Solving productivity challenges in Chemical R&D

Manual processes, fragmented data resources, and poor collaboration tools all impact R&D productivity. Based on responses from a survey conducted in partnership with Coatings World, Jun Liu urges chemical businesses to adopt a fully digital strategy, deploying the latest best practices to accelerate discovery, enhance efficiency, and transform the researcher experience.

In common with every sector, the specialty chemical industry faces significant cost, efficiency, and productivity headwinds. R&D teams in particular are under pressure to innovate at an ever-greater pace and scale, and constantly seek ways to deliver more with less. To explore the impact of these issues, Revvity Signals, in partnership with Coatings World, organised a survey, resulting in 200 detailed responses.

One of the most eye-catching revelations in the survey was that R&D teams continue to use spreadsheets as the principal way to manage and analyse data. In addition to well-known technical and process limitations, such as manual data input, version control, and row limits, all these issues tend to be cumulative: each new project creates yet more spreadsheets, adding management complexity and administrative overhead.

The survey responses also showed that many companies rely on legacy systems and software that offer little or no interoperability, trapping data within disconnected silos and incompatible formats. The result is that R&D teams are distracted by administration tasks, trying to integrate and normalise data, reducing the time available for the science.

Slower product development

Essentially, using isolated, low-quality data greatly reduces the ability for globally dispersed R&D teams to scale effectively. While in-house-developed databases, shared folders (often hosted on external file-sharing services), and email attachments might work within a department, sharing information can soon become time-consuming and frustrating. Without full visibility of work and results, efforts get duplicated, and costs tend to rise.

Fragmented systems not only slow down collaboration but also limit the ability to capture the valuable insights that drive innovation. Without a central data platform, R&D teams lack the capabilities needed to identify trends or measure progress across multiple projects. In some cases, each department may be using different tools, further complicating communication and hindering strategic decision-making at scale.

Finally, alongside the operational difficulties for R&D expressed in the survey, companies reported that a lack of unified data management creates compliance challenges. Staff rely on manual processes to extract relevant data and produce regulatory materials, often in a new set of spreadsheets that again demand careful review and error-checking.

While tools such as spreadsheets, PDFs, and text documents have helped companies transition from paper notebooks, new integrated solutions offer the opportunity to revolutionise productivity and the user experience.

Moving to fully digital workflows 

New solutions that offer intuitive ways of working while providing embedded data management are already transforming R&D capacity and scale, helping companies to outperform their competitors. Unlike replacing a paper document with an electronic document, digital workflows are root-and-branch reforms of the business process, based on best practices and new technologies. 

Digital solutions not only enhance operational efficiency but also pave the way for advanced data analysis, allowing teams to reveal hidden insights. By automating data collection and integrating analytics capabilities, these applications make it easier for R&D departments to uncover patterns, predict outcomes, and ultimately accelerate the development of innovative products. 

Cloud-native software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions provide entirely new ways of working while preserving familiar chemistry research tools. Accessed through a web browser and paid by subscription, SaaS solutions are quick to deploy, highly configurable, and easy to learn. In addition, the cloud model enables authorised users to access the same projects and data regardless of location, offering immediate collaboration possibilities on a global scale.

In the survey, many specialty chemical companies admitted that their digital transformation projects are on the ice, stalled, or lagging. SaaS solutions offer the ideal opportunity to bring digital transformation back into action, as they can be deployed quickly and easily with no additional on-premises IT infrastructure and no capital expenditure. The subscription model enables companies to start small and grow fast at a modest cost, with near-limitless future scalability.

To conclude: the survey shows honest appreciation of the current state of the industry, the gaps in the digital transformation process, and the possible solutions. The newest SaaS technologies hold great promise, and organisations that fully embrace the opportunities will gain significant advantages.