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10
Development Trials on Large-Scale
Equipment
How do we turn promising prototypes into commercial products? What strategy
should we use for each different project type? How do trials change as development
progresses toward commercialization? Why do development and production organi-
zations view this work differently?
If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know
what you’re doing.
W. Edwards Deming
History’s worst plant trial had been underway for 35seconds during the
early hours of April 26, 1986. Shift leader Alexander Akimov sat in the pro-
cess control room with his hand poised over the emergency stop switch. His ...