Abstract

Automation in FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) R&D

Andrew Mitchell, HTE Specialist, Unilever Research

Unilever’s vision is to double the size of the business, whilst reducing our environmental footprint and increasing our social impact. The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (ULSP) helps do drive profitable growth, reduce costs and fuel innovation. Our products are sold in over 190 countries and used by 2 billion consumers every day. Bigger, better and faster innovation can only happen when using automation. This is a relatively new capability for Unilever, coordinated from R&D Port Sunlight. Unilever R&D Port Sunlight has many years’ experience with high throughput instrumentation and platforms. The team has defined engineering design principles to achieve a high success rate in delivering automation, including: User Requirement Specification writing. ‘factory style’ modular builds.approach to PUWER (Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations) partnering with suppliers. ‘SMART Automation’ through telemetry such as SMS, email and Dweets. Integration into a consolidated data management platform, to enable both validation of parameters and methods being sent to instruments and seamless data collection and processing. The presentation will end with a short overview of the recently opened High Throughput Formulation Centre based in Liverpool Science Park, including our ‘Geoff’ 800g scale formulation robot and High Throughout Stability Platforms.