4th Executive Steering Committee Meeting - July 7, 2000

AIChE Washington Office, Washington D.C.

Present : Cawas Cooper (Air Products), John Corn (Ashland), John Battler (Triquest), Bob Duggal (Ethyl), Kamlesh Bhatia (Du Pont), George Liebermann (Xerox), Prabir Basu (Pharmacia), Joe Cramer (AIChE), David Edwards (Zeton), Ka Ng (UMass), Ron Mack (Pharmacia), Chris Seymour (Pharmacia), Ramesh Rameshwaran (Lyondell), Bill Dale (Xerox), John Peragine (Bristol-Myers Squibb)

Prabir Basu welcomed all participants to the meeting. Introductions were made, and the agenda was reviewed. David Edwards volunteered to be the secretary for the meeting.

Introduction /Agenda Review	P.Basu
Update of Current Activities	P.Basu
Treasurer's Report	R. Rameshwaran
Approval Status for Division Development	K. Ng
Process Development Forum	C. Teich & K. Ng
Benchmarking	J. Peragine
Web Page Development & Plans	R. Rameshwaran/G. Liebermann
Finalize 2002 Topical Ideas	R. Mack, K. Bhatia, C. Cooper
Membership Expansion Ideas	ALL
Proposed 5-year Plan	P. Basu
Discussions, New Proposals
Agreement on new Action Items, Directions
Wrap-Up and Adjourn

George Liebermann presented framed awards on behalf of Group 12 to Joe Cramer, Prabir Basu, John Corn and Mark Langer (in absentia) to recognize past contributions to the pilot plant area and recent Group 12 activities.

The treasurer, Ramesh Rameswaran, reviewed Group 12 finances. A bank account has been opened at the 1st Union National Bank. The following companies have provided $200.00 in sponsorship; Lyondell, APCI, Rohm and Haas, and Pharmacia. Invoices will be sent to sponsoring companies on an annual basis. Links will be established from the Group 12 web site if the sponsoring companies give approval. John Corn and David Edwards asked Ramesh to send an invoice to their respective companies for management consideration of sponsorship payment.

A meeting registration fee of $30.00 was collected from each participant to cover the cost of the room and lunch.

Ka Ng is leading the charge towards divisional status, and gave a presentation on progress to date. A division formation committee has been formed, essentially comprising the Group 12 executive committee members. Draft division by-laws have also been drafted by Ka, and these by-laws were reviewed and edited during the meeting. Finally, Ka will send out a pledge for by e-mail, and 100 members must return the pledge form with their names added to the form for the division to be formed.

Once these activities have been finalized, a delegation from Group 12 will appear before the Chemical Technology Operating Council (CTOC) in November to present the case for divisional status. If accepted, a 2 year probation period will begin, after which time the division will be a formal entity. This acceptance would be captured in the formal meeting minutes produced by the AIChE.

A final vote on the division by-laws will occur in Los Angeles in November. Joe Cramer recommended we add a by-law allowing electronic balloting.

Joe Cramer recommended pursuing corporate membership of the division, in a similar manner to memberships offered by other divisions.

The advantages of forming a division were briefly discussed. Three advantages of being a division are greater visibility, the ability to charge membership dues, and the option to pursue different activities other than programming i.e. awards. The choice to join a division will be offered as a check box on the AIChE Annual Membership Dues mailing. The next mailing goes out in October 2000, and we should aim to make the October 2001 mailing.

Divisional membership dues were discussed at length, and initially a $5.00 membership fee was thought appropriate, although a final decision was not made. These fees will go towards, for example, general divisional expenses like coffee at meetings, newsletters, web site maintenance, awards, speakers fees etc.).

Ron Mack recommended we have a number of specific deliverables to encourage members to sign up for divisional membership. A working group comprising of John Corn (12), Kamlesh Bhatia (12a), Bob Duggal (12b), Cawas Cooper (12c), Ron Mack (12d), and Ramesh Rameshwaran (Treasurer) will consider what deliverables will be offered, formulate a preliminary budget, and propose an appropriate membership fee. This working group will report back at the LA conference.

Alan Leviton and Ka Ng have been working on preliminary details for a 2-1/2 day Process Development Forum to be held sometime in the future. This forum would be less formal than an AIChE meeting, would focus on two topics (examples are reactor scale-up, work flow in process development, software for unit operations), would be in one convenient location (Napa Valley, CA and Poconos, PA are being considered), and would present a good networking environment for members. Round table or panel discussions would be a feature. The format could be based on the NA Mixing Group's forum (Group breakfast, Morning session, Group lunch, Afternoon unscheduled, Group dinner, Evening session). The participation cost would be set so that some additional funds would be raised through the event for other Group 12 divisional activities. Fees would be different for Division members and non-members.

