Optimizing R&D to Production Process

Abstract

Keeping reliable and reproducible performance while scaling up upon transfer to production is a significant challenge for any R&D team. The ability to perform fast root-cause analysis is crucial therefore for being able to improve timely and effectively.

Problem

Lack of reproducibility in polyurethane production. Some batches resulted with much lower elongation than others.

• Scattered, unusable data - raw materials information (TDS, CoA) is stored in PDF format or in papers. Process parameters and quality tests are recorded in several systems or even on paper.
• Siloed data systems make it difficult to connect the relevant information, find cause, and effect easily and respond quickly to a problem.

Solution

The Materials Knowledge Center allows to consolidate all the data in one place, transforming all in a digital, standardized format. The quality tests of production batches are recorded together with the corresponding process parameters and connected with the raw materials used and their specifications.

The Collaboration Hub enables real-time communication between R&D, Manufacturing, and Quality departments that can share problems and get feedback instantly, facilitating root-cause analysis.

Investigation performed using the Visual Analyzer revealed that there’s a strong dependence between the elongation of the final product and the LOT numbers of Polyol used in the manufacturing process. Corrective actions were introduced quickly allowing immediate improvement in the performance.

Internal specification was adjusted to allow only appropriate raw materials batches to be used, resulting in 25% yield improvement.