Initial Screening Analysis (ISA)

1. Purpose

Initial Screening Analysis is a high level "scene setting" methodology that should be used at the beginning of any Britest study.

It is used to

Outline the background to the problem being investigated
Gain a consensus view on the business / technical objectives for the study
Identify any real or perceived constraints to solutions generated
Capture key information on feeds, products and wastes

It brings together both business and technical information, and benefits from input from both functions.

The outputs from the ISA are

A common understanding of the problem
An agreed approach to the rest of the study

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2. Information requirements

The following information can be useful when carrying out ISA

Business information

Technical information

Costs of raw materials

Sales value of products

Restrictions on material supplies

Regulatory constraints

Time constraints, e.g. desired time to market

Customer requirements

Available capital for improvements

Number of process stages

Yields

Cycle times

Safety, Health and Environmental criteria

Process robustness

Product specifications

Raw material specifications

3. Methodology

1. Define the problem

Where are we now?

What is the background/business context?
What is the current process?
Where is the process in its life cycle?
What processing issues need addressing?
How robust is the current process?

How often does the process fail spec?

What process tasks cause most problems?
Where is the process bottlenecked?
What are the business drivers?

Cost of each failed batch
Current costs of production

General process improvement
Specific process problem solved
Robust scale-up
Technology transfer
Considering the business targets:
What overall process yield is needed?
What reduction in batch time is needed?
Are there other technical targets that must be met?
Target cost $/kg
Reduce failed batches from x% to y%...

2. Define the objecive of the study

What are the specific objectives to move us towards the general aim?

Be realistic!
Set goals for the session as well as for the overall study incl. follow-up

3. Clarify the constraints

What are the real constraints?

Everyone should share what they believe the constraints to be
Some assumed constraints will not be real - discussion among the team will identify these

Typical constraints

Capital availability
Time to carry out project (i.e. time-to-market)
Registered process (i.e. possible process changes are limited)
We can’t use that solvent on site...

4. Define the product

What are the desired product characteristics? i.e. What must the product do and/or achieve?

Product specification etc.
What does the customer/user want and need?
How does the product need to behave in use?
For products that must have a specific physical form Rich Pictures can be useful to explore this

5. Define the process

Create an overview of the process summarising the main processing steps.

For simple, single stage processes use a Process Definition Diagram
For multi-stage processes a Process Information Summary Map can help to identify the stages to focus effort on

6. Choose what to focus on

"Chase the value"

Look for stages where there is value to be gained, e.g.

Low yield
Losses of high value materials
Long cycle times

Try to identify the root causes of problems

Crystallisation problems may be due to impurities from the reaction, so consider using DFA on the reaction step
Tabletting problems may stem from upstream milling or granulation operations, so investigate these

Page last updated 4th January 2016

Initial Screening Analysis (ISA)

1. Purpose