Ka Ng presented two options which have been developed for consideration :

1. Option 1 : Napa Valley, CA near San Jose
   Local champion is Lionel Young of Mitsubishi Chemicals
   66 room hotel available at $159/day
   $350 air fare from Eastern USA
2. Option 2 : Poconos, PA
   Local Champion is Cheryl Teich, Rohn and Haas
   Hotel is $112/day

During the discussion of these options, option 2 generated the most interest. It was agreed that a task force consisting of Alan Leviton, a local champion, Cawas Cooper, Christine Seymour, Joe Cramer and Jeff Wood (AIChE) should consider such questions as :

• the best month and year (2002 and 2004 according to revised 5 year plan) to hold the forum, and
• who signs the contract with the hotel
• how best to involve the AIChE (contract review, hotel negotiations etc.., but we should keep AIChE resources to a minimum because of overhead costs, taking on all major roles within the group)
• consider whether a stand-alone forum is best, or whether it should be tied to the AIChE Annual Meeting

The consensus in the meeting was that the AIChE should be involved in helping to organize this event to some degree because it is Group 12's first forum. There will be a task force meeting in November to discuss these questions further. All attendees agreed to send Cawas Cooper a list of possible topics. Cawas Cooper will send Joe Cramer and Jeff Wood an e-mail outlining our plans for the Process Development Forum. It was agreed that the event could be advertised along with the annual dues mailing. The idea of free membership for those that signed up for the forum was also considered. Another idea was to conduct a survey to measure the level of interest in the forum before hotel reservations and financial commitments are made. Companies could also sponsor speakers, some of whom could be international. These are all ideas to be considered and developed by the task force.

John Peragine of Bristol-Myers Squibb presented a section on benchmarking, specifically related to technology transfer. Bristol-Myers Squibb were involved in a survey in 1996 about technology transfer methodology and procedures. In fact, 10 pharmaceutical companies participated in the original study reported by The Quantic Group on 10/3/96. Although all results were blinded (except to each individual company in the report), 7 of the companies were identified. The study was sponsored by Rhone-Poulenc Rorer and the 7 companies identified were Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Glaxo Wellcome, Ortho-McNeil, Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, Searle, and Wyeth-Ayerst.

At this time, Bristol-Myers Squibb are considering completing a new pharmaceutical survey on technology transfer, with a key are being how to measure performance. This survey will probably be delayed until next year (2001). The Quantic Group would prepare a questionnaire, define the legal issues, and report the results of the survey. The cost is in the $40,000 region. Bristol-Myers Squibb would be willing to share the results with Group 12, if Group 12 helped to define the survey questions.

As TT benchmarking will be discussed and planned further in November at the LA conference, and into next year, John Peragine will see what, if anything, can be shared from the original report. If information is available, it could be e-mailed or hard copied to interested parties. Joe Cramer reported that the ethylene producers group carried out up to two surveys a year, and issue papers summarizing the results. Steve Coleman is the main contact.

A wider question was asked whether our group could complete a survey once the division is formally established ? As an action for 2001, Alan Leviton and John Peragine will develop benchmarking and surveying activities further.

All sessions are now scheduled, and everything is in place. Papers are now being written.

Sessions are currently listed on the web site, along with chair/co-chair contact information.

The topical conference on Batch Processing is being led by Christine Seymour (topical chair). Christine distributed a handout at the meeting.

The following sessions are planned (co-sponsorship in brackets) :

1. Plenary
2. Batch Processing Crystallization Tutorial
3. Batch Processing Bio Processes Tutorial
4. Batch Process Design Overview (10A)
5. Batch Process Development in Pharma (15, 12C)
6. Industrial Mixing and Scale Down in Batch Processes (6, 7B, 12C)
7. Applied Scheduling and Planning in Batch Plants (10C, 12D)
8. Batch Plants Overview (12D)
9. Pharma and Bio Batch Plants Overview (12D, 15)
10. Batch Plant and Simulation Poster Session

Ron Mack offered to find a chair for Session 9. Christine will forward session titles and chair details to David Edwards when they are finalized, and he will send this information to IChemE in the UK to attract international authors.

Ron Mack volunteered to act as topical chair for a Topical Conference with the preliminary title "Process Improvements and Development in Manufacturing". Prabir Basu suggested that a manufacturing topical would be best held in Spring because of the more industrial based focus of the spring meeting.

