Computers and Chemical Engineering 33 (2009) 930–935

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Computers and Chemical Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compchemeng

Perspectives on chemical product and process design

Warren D. Seider a,∗ , Soemantri Widagdo b , J.D. Seader c , Daniel R. Lewin d
a
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, 220 S. 33rd Street/311A, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6393, United States
b
3M Display & Graphics Business Laboratory, 3M Center, St. Paul, Minnesota 55144, United States
c
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-9203, United States
d
PSE Research Group, Department of Chemical Engineering, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this article, new perspectives and strategies of chemical product design are provided. Beginning with
Received 23 June 2008 the innovation map (Widagdo, S., Incandescent light bulb: Product design and innovation, Ind. Eng. Chem.
Received in revised form 14 October 2008 Res., 45 (25), 8231–8233 (2006)) that links the critical technological advances necessary to meet cus-
Accepted 26 October 2008
tomer needs, aspects of the Stage-GateTM product-development process (SGPDP) are considered with
Available online 8 November 2008
emphasis on the concept, feasibility, and development stages. A focus is placed on the design of basic chem-
ical products (e.g., commodity and specialty chemicals, pharmaceuticals, polymeric materials), industrial
Keywords:
chemical products (e.g., films, fibers, paper, glass substrates, pastes, creams), and configured-consumer
Product design
Innovation map
chemical products (e.g., light bulbs, hemodialysis devices, labs-on-a-chip). Perspectives on the role of
Process design process design in the context of product design are presented.
Conceptual design © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Stage-GateTM

1. Introduction chloride, difluoroethylene, diethyl ketone), biomaterials (e.g., phar-

maceuticals) and polymeric materials (polyethylene, polystyrene,
Over the past century, chemical engineers (especially chemical polyvinyl chloride). They normally involve well-defined molecules
engineering educators) have focused on the design of manufac- and mixtures of molecules, and are normally not sold directly to the
turing processes for new chemical products. The development of consumer. The manufacture of industrial chemical products begins
product specifications to meet the requirements of end users has with the basic chemical products, as shown in Fig. 1b. They include
received less emphasis, but rather the emphasis has been placed films, woven and nonwoven fibers, paper, creams, and pastes. While
on designing the process to meet given product specifications. This they are characterized by thermophysical and transport proper-
has been referred to as process design. ties (like basic chemicals), other properties are normally dominant
In the 21st century, the era of globalization and information age in satisfying customer needs, including microstructure, particle-
has enabled lower barriers to entry, spurring more competition size distribution, and functional, sensorial, rheological, and physical
and significantly reducing product life cycles. As a consequence, properties. Like basic chemicals, few industrial chemicals are pur-
speed-to-market is often of paramount importance – and compa- chased by the consumer. Finally, as shown in Fig. 1c, configured
nies worldwide expect their new employees to be knowledgeable in consumer chemical products are manufactured from basic chemi-
product design and development. In this paper, we refer to product cal and industrial chemical products. These include dialysis devices,
design as the development of a product formulation and definition, hand warmers, Post-it notes, ink-jet cartridges, detachable wall
with specifications, to meet selected customer requirements. Nat- hangers, solar desalination devices, transparencies for overhead
urally it often encompasses process design, which is a subset of the projectors, drug-delivery patches, fuel cells, cosmetics, detergents,
product-design activity. etc. Unlike basic and industrial chemical products, configured con-
Chemical products can be grouped into basic, industrial, or sumer chemical products are normally sold directly to the consumer.
configured-consumer products. As shown in Fig. 1a, basic chemical In most cases, they are characterized by properties similar to those
products are manufactured from natural resources. They include of industrial chemicals and, in some cases, their three-dimensional
commodity and specialty chemicals (e.g., ethylene, acetone, vinyl configurations are crucial in satisfying consumer needs.
During the past century, many basic chemicals have been pro-
duced in large quantities. The emphasis of their designs has been on
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 215 898 7953; fax: +1 215 573 2093. the synthesis and optimization of large-scale chemical plants; that
E-mail address: [email protected] (W.D. Seider). is, process design. Gradually, especially in the United States during

