MICHAEL H. Mansky

Unexpected events at the startup of a new product can present difficult trade-off decisions between product quality and project economics. These occurrences of “Murphy’s Law” can be dealt with more rationally by having tools in place to link internal measures of product quality (sensory or instrumental) to consumer acceptance. Some of these post-startup crises can also be avoided by more thorough pretesting of the commercial manufacturing process and by basing manufacturing specifications on con…

Changes in process operating conditions can cause out-of-spec product quality, which can be confirmed by analysis of the suspected process variable.


Figure 1. Decision-tree diagram for out-of-specification quality following startup

Figure 2. Causes of off-target product quality leaving plant following startup.


Figure 3. Causes of consumer complaints following startup.



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