Early Design-Implement Experiences

Basic design-implement experiences have benefits for instructors, as well. From these experiences, instructors become familiar with the personalities, maturity, dependability, and unique skills of students at an early stage in their education. Because they get to know students better, instructors are able to recognize individuals and their learning styles, in ways that are not always possible 

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Consultants must be true experts. Many people know quite a lot about a topic, but that does not make them true experts. In the example quoted above concerning PHAs, by the early 1990s many engineers and other technical specialists had become very familiar with the process of leading hazard analyses. This did not, however, qualify them to become PHA consultants. Their experience merely qualified them to lead hazards analyses, not to design, implement, and run PHA systems. 

Statistical design of experiments (DOE) is often used in the early stages of process optimization. This is followed by a validation of the predictive model using actual plant production data. The response surface model described below captures the process performance window and shows the effect of changing composition and extruder screw speed on blend properties. A validation step can be easily implemented. 

One early concept, based on field development work, was realization of the necessity of designing the part based on the properties of the engineering resin itself, rather than simply duplicating the design that worked best for metal construction. To implement this concept required generating considerable design data. This experience greatly influenced the scope and content of the acetal homopolymer characterization effort carried out in the next decade. 

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