Lecture 3 - Corporate Structure in chemical product design

Lecture 3 - Corporate Structure in chemical product design

1. Gani, Comp. Chem. Engg., 28 (2004), p. 2441 – 2457.

2. A Typical FMCG Company
Villadsen, Chem. Eng. Sci., 52(17), 2857 – 2864 (1997).

3. Changes in the Chemical
Industries

Commodity manufacturers are facing a crisis:

Optimization and restructuring (downsizing) are not
working.

Ruthless minimization of research and concentration on
in-house efficiency

Many firms are leaving the chemical business

Some are turning to specialty products.

4. Changes in the Chemical
Industries

5. Changes in the Chemical
Industries

6. Changes in Corporate
Culture
Corporations organize product
development in two ways:

Organization by function

Organization by project
Both can be effective
Functional organization is like a chemical
reaction in series.
Project organization is like a chemical
reaction in parallel.

7. Changes in Corporate
Culture

8. Corporate Strategy: “Market
pull” vs. “Technology push”

“Necessity is the mother of invention”

Market pull: there is a market looking for a
technology, e.g., Freon.

Technology push: there is a technology
looking for a market, e.g., Botox.

A “platform technology” is a technology
successful in one or more markets and has
potential applications in many more
markets.

9. Market Pull vs. Technology
Push

10. The Product Design
Procedure

Product design depends on four steps:

Needs. What needs should the product fulfill?

Ideas. What different products could satisfy
these needs?

Selection. Which ideas are the most promising?

Manufacture. How can we make the product in
commercial quantities?

Application of this template leads to new
features of the design process.

The entire course is organized around this
procedure.

11. Criticisms of this procedure
Not general (yes, the steps will usually
have to be iteratively sequenced).
Management, not technology, is the
key (no, can management circumvent
the second law of thermodynamics?).
Product design is a part of process
design (no, we must go beyond
process design, as shown next).

12. Process Design vs. Product
Design
Product design emphasizes decisions made before
those of process design.
In process design we know what the product is; not
so in product design.
Commodity chemical manufacture best served by
process design (no product differentiation).
Specialty product development best served by
product design (product is differentiated).
Focus of process design is efficient manufacture
(recycle, heat integration, optimization, etc.) ; focus
of product design is speed to reach the market place.

13. Process Design vs. Product
Design
Process Design Product Design
1.Batch vs.
Continuous
Process
2.Inputs and
Outputs
3.Reactors and
Recycles
4.Separations and
Heat Integration
1.Identify Customer
Needs
2.Generate Ideas to
Meet Needs
3.Select among
Ideas
4.Manufacture
Product