Seeking Rapid Analytical Tools / Processes for Quality Control of Hair Dye Formulations

Our client is looking for proven quantitative quality control instruments which can be used in production environment and dramatically reduce or eliminate human interventions/involvement and ideally allow to efficiently and reliably interface with plant SAP system to automatically store analysis data of every lot and based on pre-set thresholds determine ‘accept’ vs. ‘reject’.
The primary goal is to cut our current QA time per lot to a quarter or less and we are open to completely rethink the way we do quality control today as long as the approach is robust and reliable.

Currently in oxidative hair dye manufacturing we test the bulk and finished product for:

• Ammonia and/or other Alkalizers (Mono-ethanol Amine)
• Specific Gravity
• Dye-out: Cream dye is mixed with equal amount of cream developer (Hydrogen Peroxide solution) and a hair swatch is submerged in it and left to cure for a pre-determined time. The swatch is washed free of dye and left in the oven for a certain time to develop the color. The dye out of the lot is compared with a reference lot and in case of a match the product is released. A match or lack of is determined visually by lab personnel who are experienced in this.
• Mixed (Dye+Developer) rheology or viscosity

The whole procedure takes about 60-80 minutes/lot. As we contemplate speeding up our internal supply chain and reduce lot size, the time and effort spent in QA becomes a critical bottleneck.

Innovative but proven technical solutions (robust enough to withstand production environment) that would allow us to release batches based on accurate determination of known chemical constituents so that ‘performance’ tests especially the dye-out test becomes redundant. There are approximately ~150 unique formulations in production.

We are open to all routes as long as the reduce complexity and testing time.
NMR technology might be a solution but maintenance of such instruments would add quite some complexity.
Offers need to consider that some the formulation contains various active molecules and some of them are only a percentage of other molecules.
Kinetics play an important role. Thin-Layer Chromatography may also be considered as High Pressure Liquid Chromatography.
But other methods/processes and technologies are welcome.

Whatever adds complexity in a production site environment.

Implement method / process in 2012.

Speed up release process and reduce complexity or at least do not increase it; reduction of release procedure by 50 % would be considered success; ideally down to 10 minutes. We are aware that the development of a new method does not come for free.