Interview on the F3 Factory Project: Modular Production Concepts Boost Competitiveness

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Glatt Ingenieurtechnik GmbH

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PROCESS: Dr. Bott, how does the project dur- ation affect profitability in the chemical industry?

Bott: The shorter the product lifecycle is, the more important is a short project duration as time to market has an increasing impact on economic success. This is particularly significant considering that the European chemical industry is producing more and more specialty products. Proximity to customers and short time to market are key factors in the specialty market. We need to have the flexibility to give customers exactly what they are looking for.

PROCESS: What approach will you take? There is already so much overlap between the project phases that there is not much room for changes.

Bott: We are not primarily looking for better ways of running project phases in parallel as this approach also involves risks. Try to save time by starting detail engineering work before process conditions have been fully defined often fails due to the changes which have to be made further down the road. It is better to develop concepts which shorten the individual project phases. During the process development phase, for example, there is an increasing tendency to move directly from the lab or mini plant to production scale, scipping pilot-plant trials. Advances in process modelling and migration to advanced process technologies using new types of equipment facilitate this approach. Process intensification is a key driver in this context.

concept for specific products individually.

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