Pilot Plants: Faster, cheaper, better! Some tips. Part 2
Welcome to part 2 of the Pilot Plants: Faster, cheaper, better! Some tips. Here we continue the tips we selected for you in the last blog post. Hope you find them useful!
As always, do reach out to us for your specific pilot plant needs. [email protected]
- Change management:learn to resist the impulse to make changes. We all have new ideas after we design a project. But each such change adds time and money implications. Lack of change management is one of the biggest reasons we see for delays and over-budget pilot plant projects. The larger the team size the more likely it is that such changes will crop up.
Sure, if it is imperative go ahead and request a change. But just in the interest of flexibility etc do not allow teams to authorise changes.
- Have a single point of contact:There is nothing so detrimental to a project than conflicting requirements coming from different people in the customer's team. It can be frustrating when the R&D Manager says 1" valves and the Process Development Team leader asks for 0.5". Discuss internally with your team but designate a final decision maker for the project.
- Perform a safety review as early as possible: It is much easier (and cheaper) to make changes in the early stages of a project. Rework always costs time and money. Often people are used to conducting HAZOPs or other safety reviews when building a production plant but by then any changes are costly. Conceptual changes can result in an inherently safe process than mitigating a risk later via active or passive safety devices. Safety by design should be your driving motto. Choose reagents, conditions, and operating procedures that are inherently safe. If something can go wrong it will. Do not expect to be lucky. Choose designs that are “foolproof”. Eventually, your pilot plant is guaranteed to meet a foolish operating mistake
- Be aware of local codes and standards: It is frustrating to order equipment and then realise that a local code was not met. Examples are ASME U Stamps, EU PED, LVD, CE marks, UL marks, and many others.
Talk to our expert team since it is likely we have already delivered projects in your country.[email protected]
We hope these two-part series of tips will help your company build better, more effective pilot plants in the future!