TABLE OF CONTENTS The goal of this book is to explain batch process control as specified in ISA's 88 Batch Control standards. It begins with that goal in the distance, so it looks attractive and interesting instead of the slithering mass of slippery details that it actually is. By the end of the book, most of the details will have stopped slithering and revealed their true nature. It is not possible to pin them all down, of course, because people will do unique things.
Batch process control refers to one of three classes of manufacturing processes: discrete, batch, and continuous. This chapter will introduce some concepts to help you to identify processes, with examples to illustrate them. It will clarify the 88 definition of a batch process and briefly cover other kinds of processes. Finally, this chapter will discuss how to use this process knowledge to define boundaries in a set of processes that will simplify process design.
The result of reading this chapter should be that you can at least tell a batch process from a buffalo, much like the Gilbert and Sullivan's Modern Major General who could "tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a javelin."
Manufacturing transforms raw materials into different forms that have more value than the materials that went into them. Whether the result is useful depends on your point of view Lumber is manufactured from trees. Titanium ingots are manufactured from Australian beach sand. Aircraft are manufactured from parts manufactured from titanium ingots, among other things.
