ARGUS

Protecting Home & Personal Care products (such as laundry detergents, shampoos and cosmetics) from problematic microbes is a critical factor in the design of products, manufacturing systems and integrated supply chains.

The industry is increasingly seeking to introduce new, more biodegradable materials, reduce environmental footprints and increase the agility and resilience of these supply chains. However, current microbiology-based test methods for assuring product quality are too slow and lacking in diagnostic power to catalyse these supply chain transformations.

ARGUS aims to create a real-time measurement solution to detect microbes at key points across the supply chain, and identify pinch points in production systems for targeted cleaning where microbial accumulation is more likely to occur. No longer reliant on offline testing, these instantaneous measures of material quality and supply chain health could combine to create digital Certificates of Analysis enabling frictionless movement of materials, lower cost operation, and acceleration of innovative new products to market.

This Feasibility Study will evaluate the potential of three Industrial Digital Technologies to enable this transformation -- sensors for in-line microbial count across the supply chain, sensors for material accumulation points in static production systems, and digital Certificates of Analysis. Taking an established UK Home & Personal Care supply chain as a case study, it will characterise critical supply chain design criteria, assess potential value of these new technologies and propose a path through Industrial Research to market. It supports UK Government strategy to increase adoption of and create markets for Industrial Digital Technologies, amplify supply chain collaborations between larger and smaller companies, and increase resilience and sustainability of operations, ultimately helping to meet the UK's 2050 Net Carbon Zero target.