Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
A VO end-to-end
A chemicals industry scenario and some sameshaped problems
New requirements for Virtual Organisations
Allen Wright, Rob Smith
School of Chemical Engineering and advanced materials
Newcastle University
July 2008
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
‹#›/24
Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
Principles of GOLD
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Highly dynamic virtual organisations
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Very diverse range of participants
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Different technologies, cultures, practices, processes, priorities…
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Different understandings of the problem, motivations, management styles…
Highly integrated but loosely-coupled
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July 2008
Everything can be expected to change throughout a VO’s lifetime
Ultra-low setup cost, but high levels of integration
Focus on bringing new aggregations of knowledge, skills, expertise and resources to
bear on novel problems
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How can decisions be made in this kind of environment?
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How do you know when there’s a problem? How do you diagnose it? And how do you
work out how to come together to solve it?
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
‹#›/24
Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
An infrastructural approach
Portal
Hub
Domain-specific services and business rules
Security
Trust
Coord
Resource
Hub
Hub
Hub
Hub
Hub
Hub
Hub
July 2008
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
‹#›/24
Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
Profile of a GOLD VO
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An ill-defined problem
High and wide boundaries between organisations, characterised as
difference
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Unexpected external and internal events
An emphasis on solving problems rather than automating wellunderstood tasks
A need for agility: nobody knows what the problems are likely to be or
how organisations might come together to solve them
Problem spaces mutually and iteratively linked to markets
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July 2008
Different motivations
Different understandings of the problem
etc.
Solutions change markets, which change solutions
Market imperatives and legacy circumstance have a profound effect on what
is done, how it is done, how decisions are made etc.
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
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Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
A chemicals industry scenario
EU
Specialty
28%
Basic
40%
Pharms
27%
Ag-chem
5%
European companies
Fragrance &
Cosmetics
8%
Detergents &
Soaps
5%
Others
15%
Pharmaceutical
23%
Agrochemicals
3%
July 2008
Organics
15%
Inorganics
5%
Fibres
Dyes
2%
3% Paint, Ink
6%
Plastics,
Rubber
13%
Fertilizers
2%
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
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Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
Chemical Industry case study
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Based on a real, current chem dev project – not research
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Multiple partners
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Distributed management
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Conversion of a batch process to a continuous process
July 2008
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
‹#›/24
Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
High level project tasks
1
Reaction engineering
investigations
Separation trials
July 2008
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
2
Modelling and Pilot
plant design
3
Build and operate pilot
plant
4
Design and build
process plant
‹#›/24
Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
Task analysis: disturbances
Alternative
A
B
C
July 2008
Name
Description
Conversion not feasible
The process is not suitable for conversion
to a continuous process, this may be
due to a fundamental feature of the
chemical reactions involved
Major external event
The supplier of a key raw material
significantly increases the price due to
local conditions (e.g. material obtained
from a natural source)
Downstream processing
problems
The new operating conditions
unexpectedly affect the downstream
recovery of the catalyst. A new
separation method must be found
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
‹#›/24
Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
Highly dynamic project
July 2008
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
‹#›/24
Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
Continuous Process Flowsheet
July 2008
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
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Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
Continuous Process Flowsheet
July 2008
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
‹#›/24
Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
Eau de Chem
Europe
Filtration
Services
Centrifuge
Catalyst
Separation
Technology
???
USA
Asia
Chemical Engineering
and Advanced Materials
July 2008
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
‹#›/24
Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
Project dynamics phase 1
Structure at the end of phase 1
– Chemistry worked
– Separation of catalyst by filtration a
problem
solid arrows indicating relatively fixed relationships
and dashed arrows representing more uncertain ones
Decision made to move to Phase 2
July 2008
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
‹#›/24
Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
Project dynamics phase 2-3
Commence pilot plant design and build
- different equipment vendors, design
engineers, safety specialists …
New Cat 1
New Cat 2
New Cat…n
Transfer from R&D to Capital budget
PPD
- different managers in different countries
Laboratory
Services
Initiate Centrifuge trials
Simulation
Services
REC
Eau de Chem
Capitol Dev
Eau de Chem R&D
- new
equipment
vendors
EV2
EV1
Catalyst no longer available
- new catalyst suppliers, new chemistry testing
Eau de Chem
Acquisitions
Company acquisition
- additional managers from VC company
July 2008
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
‹#›/24
Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
Relationship dynamics
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July 2008
Attitudes to the project change very much, although it’s the same
project
Relationship with the company becomes very different. Now
contributing to the future of the company.
