When you’re running a cutting-edge nutritional supplement facility, quality can’t be a bottleneck, it has to move at the speed of production. For Biovation Labs, that wasn’t happening. Despite having state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment, their quality systems lagged behind. Disconnected tools, manual processes, and siloed teams meant delays in lot release, costly retests, and missed opportunities for continuous improvement.
Biovation Labs knew they needed more than just a digitized version of their old processes, they needed a platform that could connect people, data, and decisions in real time.
This case study explores how Biovation Labs used Unifize to:
- Streamline approvals and cut lot release time from days to minutes
- Link specs, suppliers, and lots for instant, end-to-end traceability
- Reduce monthly testing costs by 50% in just two months
- Transform Out of Specification investigations into actionable insights
- Turn quality into a shared, proactive responsibility across the organization
What began as a single process improvement grew into a company-wide transformation, anchored in real-time collaboration and a culture of continuous improvement.
Overview
Biovation Labs, a leading contract manufacturer of nutritional supplements, set out to modernize its approach to quality management, not just to meet compliance, but to drive continuous improvement across the organization.
While their manufacturing infrastructure was best-in-class, their quality systems hadn’t kept pace. The company relied on a patchwork of tools, email, spreadsheets, file cabinets, disconnected systems for managing quality, and standalone systems for documentation, training, and approvals. These disconnected workflows resulted in bottlenecks, inconsistent data, and an inability to make fast, informed decisions.
For Biovation, quality wasn’t just about ticking compliance checkboxes, it was about speeding up product release, reducing testing costs, and making smarter decisions across the supply chain.But to do that, they needed a system that didn’t just hold data, it had to connect it, streamline collaboration, and grow with their processes.
Unifize stood out for its flexibility, ease of use, and collaborative architecture. Unlike legacy systems that impose rigid workflows, Unifize offered Biovation a blank canvas to build processes tailored to their operations. What began as an initiative to streamline Out of Specification investigations quickly grew into a company-wide transformation, anchored by real-time collaboration, end-to-end traceability, and a quality culture that now touches every part of the business.
About Biovation
Biovation Labs is a vertically integrated nutritional supplement contract manufacturing operation specializing in high-quality formulation, blending, encapsulation, and packaging.
Challenges - A Cutting-Edge Facility Held Back by Yesterday’s Systems
Biovation Labs had all the makings of a world-class operation, modern equipment, ambitious growth plans, and a team eager to lead with quality. But behind the polished production lines, their internal systems were slowing them down. Quality processes were disjointed, collaboration was clunky, and data was scattered across tools that didn’t talk to each other.
Here’s what stood in their way:
Disconnected Processes Across Teams
Quality, production, receiving, and formulation teams each worked in isolation, relying on emails, spreadsheets, and verbal updates to stay aligned. With no single source of truth, issues slipped through the cracks.
Manual, Paper-Based Workflows
Despite operating in a modern facility, Biovation’s lot release processes, spec approvals, and quality events were still being managed with Word documents and email threads, slowing decisions and increasing risk.
Inefficient OOS Investigations
With over 20 external labs involved, Out of Spec investigations were reactive and expensive. Retests piled up, results took weeks, and root causes remained elusive, wasting time and money.
Data Without Context or Connectivity
Specs, ingredients, lots, suppliers, and test results existed, but in isolation. Trending data or tracing performance issues required hours of manual compilation and offered little actionable insight.
Rigid Legacy Systems
MasterControl had been tried, but their complexity and lack of flexibility led to poor adoption. They didn’t fit Biovation’s processes and added more friction than value.
Quality as a Bottleneck, Not an Enabler
Without real-time collaboration or system-wide visibility, quality was seen as a necessary hurdle rather than a strategic function. Firefighting became the norm, and continuous improvement felt out of reach.
These challenges weren’t just slowing operations, they were holding back Biovation’s ability to scale, respond quickly to change, and build a truly agile quality culture. The team recognized that simply digitizing old processes wouldn’t be enough. They needed a platform that could connect people, data, and decisions in real time, one that could adapt as fast as the business moved.
That’s when they turned to Unifize.
Solutions: Built by the People. Driven by the Process. Powered by Collaboration.
Biovation’s transformation didn’t come from software alone, it came from the people who used it. With Unifize, quality became a shared responsibility, collaboration became the default, and processes adapted in real time to the way the business actually worked.
