiredEquipment TypesJob CategoriesSeparable DepartmentsValue AddedSupport Staff

Number SKU’sSize and ShapeRun LengthAnnual VolumesSetupsWeightQualityComponentsMaterialsFeaturesStandardizationProduct Life Cycles

Seasonality/cyclesGeographical LocationSize of Firm CompetitorsDelivery Requirements(Lead Times, Order Size, Order Frequency)Field Service NeedsTo Order/To StockPurchase DecisionPrice SensitivityLife Cycle StageDistribution ChannelProduct Function

A heuristic approach to production process development in the household chemical product industry is an acquisition of proprietary knowledge, which is exclusive to the firm. The effort to develop the process is based on trial and error and thus is not easily duplicated quickly by other firms and can be considered a barrier to entry into that particular product/market, thus enabling the firm to practice monopoly differentiation for a period of time at a price premium to other firms. Thus through heuristic production process development the firm has developed a source of competitive advantage. If the new production process can be developed without heuristics, then barriers to entry into the particular product/market would be low and the product category would be crowded with competitors, thus turning the product category into a low premium category.

A lesson can be learned from some of the Japanese companies which have been able to successfully compete on cost with their Chinese competitors. Japanese companies through heuristics have been able to build their on plant and processing equipment at a third of the cost of the Chinese12, who purchased their equipment from third party vendors. The Japanese have realized that this is a source of competitive advantage and are able to continue to export from a much higher cost base because of substantial capital savings. This is a lesson for us in Malaysia aspiring to become a global player in the manufacturing industry in utilizing heuristics in production process design. Through heuristic design we are able to increase our production process knowledge base, rely less on imported machineries and add both innovation and competitive advantage to the sector. This is an example to follow in other chemical plant development, which potentially can save firms large capital investments on new projects and acquire technology through internal deduction and experimentation.

One of the commercial realities of developing new products is that corporate management tends to set conservative budgets for development of plant and processing equipment. Heuristic development can be utilized in this reality, as management will tend to argue that nothing is proven about any new product

commercial viability, until there is a history of sales. Thus heuristic development blends very well with this philosophy of building capacity according to increases in demand. The figure 5 below shows an acceptable capacity strategy with growing demand, that heuristic development would be an optimal strategy to meet budgetary restrictions. This strategy also allows for incremental and staggered plant and equipment investment over the growth phase of the product lifecycle. This is a more financially conservative approach in an environment where product lifecycles are shorter.

Figue 5. Incremental Capacity Growth of Plant and Processing Equipment with Product Market Demand

This has important national consequences as Dr. Asma Abdullah states that there “is also the tendency for Asian countries, including Malaysia, to deal with the issue of values in development by importing many technologies and systems wholesale from abroad without going through the process of mental transformation necessary to master them fully. Although Malaysia is going through rapid transformation, our growth is one without development in the context of knowledge contribution to science, engineering and technology. As long as we are consumers and operators of sophisticated techniques, plants and technologies imported wholesale from abroad, we are to a certain extent undergoing a technology-less form of industrialization. This transformation of values and attitudes is a key issue in the nation’s development agenda”13 .

On a final note, both processes were developed for less than RM500,000 and have generated a sales income of RM10 million per annum for the company over the last 17 years (i.e., RM170,000,000)14. The plant was moved to China in 2001 and continues to supply product to more than 6 countries.

Time

UnitsDemand

Capacity

1 Hutchinson, J., G., Management, Theory and Tactics, New York, Rinehart and Winston, 1971, P. 126.2 Polva, G., How to Solve it, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1945, P. 102.3 Beer, S., Brain of the Firm 2nd Ed., Chichester, John Wiley & Sons, 1981, pp. 52-53.4 Hunter, M., The use of natural fragrances in cosmetics – should it be considered, Cosmetics, Aerosols & Toiletries in Australia, Vol. 10., No. 3, 1996, P. 47.5 Hunter, M., The Evolution of Extrait Perfumes, Cosmetics, Aerosols & Toiletries in Australia, Vol. 9., No.2, 1995, P. 19.6 Gyde, B., Fragrance Positioning, Happi, April 1987, pp. 60-62.7 Shapiro, B., P., Can marketing and manufacturing coexist?, Harvard Business Review, Sept-Oct., 1977, pp. 104-114.8 Heitland, H. and Marsen, H. Dishwashing Detergents and Hard Surface Cleaners for Household and Institutional Purposes, in Falbe, J., Surfactants in Consumer Products; Theory, Technology and Applications, Berlin, Springer-Verlag, 1986.9 Australian Patent Number 61764810 Based on proprietary knowledge of New Approach Products Pty. Ltd., Melbourne, Australia.11 Hayes, R., H. and Wheelwright, S., C. Restoring Our Competitive Edge; Competing Through Manufacturing, New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1984, P. 101.12 Chen, M., Asian Management Systems, 2nd Ed., London, Thomson, 2004, P.220.13 Asma, A., Going Glocal: Cultural Dimensions in Malaysian Management, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Institute of Management, 1995, P. 179. 14 http://www.speedee-brands.com.au/about_us