0098-1354/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compchemeng.2008.10.019
 W.D. Seider et al. / Computers and Chemical Engineering 33 (2009) 930–935 931

Fig. 1. Classification of chemical products.

the past two decades, there has been a shift towards new specialty properties. The latter are often the focus of engineered materials
chemicals, for example, special-purpose solvents and pharma- with specially designed surface coatings, such as specialty fibers;
ceuticals, and configured-consumer products. The latter products engineered plastics; monolayer and multilayer films; creams and
involve new materials and process/manufacturing technologies pastes; organic polymers tailored for semi-conductors (i.e., poly-
that intersect with consumer needs, yielding new products – the mer semi-conductors) that enable thin-film transistor technology;
success of which depends on the degree of fulfillment of their and many others. When not sold directly to the consumer, these are
end user’s needs. Often, the concept design stage focuses more on conveniently referred to as industrial chemical products – often to
identifying consumer needs and satisfying them with new product be further processed within a company, or by partner companies,
concepts, for example, on designing thin-glass substrates for LCDs, to yield configured-consumer chemical products. For the latter, their
than on the process designs, that is, designs to manufacture the new physical constructions and configurations are often crucial in satis-
products. In design research, this trend is leading to a new discipline fying customer needs, for example, in a halogen light bulb, a home
often referred to as product design. To many contributors, research hemodialysis device, and a lab-on-a-chip to analyze a blood sample.
in process design addresses more traditional issues. Although chemical products as defined here have been produced
From our perspective, all designs involving chemicals and their for decades, a procedure for their design has not been a focus of the
applications are properly referred to as product designs, with process education of a chemical engineer until very recently.
design being a subset of the product-development process. In most
cases, the new chemical products require new or adapted manu- 3. Innovation map
facturing options – and often new process designs are created to
produce them. Stated differently, for product designs, design teams Early in product design, whether a potential product is market-
are usually challenged to create new process designs. In our views, or technology-driven, it is necessary to match the market/customer
the two are entwined, to varying degrees, depending on the specific needs with new technical inventions. The successful match
chemical products. creates product innovation, with the innovation map being a
To facilitate the development of new chemical products, we convenient vehicle for showing the linkages between the tech-
provide a framework using the concept of an innovation map to nology and market voices. Because in many companies, the
guide the technology-development process and the Stage-GateTM technology voice is owned by the technology-development (R&D)
product-development process (SGPDP), which we have found use- organization while the market voice is owned by the business-
ful to guide the product-development process. Although the SGPDP development (sales/marketing) organization, communication gaps
was created as a tool to manage the product-development process, are created inadvertently between these organizations. The cre-
we are using it as a framework for product design. ation of the innovation map helps to bridge these gaps, as
introduced by Widagdo (2006) and illustrated for the design of
2. Chemical properties eight new chemical products (Seider, Seader, Lewin, & Widagdo,
2009).
When designing new basic chemical products, which are com- Stated differently, the innovation map relates the technological
prised of well-defined molecules and mixtures of molecules, components of product developments to the technical advantages,
molecular-structure design often precedes or accompanies process that is, it shows the technical differentiation, and ultimately the
design. Also, rather straight-forward unit operations, such as reac- satisfaction of the customer-value proposition. The construction of
tors, heat exchangers, pumps, compressors, and distillation towers, an innovation map begins with the identification of its six layers and
are often combined in an optimal process design to produce poten- the various elements associated with each layer, as follows:
tial products.
More complex chemicals are often characterized by properties Materials technology: materials that enable the new product.
other than their thermophysical and transport properties. These Process/manufacturing technology: processes that enable the man-
other properties are necessary to satisfy customer needs. They may ufacturing of the new product or its components.
include micro-structure; particle-size distribution; and functional Product technology: product components or precursors, usually
(e.g., cleansing, adhesion, and shape), sensorial (e.g., feel, smell), intended for business-to-business customers and not for end
rheological (non-Newtonian flow), and physical (e.g., stability) users.
932 W.D. Seider et al. / Computers and Chemical Engineering 33 (2009) 930–935

Fig. 2. Environmentally friendly refrigerant innovation map.

