Suppliers and their Products

The major suppliers of PHA-based biodegradable polymers are described below. 

Metabolix Inc., is a private firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, that was spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992 and acquired biopolymer technology from Monsanto Inc. in 2001. Metabolix began its first commercial production of organic polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) resin, based on corn sugar in 2005 at an undisclosed location in the Midwest. The plant was expected to produce around 100 tonnes of material in 2005 and close to 1000 tonnes in 2006. 

The first commercial product using Metabolix PHA will be a soil stake used in farming. The item was available from early 2006. 

In 2004, Procter Gamble formed a joint development agreement with Japan s Kaneka Corporation for the commercialisation of Nodax biodegradable polymers. The companies will develop cost-effective ways of producing Nodax through fermentation and make the polymer easier to process so it can be used in a wider range of applications. 

Biomer has experienced strong growth over the period 2004-2005, particularly in the USA. Production capacity is believed to be several tonnes per month. 

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Significant Thermoplastic Elastomer Suppliers and Their Products... 

Each section contains an overview of key market drivers, analysis of world consumption by geographic region for the years 2000, 2005 and forecast for 2010, application developments and an analysis of the major suppliers and their products. 

Table 7.4 contains information on the major global glass fiber suppliers and their products. 

For an index of suppliers and their product types, see page 415. 

Major suppliers and their products and production capacity and market are presented in Table 1.6 and Figure 1.5, respectively. Exxon Mobil Chemical is a leading global PE producer and supplier. 

The level of technical service support provided for a given product generally tracks in large part where the supplier considers their product to be located within the spectmm of commodity to specialty chemicals. Technical service support levels for pure chemicals usually provided in large quantities for specific synthetic or processing needs, eg, ammonia (qv), sulfuric acid (see SULFURIC ACID AND SULFUR TRIOXIDE), formaldehyde (qv), oxygen (qv), and so forth, are considerably less than for more complex materials or blends of materials provided for multistep downstream processes. Examples of the latter are many polymers, colorants, flocculants, impact modifiers, associative thickeners, etc. For the former materials, providing specifications of purity and physical properties often comprises the full extent of technical service required or expected by customers. These materials are termed undifferentiated chemicals (9),... 

Globally, BASF, Bayer (Miles in North America), Dow, and ICI historically have been the leading producers of aromatic isocyanates. In North America, Olin is a principal supplier of TDI and aliphatic isocyanates. Rhcjme-Poulenc and Hoechst are principal suppliers in Europe. A listing of all the principal global suppliers and their respective products and trade names is presented in Tables 5 and 6. A breakdown of isocyanate demand by region is presented in Table 7. 

Reagent-grade chemicals conform to the minimum standards set forth by the Reagent Chemical Committee of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and are used wherever possible in analytical work. Some suppliers label their products with the maximum limits of impurity allowed by the ACS specifications others print actual concentrations for the various impurities. 

Formation water salinity and divalents are critical to chemical EOR processes for both surfactants and polymers. Although chemical suppliers claim their products can be tolerant to high salinity, most of the chemical EOR processes have been applied in low-salinity reservoirs. For most of the Chinese EOR projects, the formation water salinity is below 10,000 ppm, and fresh water is injected. The criterion Al-Bahar et al. (2004) discussed is 50,000 ppm salinity and 1000 ppm hardness. This 1000 ppm hardness is probably too high or needs... 

There are hundreds of primary battery manufacturers, most of which are limited to a specialty product or a limited national market. However, a number of multinational battery suppliers have manufacturing facilities in many countries and a broad line of products. Table 4 lists the companies having sales of primary batteries of greater than 100 million per annum together with the regions of their headquarters and their product lines. 

Designed as a directory the companies and their products listed here are amongst the w orld s leading manufacturers and suppliers. 

For SAP, the first Supplier Audit mentioning validation for GMP regulations occurred in 1993. It was only at this point that SAP was made aware that their pharmaceutical customers had to validate their products and their production processes, including the software products that are part of production processes. In prior years, SAP received only poor feedback from pharmaceutical customers. There had been some rumors and complaints about necessary extensive tests of a new release or version. None of these customers explained to SAP why that had to be done. 

The websites of the vendors are important sources of information. Many useful information about the companies and their products can be obtained from these sites. A critical examination of the company that develops the product requires significant attention. The process of acquiring a simulation tool, however, should not be viewed as a simple exchange of product for money. The company developing the product plays an important part in the successful use of the simulation product. Therefore, attention must be paid to certain features of the supplier. These features include ... 

Products and their production programs were broken down into components, modules, and subsystems, and key competencies concentrated on them. In-house manufacmring was then drastically reduced, while orders for required items were shifted to external suppliers. In addition, the workforce was considerably reduced as well. 

Inspection can be classified according to who is responsible for the activity there are usually many levels to this chain. Typically, there may be the inspectors of the project management and engineering team, the quality department of the procured item suppliers and contractors (and, separately, their factory production workers, using inspection as a production control tool), and a chain of sub-component and raw material suppliers and their quality departments. 

Table 8.3 Current commercial suppliers of PHA-based thermoplastic resins used for packaging, and their product range.

It is worthwhile noting that some suppliers market their products with different identification numbers and names in different countries. 

Collaboration in this environment is based on the idea of interactive and joint development, and management of the most likely-to-succeed products and services for the most desired customer and consumer groups. Participation could extend to suppliers and their suppliers on the one hand and directly to the final customers on the other. Figure 11.1 illustrates, in general form, the path taken in effective product life cycle management. 

The capacities of the suppliers and plants, production cost and refurbishing cost at the plants, and the purchasing cost of raw materials are the same as given in the Appendix (see Table Al available on the CRC Press website http //www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781498708586). Three possible capacity levels (sizes) of warehouses and hybrid facilities could be built in their respective potential locations. The capacities and fixed cost of the warehouses, hybrid facilities, and the recovery centers are also given in... 

In another example, when a customer makes a purchase online from Amazon, the supply chain includes, among others, the customer, Amazon s website, the Amazon warehouse, and all of Amazon s suppliers and their suppliers. The website provides the customer with information regarding pricing, product variety, and product availability. After making a product choice, the customer enters the order information and pays for the product. The customer may later return to the website to check the status of the order. Stages further up the supply chain use customer order information to fill the request That process involves an additional flow of information, product, and funds among various stages of the supply chain. 

In June 2004, Sanjay leased part of a warehouse in the outskirts of St. Louis to manage the large amount of product being sold. Suppliers sent their product to the warehouse. Customer orders were packed and shipped by UPS from there. As demand grew, SportStuff.com leased more space within the warehouse. By 2007, SportStuff.com leased the entire warehouse and orders were being shipped to customers all over the United States. Management divided the United States into six... 

Finally, there is also a section containing a detailed description of the world s leading suppliers including their products, production capacities, geographic coverage and corporate developments,... 

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