Production Network Design and Specialty Chemicals

This book is the published version of the doctoral dissertation Production network design in specialty chemicals approved by the Faculty VIII - Economics and Management of the Technical University Berlin (D 83). 

Figure 10 also explains why any production network design decision in specialty chemicals needs to take into account the interdependencies between the two perspectives. Restructurings at the value chain level usually affect several production sites. The decision to relocate a value chain s production to a different site may for example endanger the cost competitiveness of the entire site if a large share of the site s fixed costs was absorbed by this value chain. Similarly, the decision to close a production site generally affects multiple value chains and may require network redesign projects for each value chain to decide on how to redistribute production. 

Since the primary role of sites in specialty chemicals production networks is to provide infrastructure services for the different plants they host, the design principle underlying specialty chemicals production networks has to be analyzed from the value chain perspective. Both market area plant and product plant segmentations can be found (cf. Schmenner 1982a, p. 13). Often, in case of relatively small production volumes, each plant produces a segment of the value chain s product portfolio for global... 

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