A methodology for simultaneous process and product design in the formulated consumer products industry: The case study of the detergent business

In this work we present a mathematical optimization based methodology for simultaneous formulae and process design in the consumer product business applied to the case of the laundry detergent. The design of a new detergent is formulated as a modified pooling problem including process, performance, processability and environmental constraints. This new features add a number of nonlinearities related to the modeling of the different aspects of the process and customer acceptance. The problem becomes a multiobjective optimization problem that is solved using the ɛ-constraint method with global optimization techniques to minimize of the environmental impact while minimizing the production cost for a couple of case studies. As future work, further process, product and legal constraints can be added to make the problem more realistic.

► We propose a methodology for simultaneous process and formulated product design. ► It uses a global based multiobjective mathematical optimization framework. ► We test it in the competitive business of performance products: detergents. ► The methodology provides interesting insights to help make business decisions.