TABLE OF CONTENTS One of the most important activities within a company is project screening. One losing venture can negate the gain of several winners. Therefore, the project evaluators must be careful to obtain the best and most complete information possible so that the economics will accurately model the future "real world" situation. Possible model inaccuracies must be covered by risk analysis. This work is difficult and demanding, but the people who engage in it can take credit for helping to keep the company's "bottom line" intact and the nation's economy healthy. In this business, the bottom line is the real world.
In problem solving and process studies, the front-end work is important. Proper definition and direction developed at the beginning will assure meeting corporate goals in a timely fashion. This section establishes the type of study example to be used for illustrating principles and philosophy, and presents the basic items necessary to begin such a study.
Discussions in this section center around studies involving a proposed new plant or major addition to an existing plant. Practical applications address situations where a commercially proven or extensively tested process is offered as a relatively detailed design package by a licensing organization to an operating company for evaluation. Many of the principles developed apply to other situations, such as evaluation of fundamental processes in the research or semiworks stages.
