ABSTRACT
In some work I did with a chemical company some years ago I found many characteristics that distinguished it from engineering manufacturing processes with which, at the time, I was more familiar:
each stage of manufacture was achieved by disturbing a chemical equilibrium that had to be re-established before moving on to the next stage;
each part of the process had its own intrinsic momentum which, once started, was difficult, if not impossible, to stop;
at several points in the process samples could be taken for testing and adjustments made as a result of tests;
much space was occupied by plant in which the restoration of equilibrium by cooling, settling, or similar processes was taking place without human interference.