Technical-value proposition: technical differentiations or advan- eral inventions which, while successful in many respects, led to
tages. serious ozone-depletion problems in the earth’s stratosphere. Con-
Products: a single product, product family, or product platform. sequently, with that recognition in the 1980s, it became necessary
Customer-value proposition: product attributes, advantages, and to find alternative environmentally safe refrigerants.
differentiations, expressed from the customer point of view. The progression of materials inventions through the 20th
century, together with the customer-value proposition (that is, cus-
Once the elements are identified and placed on the appropriate tomer needs) is shown in the innovation map of Fig. 2, and discussed
layers in the map, normally at the outset of the product design, the more completely by Seider et al. (2009). Suffice it to observe herein,
connectivity among them is drawn to show the interplay between that both proceed in parallel, with the customer initially seek-
technological elements, a technical-value proposition, and ulti- ing low-cost refrigeration and air conditioning, involving non-toxic
mately the customer-value proposition. These are illustrated for chemicals that are safe (that is, non-flammable), and subsequently
refrigerant products below. adding the requirements to avoid ozone depletion and smog pro-
The innovation map evolves during product design, being duction. Meanwhile, in response, Midgely began by restricting his
updated periodically during the new product-development and search to compounds involving C, N, O, S, and H atoms with the
commercialization processes. Often, product-development leaders halogens, F and Cl, having high latent heats of vaporization, low
use innovation maps to manage new product-development efforts, viscosities, and low melting points. In the 1980s, when ozone and
and to spot unmet customer needs as targets for next-generation smog problems were identified, the search omitted Cl and was
technologies and products. They can also be used to identify restricted to compounds involving C, H, and F, eventually with the
critical innovative technology elements that often lead to patent addition of O and S.
protection. Of special note in Fig. 2 are the two intermediate layers of the
innovation map. The elements above the materials technology lay-
3.1. Example innovation map ers show technical differentiations that are enabled by the new
materials technologies, in this case the newly identified classes of
As mentioned earlier, basic chemicals are usually well-defined compounds being considered for the new products, which are dis-
molecules and mixtures of molecules, not complicated by the played in the next upper layer. These products, including the freons,
functional, sensorial, rheological, and physical properties associ- HFC 134a, . . ., are, in turn, linked to the satisfaction of the customer
ated with industrial chemicals and configured-consumer chemical needs in the uppermost layer.
products that satisfy customer requirements. Their technological Clearly, as time passes, the innovation map becomes more com-
inventions are normally associated with new materials, and less plete. Initially, it shows the early technologies and how they were
often with new process/manufacturing and product technologies. linked to the first products that satisfied consumer needs. Then,
Hence, their innovation maps are usually the simplest, as illustrated it shows how newer technologies led to products that satisfied
next for a new environmentally friendly refrigerant. Other exam- needs not envisioned initially. When seeking to create the next
ples for industrial and configured-consumer products are provided generation of new products, a design team finds it helpful to iden-
by Seider et al. (2009). tify the latest technologies available while seeking to understand
Beginning in the 1930s, Thomas Midgely, Jr., sought to develop consumer needs, even when they are dormant (possibly because
a refrigerant product for a broad range of household, automotive, consumers do not recognize the potential for the new technolo-
and industrial applications. Over the next 50 years, this led to sev- gies). Gradually, as the team begins its product design, it seeks to
 W.D. Seider et al. / Computers and Chemical Engineering 33 (2009) 930–935 933

