PLM Needs for Cosmetic and Fragrance Industries: A Preliminary Assessment

Nowadays, issues such as shorter time-to-market, cost saving, and quality and compliance management are among the main concerns for the formulated industry. Thus, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), already well-established in industries such as discrete manufacturing, is becoming increasingly popular, as a solution able to support industries operating in the formulated sector. On the market side, PLM vendors are offering increasingly verticalized solution to meet market demand. However, on the scientific side, limited research has been carried out about the use of PLM in pharmaceutical industry and very poor regarding the cosmetic and fragrance industries. With scientific research not keeping abreast of commercial development, the PLM concept is often misunderstood or not fully potential exploited by PLM developers. This research aims to assess actual and potential functionalities of cosmetic and fragrance industries PLM application. Findings are based on a scientific literature review about the use of PLM in pharmaceutical, cosmetic and fragrance industries, an assessment of cosmetic and fragrance regulation environment (limited to the EU market) and a study on PLM solution commercially available for the cosmetic and fragrance industries. Some well-established functionalities were found and some other potentially valuable PLM functionalities, which are currently missing or poor developed are identified and proposed. The need and the possibility for further development of such PLM application is determined.