Four Delta offers consultancy support to the formulation of products from a platform of many years of practical experimental design and analysis in a large multi-national company. Four Delta Consulting aims to provide the link between training and the practical implementation of experimental design for formulation and process optimisation and has expertise in design-driven use of high-throughput experimentation.
The expression “Formulation by Design” is meant to imply the process of using the statistical principles of experimental design in chemical formulation. Why would anyone want to use experimental design instead of tried and tested experience? Well, they would probably not want to take the risk. However, how about blending time-served methodology with experimental design? The advantages we know from many years experience can be significant.
What is Formulation by Design?
Formulation by design is the use of statistically designed experiments, often in a sequential fashion, to optimise a formulation against predetermined but measurable criteria. Remember, numbers add value!
Key independent variables (for example, concentration of ingredients, or process variables) are identified and changed in a systematic way for trials and the resulting trial formulations assessed against one or more criteria. Statistical analysis of the data will often indicate the direction to go to find a better formulation in terms of the criteria
Why use Formulation by Design?
Experimental design is a tried and tested approach to formulation optimisation that really works. Experimentation is cost effective compared to other approaches.
When to use Formulation by Design?
Experimental design should be used to explore the potential for formulation optimisation against desired criteria before altering a formulation for example, to improve effectiveness or its competitive position.
How to use Formulation by Design?
One way for a company to start implementing formulation by design is to get external training for key personnel. Traditionally, companies such as Statistics for Industry have offered first rate training for key personnel in statistics and experimental design. It can be a problem for a small company to release key personnel for training. In addition, considerable conviction and commitment are needed by management to endorse the application of the learning on return as well as confidence on the part of the trainee.
Consultancy offers a means of getting up and running in-house. The Client learns from internal, on-the job training in a familiar, risk-free environment.
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