Reformulation & Cost Optimisation
Improve performance, reduce cost or solve formulation constraints
d-labs helps detergent and cleaning product companies reformulate existing products to address changing performance, cost, ingredient, stability, sustainability or manufacturing requirements.
Whether the objective is to improve an underperforming product, reduce formulation cost, replace a raw material or respond to a change in the market, reformulation is supported by comparative performance testing so improvements and trade-offs can be measured objectively.
Why Reformulate?
Products need to evolve as markets, costs and requirements change
Existing detergent and cleaning formulations often need to change in response to commercial, technical or supply pressures. d-labs helps identify the cause of the problem, define the reformulation objective and develop a revised formulation without losing sight of the performance that made the product viable in the first place.
Reduce formulation cost
Rework an existing formulation to reduce raw-material cost while protecting the performance and product characteristics that matter.
Improve performance
Address areas where the current product is underperforming against internal targets, consumer expectations or relevant market benchmarks.
Replace raw materials
Reformulate when ingredients become unavailable, commercially unattractive or no longer suitable for the intended product.
Improve stability
Resolve physical or chemical stability issues such as separation, viscosity drift, precipitation, colour change or loss of performance over time.
Respond to changing requirements
Adapt formulations to new ingredient policies, sustainability objectives, retailer requirements or other evolving commercial constraints.
Support supply continuity
Reduce dependence on difficult-to-source materials or provide alternative formulation routes where supply-chain resilience is important.
Reformulation is not simply about changing ingredients — it is about protecting the product while changing what needs to change.
Optimisation Objectives
Improve the formulation without losing what already works
d-labs reformulation projects are built around the specific objective of the client, with changes assessed against the characteristics that need to be protected. Depending on the project, optimisation may focus on one priority or balance several competing requirements.
Performance
Improve cleaning efficacy or recover performance lost through previous formulation changes, while comparing against the existing product or relevant market benchmarks.
Formulation cost
Identify opportunities to reduce raw-material cost while measuring the effect of each change on product performance and other critical attributes.
Raw material strategy
Replace unavailable, high-cost or undesirable ingredients and assess suitable alternatives without unnecessarily redesigning the entire formulation.
Stability
Improve physical or chemical stability, viscosity behaviour, appearance or other characteristics that may change during storage.
Sustainability
Adapt the formulation to support defined sustainability objectives such as ingredient selection, concentration, reduced transported water or other client requirements.
Manufacturing
Resolve processing or scale-up issues and simplify formulations where appropriate to improve manufacturing practicality, consistency or raw-material handling.
The aim is to make the required change while understanding — and controlling — its effect on the rest of the product.
Reformulation & Performance Testing
Make changes with evidence, not assumptions
d-labs combines reformulation work with comparative performance testing so the effect of formulation changes can be measured objectively.
Revised prototypes can be assessed against the original formulation, relevant market benchmarks or agreed performance targets throughout the optimisation process.
This makes it possible to understand whether a cost reduction, raw-material substitution or other formulation change has affected cleaning performance — and whether any trade-off is commercially acceptable.
Change what needs to change. Measure what matters. Protect what works.
Our Reformulation Approach
Understand the problem. Change what matters. Prove the result.
d-labs approaches reformulation as a controlled optimisation process. The objective is to identify what needs to change, understand what must be protected and evaluate each revised formulation against clear technical and commercial targets.
Define the objective
Establish why the product needs to change and which characteristics — performance, cost, stability, appearance, processing or user experience — must be maintained or improved.
Understand the current formulation
Review the existing formulation, raw materials, performance data and known limitations to identify likely opportunities and risks.
Develop & optimise
Create revised prototypes, changing only what is necessary and progressively optimising against the agreed project objectives.
Validate the outcome
Compare the optimised formulation against the original product, agreed benchmarks and other relevant requirements before moving toward manufacture.
The result should be a better solution to the new brief — without accidentally creating a new problem elsewhere.
Start a Reformulation Project
Need to improve, simplify or reduce the cost of an existing formulation?
d-labs can help reformulate detergent and cleaning products to improve performance, reduce cost, replace raw materials, resolve stability issues or respond to changing commercial and technical requirements.