Success factors for improvement and innovation of process technology in process industry

In a study of the development of process technology in the process industry, 25 potential success factors were developed and later ranked in a survey to R&D managers in the European process industry. The results show that success factors for process development and product development are different, but also that success factors for process improvement and process innovation are different. For R&D managers in the process industry, the success factors can be used as a “shopping list” for the development of a company‐specific list of success factors for process development. The difference between success factors for process improvement and process innovation indicates that there is a need to better distinguish between process development work of different nature and content.