Product development design process

The chemical process industries represent one of the most technically complex sectors of our society. To fulfill the purposes outlined in Section 1.2, both chemical engineers and chemists at all degree levels are needed. These chemical professionals work in both fundamental and applied research in process and product development, in process design and engineering, in manufacturing, in sales and in administration, frequently at the highest level. A distribution of chemical professionals according to job function is presented in Table 1.3. 

Product development Design characterization Process platform development... 

As our knowledge grows, we will undoubtedly find further uses for microbes and an even better understanding of how they can contribute to new product development and process design. What is certain is that they will continue to both challenge and reward us. 

Eastman Kodak has identified 10 core competencies and developed a process for their management and utilization within the company (29). Similarly, Eaton Corporation selected seven core technical competencies, ranked them in importance, assessed their importance vs the known state-of-the-art for the industry, and developed action plans to extend the life of each (30). Eaton subsequently found the company could bring to market products designed with proven building blocks, thus minimizing risk and the need for additional capital equipment. In addition, the competencies were found to be reservoirs of proprietary advantage that had not previously been put to work. 

Flow-sheet models are used at all stages in the life cycle of a process plant during process development, for process design and retrofits, and for plant operations. Input to the model consists of information normally contained in the process flow sheet. Output from the model is a complete representation of the performance of the plant, including the composition, flow, and properties of all intermediate and product streams and the performance of the process units. 

Activated alumina and phosphoric acid on a suitable support have become the choices for an iadustrial process. Ziac oxide with alumina has also been claimed to be a good catalyst. The actual mechanism of dehydration is not known. In iadustrial production, the ethylene yield is 94 to 99% of the theoretical value depending on the processiag scheme. Traces of aldehyde, acids, higher hydrocarbons, and carbon oxides, as well as water, have to be removed. Fixed-bed processes developed at the beginning of this century have been commercialized in many countries, and small-scale industries are still in operation in Brazil and India. New fluid-bed processes have been developed to reduce the plant investment and operating costs (102,103). Commercially available processes include the Lummus processes (fixed and fluidized-bed processes), Halcon/Scientific Design process, NIKK/JGC process, and the Petrobras process. In all these processes, typical ethylene yield is between 94 and 99%. 

Improperly set tolerances and uncontrolled variation are one of the greatest causes of defects, scrap, rework, warranty returns, increased product development cycle time, work flow disruption and the need for inspection (Gerth and Hancock, 1995). If manufacturing processes did not exhibit variation, quality problems would not arise, therefore reducing the effects of variability at the design stage, in a cost-effective way, improves product quality (Bergman, 1992 Kehoe, 1996). 

The relationship is commonly known as the TOx rule and is shown in Figure 1.13. The 10 X rule demonstrates how a fault, if not discovered, will give rise to ten times the original elimination costs in a later phase of the life-cycle. In other words, products must be designed in such a way that scarcely any defects develop or if they do, they can be identified as early as possible in the product development process and rectified (Braunsperger, 1996). Other surveys have found that these costs could be even higher as shown in Figure 1.14. 

The Toyota X300 fork lift truck project design cycle is concurrent in nature spanning all the major disciplines in the process with quality assurance reviews, stipulating the use of appropriate tools and techniques at certain points. The product development process produced by General Electric is called the Tollgate Process . Again, it is concurrent in nature and includes ten review points. 

---