fill in the new technologies and the customer needs, and to create carried out to define the product and to verify the attractiveness
outstanding new products that link them together. In short, when of the product prior to making a significant investment. When
beginning to develop a new product, an innovation map can help to building an entirely new product family, this stage involves an
suggest new products that provide these linkages. Gradually, during extensive market study to define, not only the customer needs
the product-development process, the technologies and customer and the market opportunity, but also the market segment(s) and
needs can be refined, leading to improved products. the value-chain component in which profit generation is enabled.
And consequently, the latter becomes the basis for developing
4. Stage-GateTM product-development process the new product concepts. For new product extensions in an
existing market, although the market segment(s) and customer
Having identified the necessary technologies, as indicated in an needs are generally known, a careful verification of market via-
initial innovation map, design teams are well-positioned to begin bility and product strategy, as it relates to customer needs, is still
the Stage-GateTM product-development process (Cooper, 2001, required.
2002, 2005), or other frameworks such as those proposed by Cussler In general, the goals of the concept stage are two-fold: to (1)
and Moggridge (2001), Ulrich and Eppinger (2003), Hill (2004), and define the product, and (2) build the business case. Note that in
others. The SGPDP has been used successfully by companies around building the business case, a market opportunity assessment needs
the world, and is often adapted by practitioners to specific needs to be conducted. To accomplish the two goals, several tasks are
and environments. recommended, including: (a) carrying out a market assessment,
Although the SGPDP was originally created to manage the (b) determining customer requirements, (c) determining product
product-development process, it is used here to provide a roadmap requirements, (d) creating product concepts, and (e) carrying out
for transforming new ideas into products that satisfy customer an opportunity assessment. These are discussed in detail by Seider
needs, ready to be launched. As discussed in Seider et al. (2009), et al. (2009).
emphasis is placed on the product-design elements throughout
the product-development process: ideation and concept, feasibil-
ity, development, and manufacturing. 4.1.1. Basic chemical products
The SGPDP consists of several stages, between which gate For basic chemical products, which are normally well-defined
reviews are conducted involving key stakeholders and decision molecules and mixtures of molecules, when preparing innovation
makers from business, technical, manufacturing, supply chain, maps, design teams usually seek to identify appropriate materi-
and environmental, health, and safety organizations. At each gate als technologies. This usually involves a search for the appropriate
review, a decision is made to either: (1) advance the design project molecules or mixtures of molecules to satisfy property specifi-
to the next stage, (2) retain the design project at the current stage cations that align closely with customer needs – the so-called
until pending critical issues are resolved, or (3) cancel the design molecular-structure design problem. For environmentally friendly
project when a need is no longer recognized, or when road blocks refrigerant products, Fig. 2 summarizes these searches in the
have been encountered that render the project infeasible. Materials Technology layer. Then, in the concept stage, with can-
To advance from stage-to-stage, a product-development project didate products identified, the design team, after carrying out
must pass the gate reviews; that is, receive passing grades. Each gate an opportunity assessment and determining the customer and
is intended to reduce the risk by verifying the manufacturability technical requirements, normally focuses on the process creation
and matching the size of the opportunity and product features and (or synthesis) step. That is, normally, emphasis in the concept
performance to the customer needs. Typically, a SGPDP consists of stage is placed on process design – although often the process
five stages as shown in Fig. 3, where the stages are represented by design and molecular-structure design steps are combined, to iden-
rectangular blocks and the gates are represented by diamonds. Brief tify products that are more efficiently manufactured. Note that
labels below the rectangles indicate the principal steps to be accom- research on this combined problem is often referred to as product
plished in each stage. Above the diamonds are brief summaries of design.
the items to be screened or evaluated during each gate review. Process synthesis normally begins with the assembly of a pre-
liminary database comprised of thermophysical property data,
4.1. Concept stage including vapor-liquid equilibrium data, flammability data, toxi-
city data, chemical prices, and related information. In some cases,
The concept stage primarily serves as the business and product- experiments are initiated to obtain important missing data that
definition step. During this stage, an extensive investigation is cannot be accurately estimated. Then, preliminary process synthe-

Fig. 3. Schematic of the Stage-GateTM product-development process (SGPDP).

