5 ERP Features Crucial for Success in the Cosmetics and Personal Care Industries

Constantly shifting consumer preferences, tougher government standards, increased demands for sustainability…the list of critical considerations and hot-button topics seems unending in the world of cosmetics and personal care. And this is without even getting into your actual production processes and the many priorities to be juggled during day-to-day operations.

The challenge of accounting for all of the above and still keeping the financial side of your business healthy can be daunting, even for the most seasoned of industry professionals. You have your highly qualified staff—the most valuable asset of any company—to power your efforts, but not even that is enough in a market that moves this fast.

That’s why an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution is a must for establishments like yours. Of course, you can’t just buy the first software package with those three letters in the name and consider your problems solved—you need something built specifically for your segment, with tools to tackle your toughest concerns.

You need a dedicated cosmetics and personal care ERP system. After all, that’s the only way you’ll be guaranteed access to the five indispensable features we’ll cover here—each is absolutely crucial for success and will help you meet, and then exceed, your organizational goals.

1. Formula Management

As part of the broader process manufacturing space, cosmetics and personal care businesses deal with finely-tuned formulas that make your products unique and popular with today’s stylish shoppers. There’s no way you can rely on handwritten notes and hastily scribbled annotations when it comes to the kind of precision production your company engages in.

Instead, the smart move is to trust to an ERP platform’s formula management features, which will help you maintain and update vital information—including materials, measurements, manufacturing instructions, revisions over time and even Certificates of Analysis (CofA)—via a secure digital interface. That’s the kind of setup that will drive consistently excellent results that will keep customers coming back for more.

2. Bidirectional Traceability

Public health continues to be an issue of discourse even as the post-pandemic “new normal” sets in, and that entails additional scrutiny for consumer product safety, especially with the field of cosmetics and personal care being so connected to well-being and health. You’re also no doubt highly motivated to avoid any recalls, as they are not only costly in a financial sense but also potentially ruinous for your brand reputation.

The complete bidirectional traceability that a purpose-built cosmetics ERP solution provides can give you peace of mind, as you’ll be able to track your materials and finished goods both backward and forward along your supply chain and isolate contaminations quickly and efficiently. Identifying compromised products downstream and preventing them from ever hitting store shelves can be expedited to head off any negative outcomes before they become reality.

3. Regulatory Compliance

Speaking of increased scrutiny, that’s exactly what many governments around the world are implementing for consumer goods industries like cosmetics and personal care. While the legislation that is relevant to your circumstances will vary based on what regions your organization operates in, the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) and current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) are universally applicable and align with best practices.

To give you peace of mind and protect against violation of key regulations, advanced ERP software like our own cosmetics manufacturing ERP can automate critical checks that will keep your operations in compliance at all times. You can even schedule and streamline your own internal audits, not to mention prepare necessary documentation for inspections and track materials all the way down to the lot level.

4. Quality Assurance

One bad experience with a brand can be enough to turn a customer off for good, and that’s the last thing you want in an industry where fostering consumer loyalty is key and margins are already tight. Your organization no doubt has set high standards for all of the cosmetic and personal care products that roll off your lines, and you know your reputation rides on consistent excellence.

That being said, your employees are human and thus likely to occasionally forget routine quality checks and procedures. Personal care and cosmetics ERP systems automate the process, employing on-screen alerts to prompt your workers and even integrating with smart sensors and connected imaging devices to identify deviations and initiate intervention.

5. Labeling Tools

Communication remains key in our increasingly digital age, and the best way to convey key messages to consumers is through your labeling and packaging. Today’s shoppers have higher expectations when it comes to the transparency of the businesses they support with their buying dollars, and that’s especially true in the realm of cosmetics and personal care, as allergens and sensitivities are a concern.

Specifying what information to include on labels is made much easier with the dedicated labeling tools of industry-specific ERP platforms, and you’ll also be able to set parameters for which products in your lineup need disclaimers or additional warnings. Everything down to the most granular of details, like country of origin, vendor and lot number, can be crucial—but with the right solution on your side, you’ll never have to worry.

Adding to the Aptean Appeal

Now you know the advantages you stand to gain from deploying an ERP built for the cosmetics and personal care industry. As for which software package you should choose, a cursory search online will show that you have a wealth of options so you'll need to define your search criteria for comparing ERP systems to decide which one suits your company’s circumstances best.

We have several reasons to present that may convince you that Aptean is the solution provider to trust for your new platform, but in the interest of conveying the critical points succinctly, we’ll keep it brief. First, there’s our proven track record, with successful implementations completed for organizations like yours around the world.

There’s also the availability of our solution via a software as a service (SaaS) model, which optimizes flexibility and accessibility—necessary in a business landscape that is increasingly unpredictable. By hosting your system entirely in the cloud and trusting to our dedicated IT professionals for maintenance and upgrades, you can enjoy 99.9% uptime or better, as well as an unparalleled level of cybersecurity.

We also offer a host of complementary solutions, including an industry-specific system dedicated to new product development and lifecycle management, Aptean PLM Lascom Edition. This full-featured platform can help you streamline the process of bringing new offerings to market while also ensuring compliance and automatically generating important documentation.

Finally, there’s the collective decades of experience and in-depth understanding that our teams have accrued and cultivated. We strive to act as a partner throughout the implementation process and even beyond rollout, creating a roadmap to be covered in phases with additional benefits to be unlocked every step of the way.

So, ready to hear more about our industry-specific process manufacturing ERP, Aptean Process Manufacturing ERP, and what it can do for your cosmetics and personal care business? Contact us today, or schedule a personalized demo.