CHEMICAL PRODUCT DESIGN

1. Commodity chemicals
- Large quantities
- Usually produced in continues process
No differences properties between a commodity chemicals produced
by different company
The way to compete between the company :
To have lower ancillary costs
2. Specialty chemicals, the pioneer for commodity
- Smaller quantities
- Usually using batch process for production
Go for design of chemical product design

STRATEGIES FOR CHEMICAL PRODUCT DESIGN

According to Cussler and Moggridge, it has four steps :
1. Needs, identification of a need for a product.
2. Ideas, searching for the best product design
3. Selection, screening the ideas for those believed to be the best.
4. Manufacture, determining how to manufacture the product in sufficient
quantities.
Table 1. Comparison of product design strategies
Strategy
Steps

Cussler and
Moggridge
Needs
Ideas
Selection
Manufacture

Dym and Little

Need
Problem definition
Conceptual design
Preliminary design
Detailed design
Design communication
Final design

Ulrich and Eppinger

Identify customer needs
Establish target specifications
Generate product concepts
Select product concepts
Test product concepts
Set final specifications
Plan downstream development

Needs
- A new chemical product is sought in response to a need, from individual
customers, groups or society
Ideas
- The generation of ideas is tantamount to brainstorming
- Idea can be sought from a variety of sources;
- Members of the product development team
- Potential customers
- Published literatures
Selection
- It is necessary to screen the ideas and select a few for more investigations
- Scientific principles can be applied
- There are more quantitative methods for screening alternatives;
Concept screening and concept scoring

Concept screening
A selection matrix is prepared by listing a set of criteria to be used to
evaluate the alternatives
One alternative is chosen as reference alternative; ex.: industry
standard
All criteria for reference standard are assigned a value of zero
The criteria for other alternatives are assigned values of :
+ meaning better than
Zero, meaning same as
- Meaning worse than
Criterion

Alternative
1

1
2
3
4
5

+
0
+
0
0

+
0
0
-

0
+
0
+

+
0
0
0
-

0
0
0
0
0

+
0
+
0

0
+
+
+
-

0
0
+

0
+
0
0
-

Total Score

-1

-1

Rank

Concept scoring
Using the same matrix as concept screening, but only on those alternatives
that have survived
The reference alternative is chosen
Each criterion is assigned a relative weight and assigned a value from 1 to 5
1, means much worse than reference
2, means worse than
3, means same as
4, means better than
5, means much better than
Criterion

1
2
3
4
5
Total Score
Rank

Weight

25 %
5%
15 %
35 %
20 %

Alternative
1

5
3
5
3
3

3
4
3
1
4

4
3
5
2
3

3
4
5
5
1

3.8

2.55

3.20

3.65

Manufacture
- The detail of chemical product design:
- Determining whether the product can be manufactured
- Developing detail product specifications
- How product to be manufactured
- Estimating the cost of manufacturing
- It also includes sample or prototype testing
Batch Processing
- The process operations are often employed for specialty chemical
products
Economic Considerations
- The sale price is determined by the price competitors charge for the same
chemical
- The law supply and demand does affect the price
- The initial price of a new product usually reflects the value of its
uniqueness