934 W.D. Seider et al. / Computers and Chemical Engineering 33 (2009) 930–935

sis begins with the design team creating flowsheets involving just 4.2.1. Basic chemical products
the reaction, separation, and temperature- and pressure-change For basic chemical products, having completed molecular-
operations. Process equipment is selected in a so-called task inte- structure design and preliminary process synthesis in the concept
gration step. This latter step involves the selection of the operating stage, design teams often further develop a base-case design(s).
mode; that is, continuous, batch, or semi-continuous. Only those This usually involves process simulation using a process simulator
flowsheets that show a favorable gross profit are explored further; (e.g., ASPEN PLUS, HYSYS, CHEMCAD, and PRO/II) and construc-
the others are rejected. tion of a pilot plant. Then, as the base-case designs are developed,
Because the basic chemicals are normally well-defined it is recommended that the design team apply various algorith-
molecules or mixtures of molecules, not dominated by other prop- mic methods for optimizing the synthesis of chemical reactor
erties needed to satisfy customer needs (e.g., microstructure, feel, networks, separation trains, heat-exchanger networks, and mass-
smell, and rheological behavior), the reaction, separation, and exchanger networks. For batch processes, these include the optimal
temperature- and pressure-change operations are usually general- sequencing of the batch processing steps. And, for all processes, an
ized and simple to insert in candidate process flowsheets. Also, the assessment of plantwide controllability is recommended. Here, the
equipment selected is commonly used in chemicals manufacture focus is clearly on process design. Of course, in pilot-plant studies,
(e.g., distillation towers, heat exchangers, pumps, and compres- chemicals are often produced in sufficient quantities for customer
sors). Hence, process synthesis is an important part of creating a testing.
preliminary business case in the concept stage when designing basic
chemical products. 4.2.2. Industrial and configured-consumer products
For the most promising product concepts and potential process For these products, because their desired properties are more
flowsheets, it is often helpful to carry out bench-scale laboratory complex, and less well understood, emphasis is normally placed on
studies – primarily to check the heuristics used in molecular- the preparation of product samples (prototypes). These are used to
structure design and process synthesis. demonstrate the feasibility of the superior product concepts and
for performance testing. Product prototypes are built, preliminary
4.1.2. Industrial and configured-consumer products evaluation is carried out to assess their performance, and testing
As mentioned earlier, industrial and configured-consumer prod- is undertaken with selected customers to obtain their feedback on
ucts normally possess properties, in addition to the thermophysical product performance and compatibility with their manufacturing
and transport properties, that are necessary to satisfy customer processes.
needs. These include micro-structure; particle-size distribution; When promising, a process is designed to manufacture the
and functional (e.g., cleansing, adhesion, and shape), sensorial (e.g., product. For industrial chemicals and configured-consumer prod-
feel, smell), rheological (non-Newtonian flow), and physical (e.g., ucts, unlike for basic chemicals, the processing operations depend
stability) properties. For these potential new products, in addition upon the technology platforms involved. Pastes and creams have
to opportunity assessments, customer requirements, and techni- colloidal structures that require operations for the generation of
cal requirements, the concept stage concentrates on identifying the micro-droplets in continuous phases, micro-mixing devices, and
critical-to-quality variables and superior product concepts – and homogenizers. Epitaxial silicon films for wafer substrates are gen-
not on process synthesis because the process operations are less erated using chemical vapor-deposition reactors, often involving
generally defined. This aspect of process design is normally not electrodes to create plasmas.
addressed until the feasibility stage. Given the broader array of new technologies incorporated in
Rather for the superior product concepts, the design team nor- configured-consumer products, the processing steps often require
mally focuses on assessing their product opportunities by carrying the expertise of mechanical engineers, materials specialists, and
out preliminary product cost estimates and risk analyses. Before others. When designing the manufacturing process, because these
proceeding to the feasibility stage, it assesses the risks of not cap- products are configured, at least involving the packaging of three-
turing their potential economic value, which involve estimating the dimensional containers (e.g., vials, tubes, bottles), an assembly line
economic value and the associated competition. Included is intel- with robots and advanced control systems is normally needed.
lectual property (IP), or patent, analysis. Because the introduction Here, the designs of such manufacturing facilities are principally
of a new product to the market can obsolete a new product- the responsibilities of mechanical engineers and related technolo-
development effort, an early awareness of the new technologies gists.
that may displace a product concept is crucial in realizing the return Furthermore, processes to produce industrial and configured-
on the investment for a new product. consumer products are often not synthesized until the feasibility
stage – after prototypes have been created in the laboratory. This
4.2. Feasibility stage differs appreciably from the design of most basic chemical prod-
ucts, for which preliminary process synthesis is normally carried
The main objectives of the feasibility stage are to validate the out in the concept stage, primarily because their thermophysical
superior concept(s) generated during the concept stage against properties are often achieved using routine processing operations
the customer requirements, and to build the business case for (e.g., continuous-stirred-tank reactors, flash vessels, and distilla-
the project. In addition, other issues are addressed, including tion columns).
updating the market assessment, competitive analysis (including In summary, the process designs for industrial and configured-
IP strategy), and examination of health–safety–environment con- consumer products are not normally carried out using the
cerns. generalized process simulators. Instead, their operations are
This stage also involves the generation of product prototypes, dependent upon the technology platforms involved.
their evaluation by the customers, customer feedback, and the re-
design of superior concepts. In so doing, the business case is revised, 4.3. Development stage
as well as the competitive analysis. The team prepares a complete
business proposal, together with its recommendation. At this gate, Having passed the feasibility gate, the design team is autho-
the management team decides whether to further invest or aban- rized to proceed to the third stage of the SGPDP, the development
don the project. stage. The main objective of this stage is to fully develop the
 W.D. Seider et al. / Computers and Chemical Engineering 33 (2009) 930–935 935