Ron asked for assistance from a past topical chair, and Kamlesh Bhatia volunteered to act as a mentor.

Joe Cramer commented that the AIChE want to attract more exhibitors, and topicals that people could exhibit at are given a high priority.

The suggested topical format would be 6 or 7 sessions with 6 papers in each session. One round table discussion and one poster session would also be held. This would require 12 chairs and co-chairs, and names are needed by the January retreat in 2001. Therefore, the session titles and the chaors and co-chairs will be identified at the November meeting in LA. Co-sponsorhip with other groups will be considered. Ron Mack, John Battler and Tom Kenat will work towards finalizing the details for the topical.

Among the suggestions for session titles are :

• Process Improvement and Development in Manufacturing
• Data Collection and Use; SPC, SQC, etc.
• Process Analytical; on-line analytical;sampling
• Manufacturing Rules of Thumb (for improvement)
• Operator Training on new processes and improvements
• PHA/HAZOPs for new systems and processes
• Management of process technology and changes, and frustrations in implementing new processes
• Lifecycle support from R&D and Corporate
• Technology improvments by Operations
• Process improvment thru automation
• Process improvement thru equipment optimization/modificiations

This will be a regular programming session, not a topical conference. There will be 4 sessions in total, to be finalized in LA in November.

The following topics were considered strong candidates for a future topical conference :

• Licensing and Acquisitions
• Partnering from Process Research to Manufacturing
• Pilot Plants
• Pilot Plants as Part of Manufacturing

Prabir Basu presented the Five Year Plan (see attached). Minor modifications to the plan were made during the meeting.

Ron Mack asked that topical conferences and other major programming events be added to the five year plan.

Consideration was given to form a membership committee in LA, with a mix of new and old representatives from all four areas. This idea will be considered further in LA in November.

Ramesh Rameshwaran discussed changes that need to be made to the web site, and reviewed the action items associated with the web site activities. Jack Vinson (Pharmacia) has volunteered to maintain the Process Development Web site.

The costs of hosting the web site are $220 / year and $50 /year for the domain name. Companies providing sponsorship of $250 will have a link at the bottom of the web site.

A discussion was held on posting the topical proceedings on-line on the Process Development Web site, rather than printing in paper form. The formation of a chatgroup/newsgroup was also discussed, with the possibility of hosting a Process Development Q&A section. A volunteer is needed to move this idea forward. It was thought that this would be especially useful in attracting new members. David Edwards volunteered to set up a database to capture any Q&A transactions so that the shared knowledge is not lost.

Bob Duggal volunteered to contact some groups to see if a student is available to work on the Process Development Web site.

Joe Cramer mentioned that AIChE are considering setting up a Web Business Consultancy to help members in areas like chatrooms, newsgroups, and other web activities.

Among the changes discussed, mission statements will be added to the web site. An upcoming conference page (next and future conferences), with links to the AIChE Meeting Web Page. There will be a button for membership and contact information. Each area will have its own page. A key word search feature will be added to the first page.

Other activities to be discussed on the web site are :

• Process Development Forum
• Benchmarking (topic and contact name)
• Topical conferences and regular programming sessions
• 5 year plan
• Other future plans
• Division Status Update
• Committee/Subcommittee meeting minutes (to be archived after 2-3 years)

Action items are :

• Christine Seymour volunteered to act as the future meetings/other meeting contact person listed on the web site.
• The site needs to be registered with Yahoo etc.. (keyword for search engines). George Liebermann volunteered to give the keywords to Jack. Vinson.

Ka led a detailed discussion and review of the proposed Division by-laws. The by-laws were considered one-by-one by all those in attendance.

Many comments were made on the by-laws, and these were noted by Ka, who will update the by-laws by the middle of July and circulate them for review and approval by all those present at the meeting. Ka will also make contact with Tim Anderson of the AIChE. The e-mail asking for the 100 pledges will be sent out by Ka prior to the CTOC meeting in November.

Prabir Basu will send Ka a list of the actions and responsibilities of the division chair and vice-chair.

John Corn and Christine Seymour volunteered to develop a work flow chart for programming and vice chair activities. A job description for a call for papers coordinator has already been developed by Area 12b. David Edwards will forward an electronic version to John Corn.

Sunday November 12th, 2000 in Los Angeles (Annual Conference), 1-4 PM

Friday July 13th, 2001 - New Town Square, PA. (hosted by Ramesh Rameshwaran - Lyondell)