Time constraint – people become more concerned about project
milestones, and risks. Accountability changes.
Previously trust operated ie people getting on and doing their jobs,
now the basis of trust changes, have to be accountable to different
people for different things
Your own status / ability becomes much more scrutinised
Accountable to people you have and never will meet. eg the Board
of Directors
Project termination?
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
‹#›/24
Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
Scalability
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The same managers were involved in many other
projects
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Each project at a different stage of its lifecycle
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With different partners (internal and external)
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With dependencies
This is the norm
July 2008
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
‹#›/24
Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
A new set of VO requirements
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July 2008
When you consider a VO from conception to end as a
dynamic business process, a number of new
requirements become apparent that are not often
considered
These include the tacit and latent needs that are part of
every business activity
They will differ – often greatly – from VO to VO
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It is not easy to cater for them explicitly
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An infrastructural approach is needed, which allows
protagonists (including infrastructure and service
providers) to co-build solutions
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
‹#›/24
Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
How requirements inform design
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We began GOLD with the understanding that VOs would be highly
dynamic
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We expected differences in technology and processes
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We didn’t understand how strongly market and legacy forces
influence what might be achievable
We considered what would happen when a project ended
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July 2008
We didn’t realise how important differences would be in less tangible
areas like motivation, management style, attitude to risk etc.
We understood that automation of difficult and time-consuming
tasks was important
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We underestimated how dynamic they were likely to be in practice
We underestimated the various possible outcomes of projects. What
happens to tacit outcomes of a project when it disbands? How can
knowledge, expertise, skills and resources that are artefacts of a set
of relationships be preserved for future use?
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
‹#›/24
Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
Tacit and latent needs
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July 2008
One of the most important lessons
learned is that an organisation’s
tacit and latent needs often trump
the explicit ones
Companies don’t generally know
what they want in a VO solution
because they don’t know what it can
do for them
Workability of REACH Consortia
Analysis of an industry stakeholder
workshop
School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials,
Newcastle University
REACHReady
Lancaster University Management School
The Chemistry Innovation KTN
We don’t know how to build VO
solutions because of this
Need to engage and educate
stakeholders in the development
process
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
‹#›/24
Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
REACH Legislation – Imposing VO’s
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Registration of substances ≥ 1 tonne/yr
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Evaluation of substances
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Authorisation for substances of high concern
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Registrants
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Manufacture of substances, Import of raw materials and preparations
Volume of substance
(per manufacturer)
July 2008
Registration period
(existing substances)
≥ 1,000 tonnes p.a.
CMR or PBTs/vPvB > 100t p.a.
2007 - 2010
100 – 1,000 tonnes p.a.
2010 - 2013
10 – 100 tonne p.a.
2013 - 2018
1 tonne p.a.
2013 - 2018
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
‹#›/24
Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
Forming REACH consortia
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Need to cooperate, coordinate, collaborate to complete
registration
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Saving on registration fees
Managing the registration process
Consortia receive higher priority in registration
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Time to market
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Large overhead - £150,000 must be minimised
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Restrictions on import/export
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July 2008
Need for communication along the supply chain
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
‹#›/24
Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
Challenges for the future
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The e-Science initiative has made great leaps towards
new, virtual ways of working
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This will not be fully realised until we can do the same
with knowledge, skills, expertise etc.
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July 2008
This will have a positive impact on sustainability,
competitiveness and ethical manufacture through agile
approaches to resource deployment
This needs to be as dynamic and on-demand as the
access to resources we’ve all been working towards for
nearly a decade
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
‹#›/24
Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
Challenges for the future
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To achieve this, we need:
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July 2008
Education
Infrastructure
Killer apps
Critical mass
This is the problem of bringing emerging technologies to
emerging markets
It’s not so much a problem of education as one of
raising consciousness
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
‹#›/24
Edinburgh Pilot Projects Meeting 2008
What we are doing next
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A VO killer app: REACH
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Commercialisation
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Funding – looking for consortia
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July 2008
Speaking to research councils, trade associations,
KTNs, commercial organisations…
Lots of opportunity, but under-resourced
Allen Wright & Rob Smith
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