Long Range Process Design and Compatibility Among Operations

Most processes consist of several operations. Some or all of these operations may have more than one alternative technological method, resulting in an exponential relationship between the number of possible designs and the number of operation alternatives. However, some of these designs may not be feasible because of incompatibilities among operation alternatives. A feasible process design will include one alternative for each operation in such a way that each operation is compatible with every other operation in the design. For identifying these feasible designs, there are two approaches: traditional and morphological. The former relies on trial-and-error, expert judgment, and creative thinking and the latter considers, explicitly or implicitly, every possible design. This paper presents an efficient algorithm with computational results for identifying all feasible designs based on compatibility considerations. The implementation issues, both computational and organizational, are discussed as integral parts of a framework for process design efforts. This framework combines the advantages of both the traditional and morphological approaches and mitigates their disadvantages. It also facilitates interaction between the expert's judgment and the programmed model.