Why You Will Never Find the Exact Line You Designed on the Market
A specification is not a drawing of a machine. It is a description of what the line must do, what it must achieve, and the constraints it must work within.
The machines themselves come from companies that build this equipment to specifications that already exist. So it is normal not to find a machine on the market that matches the specification you wrote word for word.
The problem is not the absence of a perfect match.
The problem is knowing where you can accept a difference, and where you cannot.
You design the requirements, not the machine
When you design a production line, you define the process, the capacities required and the constraints. From that, the equipment list and the technical specification for each item are built.
But the supplier does not start from nothing. He starts from a platform, a design or a product he already has, and then works out what can be adapted from it to meet your requirements.
Some equipment is standard, and some can be customised
Equipment such as freeze dryers, chromatography columns and filling machines usually comes from existing platforms the manufacturer already holds, with defined specifications.
Capacity, control system, throughput and certain options can be adjusted to meet the requirements of the project.
On the other hand, some equipment has to be designed and built specifically for the project: certain bioreactors, clean-in-place (CIP) systems, and equipment that has to fit an existing building or line.
These items are usually the slowest and the most expensive to engineer and to manufacture.
A specialised line is always a mixture of standard equipment with some customisation, together with equipment designed specifically for the project.
Then comes a point that is often ignored: who is responsible for making all these parts work together?
Who defines the control systems?
Who guarantees that the equipment is compatible?
And who carries responsibility for integration when the equipment comes from several suppliers?
This has to be settled early, before the quotations begin.
In short, do not look for a perfect match. The equipment on the market will not necessarily match your design, and a perfect match should not always be the goal.
The right question is not:
“Who has the machine that matches my specification exactly?”
It is:
“What is the closest platform on the market, and what has to be changed in it so that it meets the process requirements?”
Waiting for a perfect match can push the project into expensive custom engineering, when a standard platform with some changes would have been enough.
Three questions that decide whether a difference is acceptable
First: which requirement cannot be given up?
And which difference in that requirement could really affect the process, the quality or the safety?
Second: what does closing the gap cost?
Does it need an engineering modification? Or additional work in qualification and validation? Or an operational compromise or a drop in output?
Third: what is the closest standard platform to what you need?
The closer you are to a product the supplier already has, the less you pay for the customisation you need, compared with what you would pay to engineer an entirely new machine.
Look at the market before you write the final specification
A specification written without knowing what can actually be manufactured and supplied may produce a document that nobody can price sensibly.
It may also impose expensive engineering requirements, when standard equipment with some modification could have achieved the same purpose.
This does not mean writing the specification around what suppliers sell.
It means knowing the limits of what is available on the market before you make every requirement in the specification mandatory.
Separate “must” from “should”
Every requirement you write as a must, when it is in reality only a preference, may add cost, engineering and time to the project.
But a specification that is too general creates a different problem.
Three suppliers may offer three different solutions, each of them claiming to meet the requirements.
You are then not comparing three prices for the same thing.
You are comparing three different things.
The supplier will always say that his equipment is suitable, and that is part of his job.
Your work is to know when the equipment really is suitable, when it is only the nearest option available, and what it will cost you to close the gap between the two.
And you have to know that before you ask the supplier to put a price on it.