(181c) SwIFT (SwRI Interdependent Flexible Time-Driven) Process Development

For many new technologies and processes, the timeframe to go from bench-scale to production can take multiple years. Companies are often racing to build and develop a new technology with limited information on how their innovation will translate from their lab experiments to pilot units or full-scale production. Southwest Research Institute uses its SWIFT (SwRI's Interdependent Flexible Time-Driven) technique in pilot plant development for rapid design, fabrication, and testing of integrated pilot plant units to collapse the overall schedule for the project. SWIFT process development, similar to Agile programming, uses several small design and redesign cycles throughout the project to increase feedback and uncover unknown risks and information as early as possible in the project cycle. This greatly collapses the project schedule and allows for flexibility in design, fabrication, and operations as the design team discovers information regarding the new technology.