Assessment of the quality of the design process and the design of chemical plants with Piquar

Through industrial case studies and interviews in industrial practice, it was found that the quality of a chemical plant design is ill defined. Brainstorming sessions and discussions with more than thirty experts from industry and academia resulted in a comprehensive list of quality factors. The set comprised implicit, ill defined and qualitative as well as explicit and quantitative factors. Piquar (Plant design Improvement by QUAlity Review) is a tool designed to support the project owner and design team in: (1) identifying and establishing the quality factors for the design in discussion with the owner, (2) assessing and evaluating the factors during the design process, and (3) determining when the design process can be stopped. Piquar has been evaluated positively by industrial experts and by chemical engineering design students, who used the tool in their chemical plant design assignment. It is expected that the design process will improve with regard to time and budget, without compromising the quality of the final design