Revitalising new process development in the UK fine chemicals industry

Reports on one of the key developments made to date on a three-year EPSRC IMI research project in the fine chemicals industry. The project, Batch Route Innovative Technology: Evaluation and Selection Techniques (BRITEST), began in late 1997 with the aim to research new methods to deliver substantial benefits associated with new product development. The project will deliver a methodology, models and a suite of decision support tools sustaining and improving the new product development process, enabling novel technical solutions to be developed more in line with, and evaluated more appropriately against, the business strategy and market characteristics. The specific deliverable presented in this paper is an action research-derived framework that integrates the detailed processes, information requirements and decision making as a model of good practice for new product (or process) development (NPD) in the fine chemicals industry.