product, assuring that it is manufacturable and delivers the cost estimation is less generalized and consequently more chal-
promised value proposition to its customers. In addition, other lenging. The techniques are specific to the technology platform
issues are addressed, including updating the market assessment, and not normally available to design teams through generalized
competitive analysis (including IP strategy), and examination of sources.
health–safety–environment concerns.
This stage usually involves the development of the product con- 5. Summary
struction specifications. In this stage, the construction, features,
and complete specifications are developed. Also, customers are In our views, product design precedes the manufacture of all
contacted more frequently in an attempt to align their require- chemical products – with most design teams designing the man-
ments more closely with the final product specifications. The team ufacturing process – that is, carrying out process design. For basic
prepares a complete manufacturing assessment, focusing on the chemical products, emphasis is normally on process design, with
manufacturing feasibility evaluation of the new product. Of partic- significant involvement in molecular-structure design – to select
ular interest is the capital investment required to manufacture the the molecules that satisfy customer requirements. For industrial
product. and configured-consumer products, design teams focus instead on
Manufacturing assessment often involves several manufactur- identifying superior product concepts to satisfy more complex cus-
ing runs at existing manufacturing sites to evaluate their suitability tomer and technical requirements. For these products, there is less
for producing the product. In this regard, the team normally emphasis on the design of manufacturing processes – primarily
prepares a risk analysis of using the existing equipment. When because these process designs depend heavily on the technology
necessary, a capital investment estimate is prepared for a new platforms underlying the new products.
or modified manufacturing facility. Potential manufacturing sites
are also identified and their performance is evaluated. When the References
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