DuPont innovation process

In such an environment, we have had to reshape the innovation games in which we play and develop a more robust innovation framework in which to carry out our growth strategies. The framework describing the five stages of the DuPont Innovation Process looks just like other depictions in countless organizations around the world (Fig. 14.2). 

Finally, we need to seek other lessons from our successes and failures in implementing the innovation process as it fuels growth for DuPont. 

Mary L. Good Exactly. It depends on to whom you are talking. There have actually been three or four chemical companies involved. DuPont and a couple of small companies did some very innovative work on utilizing some plastics for commercial opportunities that had never been looked at before. Nevertheless, participation in ATP by the chemical industry has been rather small. The chemical industry is very proprietary, and many chemical companies are unwilling to go through the review process that NIST requires. 

In addition to the legacy of Lehigh University (as well as Princeton University and Prof. C. A. Floudas), B. D. l reus and M. L. Luvben want to acknowledge DuPont and its culture of technological innovation and excellence. We have had the opportunity to work on and learn about many different processes, and we have tried in this book to synthesize in some coordinated way part of our experiences. Most of... 

While profitably reducing environmental footprint has become a systematic source of value, DuPont has achieved less success applying the concept of sustainable growth to the innovation and new product development processes. DuPont does have examples of new products for which a major portion of the customer value results from the elimination of environmental problems for the customer. Examples of this include ... 

In 1927, as a result of the move into the relative complexity of aromatic organic chemistry, initiated by dyestuffs and intermediates, both Calco and DuPont enhanced their research facilities. The creation of a formal Research Department at Calco was the single most important innovation necessary to ensure the smooth integration of additional products and processes. With this, Calco became one of the first American chemical firms to establish dedicated research and development facilities81. DuPont constructed a laboratory complex known as Purity Hall , that inaugurated a fundamental research program82. 

This innovative research has resulted in a commercial DuPont process that makes MIC and converts it in-situ to an agrichemical product. Consequently, the potential for exposure is greatly reduced. This trend in in-situ manufacture and derivatization is clearly the way of the future for hazardous chemicals. Non-phosgene routes to isocyanates, and use of solid acids to avoid HP and H2SO4 as alkylation catalysts are other examples of research in progress to minimize fur er the use of hazardous materials. 

Another early example was DuPont s nylon intermediates processes developed in the late 1930s. DuPont chose to commercialize nylon-66 because of the availability of benzene from coal as a feedstock. The benzene had to be hydrogenated to cyclohexane, which was oxidized in two steps to adipic acid. Originally, adipic acid was the precursor for the other intermediate, hexamethylene diamine. Production of nylon and other polymer intermediates would be an important field in homogeneous catalyst innovation in the post-war era (71). 

DuPont nanofiber-based separators go beyond the hmit of traditional nonwovens and microporous membranes to provide thinner separators with lower ionic resistance and higher temperature stability for use in wide range of energy storage devices. Made by a proprietary spinning process, DuPont nanofiber sheets contain continuous polymeric filaments in a thin, uniform web of randomly oriented nanofibers that are ideal for separators. The innovative manufacturing process dehvers a uniform web at high... 

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