Here’s what that looked like, through the words and experiences of the team:
“What used to take days, or weeks, now takes minutes.”
On Lot Releases & Approvals
Solution: Unifize streamlined every approval workflow.
From test results to Certificates of Analysis, reviews and sign-offs are now automated and collaborative, removing delays and accelerating product release to near real-time.
“I used to have to go digging, now, it’s three clicks.”
On Linking Specs, Suppliers, and Lots
Solution: Unifize created instant traceability across the supply chain.
Specs, ingredients, suppliers, formulas, and lots are interconnected, making root cause analysis, trending, and audit readiness effortless for any team, at any time.
“We cut our testing costs in half in two months.”
On Out of Specs
Solution: Unifize turned OOS tracking into actionable insight.
By identifying patterns across suppliers, labs, and ingredients, Biovation eliminated unnecessary retests, negotiated better terms with fewer labs, and slashed testing spend by 50%.
“It’s not a system people tolerate. It’s a system they believe in.”
On User Adoption
Solution: Unifize was built by its users, not for them.
Drag-and-drop workflow creation, checklist customization, and role-based access control meant everyone, from operators to supervisors, contributed to shaping the system they now rely on.
“We don’t manage quality anymore. We improve it, every day.”
On Cultural Shift
Solution: Unifize embedded quality into the fabric of daily work.
By making collaboration happen in the flow of operations, not around it, Biovation created a self-sustaining culture of continuous improvement that scaled with minimal oversight.
Every time there's a problem now, people come to me and ask, ‘Can Unifize do this?’
Jesse Kolstad, Director of Quality
Unifize turned quality into a company-wide initiative. People from maintenance, warehouse, receiving, and production proactively came forward with ideas, building a sense of ownership and momentum that no traditional system could force.
Implementation Process - A Ground-Up Rollout Built Around Real-World Needs
Initial process deep-dive & opportunity spotting
The quality team began by observing day-to-day operations, focusing first on Out of Specification (OOS) investigations. They quickly identified bottlenecks in lab testing, approvals, and traceability as key pain points to address.
Configuration of foundational workflows
Custom processes were built for Out of Specs, Non-Conformances, ingredient specifications, and approvals using Unifize’s drag-and-drop no-code builder. Digital signatures and automated routing were configured to meet compliance needs and eliminate manual tracking.
Supplier, lot & spec linking for traceability
Unifize was used to connect raw materials, suppliers, ingredients, specs, formulations, and lots, creating a fully traceable quality framework. This enabled instant visibility into performance trends and reduced reliance on Excel-based analysis.
Cross-functional onboarding & adoption
Teams across production, warehouse, maintenance, and receiving were trained to use Unifize’s in-app collaboration and checklists. Real-time engagement replaced meetings, and quality became a shared responsibility across departments.
Live deployment and continuous evolution
As each workflow was adopted, users began identifying new use cases, driving the expansion of Unifize into quotes, internal audits, customer onboarding, and complaint management. The system evolved dynamically to fit Biovation’s changing needs.
Results - Quality That Moves Faster, Costs Less, and Works Smarter
~$50–60K Ingredient Cost Savings
By analyzing ingredient performance across SKUs and suppliers in Unifize, Biovation reduced 16 inputs down to 2 consistent performers, then hired a supplier offering 60% lower cost.
50% Reduction in Monthly Testing Costs
Biovation consolidated third-party labs, eliminated unnecessary retests, and negotiated better pricing, bringing monthly testing costs down from ~$150,000 to ~$70,000 within two months.
Decisions Made in Seconds, Not Weeks
What used to take days of meetings, segregation, and delays, like handling Non-Conformances or Out of Specs, now happens collaboratively, in real time, during production.
Lot Release Time Reduced from Days to Minutes
With automated digital workflows and real-time collaboration, finished good lots are reviewed and released as data is entered, eliminating long approval cycles.
360° Product Traceability in Just a Few Clicks
Specs, ingredients, suppliers, lots, and finished products are now fully connected. Trending, root cause analysis, and audit prep can be done instantly without manual compilation.
Conclusion - Quality Reimagined as a Competitive Advantage
Biovation didn’t just implement new software, they redefined how quality operates across their organization. What started as a tool to streamline one process became a foundation for faster decisions, deeper alignment, and a culture of continuous improvement.
Unifize proved that when collaboration is built into the system, quality stops being a checkpoint, and starts becoming a competitive advantage.
