A formulation made to your specification
When none of the six fits the task, the partner factory's chemists work from your soil, surface, water and pack to a product made for it.
- Chemists
- The partner factory's own
- Starts with
- A written formulation brief
- Lead time
- The chemists', given to you in writing
- Minimum batch
- The factory's, stated before you commit
- Registration
- Responsibility agreed in writing before bench work
Custom formulation is for the task the six FORMULA products do not cover. You bring the soil, the surface, the water, the time available and the constraint. The partner factory's chemists develop against that brief, the product is trialled on your site, and it comes in a pack format agreed with you, with a label your crew can read.
- 01 Enquiry
- 02 Zone survey
- 03 Zone plan
- 04 Supply
- 05 At the position
- 06 Verify
- 07 Review
A formulation made to your specification sits at step 4 of from survey to supply. You receive a bill of materials and a reorder quantity per position.
Most briefs should end at stage two
Most of the time, the product that solves the problem already exists, and it is quicker to get and better documented.
A custom request usually arrives as a chemistry question and turns out to be something else. The dilution station is set wrong. The water is harder than anyone checked. The contact time is thirty seconds because that is all the changeover allows. A new formulation would be developed to solve a problem that a survey solves in a morning.
So the first thing we do with a brief is try to answer it with one of the six. If one of them does the job, we say which and how it should be dosed, and the project stops there. A custom product brings a minimum batch and a lead time, and the paperwork for a new product starts from nothing.
Brief to pack, stage by stage
Seven stages. The registration split sits before the bench work on purpose: it is the step that decides the timeline, and it is the one people leave until the product exists.
| Stage | What happens | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Brief | The soil, the surface, the water, the time available, the temperature you can reach, and the constraint that rules out the obvious answer. | A written formulation brief |
| 2. Range check | The brief is tested against the six, and against a variation of one of them. If either does the job, the project stops here. | A written recommendation, or a decision to continue |
| 3. Registration split | Which registrations the product needs, who holds them and who files them. Agreed before any bench work, never after. | A written responsibility split |
| 4. Bench work | The partner factory's chemists develop against the brief, on your soil rather than a laboratory standard. | A bench sample and the chemists' report |
| 5. Site trial | Run on your line, in your shift window, by your crew. Most formulations change here, and some fail. | A trial record with the result and the changes made |
| 6. Label text | The use instructions the chemists set from the bench and trial results: the method, the dilution, material cautions and PPE. | Label text, agreed before any artwork |
| 7. Pack and artwork | Pack format, closure, hazard panel, and the label in the languages your crew reads. | Approved artwork and a production pack |
The paper trail you keep
The formulation brief
Your problem written as a specification: soil, surface, water, time, temperature and the constraint. Worth having even if the project stops at stage two.
The range check
Which of the six was tested against the brief, and why it did or did not do the job.
The registration split
Who holds each registration the product needs and who files it, signed before the chemists start.
The chemists' bench report
What was tried on your soil, what worked, what did not, and why the chemists went the way they went.
The trial record
The run on your own site: conditions, result, the changes made, and who signed it off.
Approved label artwork and a production pack
The label your crew reads, with its hazard panel, on the pack format you agreed.
Limescale on marble, near Khobar
An FM contract covers a residential compound near Khobar with forty washroom blocks on tanker water.
Limescale builds on basins, taps and urinals within weeks. None of the six is an acid descaler, and several vanity tops are marble, which acid etches.
The brief records the soil as scale, the surfaces as chrome, vitreous china and marble, the water as hard tanker water, and the constraint as "must not touch the marble". The range check confirms none of the six does the job. The registration split is agreed in writing before bench work starts. The partner factory's chemists produce a bench sample. The site trial runs on two blocks over two weeks, and the label gains a line after the trial: apply to a cloth, never spray near stone. The label text follows, then the artwork with a stone warning in the hazard panel.
The contractor holds the formulation brief, the registration split, the chemists' bench report, the trial record and approved label artwork. The descaler joins the plan's chemical specification for the washroom zone.
Deciding whether custom is worth it
Four briefs that survive the range check
Each of these is a problem the six cannot answer, rather than one they have not been pointed at properly.
- A soil the usual products ignore, often a residue specific to your process
- A surface material the usual chemistry attacks, where the damage is already on record
- A customer specification with a named constraint, such as fragrance-free or chlorine-free across a whole site
- A pack or dispensing format nobody makes, where the format is the real blocker
Four briefs that turn out to be something else
These arrive as chemistry questions and leave as findings, because the fix is on the site rather than in the bottle.
- A strength problem is nearly always a dosing problem
- A hard-water problem is a water and product-selection question
- A contact-time problem is a scheduling question
- A cost problem is usually solved by a different pack size, not a different formulation
Batch and shelf life, stated first
A custom product carries a minimum batch and a shelf life, and the two together decide whether it makes sense.
- The minimum batch is the factory's number, and we pass it to you unchanged before you commit
- Shelf life against your annual use is the sum that ends more custom projects than cost does
- Where your volume does not support a batch, a product from the six is usually the better answer
Often quicker than a new product
Many briefs do not need a product from nothing. A fragrance-free or dye-free version of one of the six starts from a recipe the chemists already know. It is usually the quicker route, and it is the first option we look at.
Before you write a brief
Who does the chemistry?
The partner factory's own chemists. We write the brief, set up the trial on your site with your crew, and produce the records and the label artwork around the product.
Can you guarantee the product will pass our customer's audit?
No one honestly can. What we build in from the start is the evidence an auditor asks for: the trial record, the check named against the product in your zone plan, and the record that check lands on.
How long does it take?
The chemists set the bench time, and we give you their lead time in writing. A site trial adds at least one full cleaning cycle and usually two. Registration, where it applies, is the long step, which is why the split is agreed before bench work starts.
What happens to the brief if we do not go ahead?
You keep it. It is a written specification of your cleaning problem, useful whoever you buy from.
Can you change one of the six instead?
Often, and it is usually the faster route. A variation, such as a fragrance-free version, starts from a recipe the chemists already know.
Try these first
FORMULA, the six chemicals
Most briefs end with one of them, at stage two.
Read moreDOSEDOSE
A strength problem is usually a dosing problem, and this is where it gets fixed.
Read moreZone surveyThe zone survey
A walk of your site answers many formulation briefs before a chemist sees them.
Read moreITF FMWashroom hygiene
The FM service line that runs washroom blocks like the ones in the example.
Read morePart of one system
Every division keeps records to the same standard, so the second one you need works the way the first one did.
Send the problem, not the product idea
A chemistry question is often a dosing, scheduling or water question underneath, so the brief starts with the process rather than with the bottle.