Bioprocess

Biomanufacturing Scale-Up

Situation

Fed-batch and perfusion bioreactors feed a shared purification, fill/finish, and release path. Fed-batch is lower-cost per batch. Perfusion carries more upstream productivity at higher operating cost. In this scenario, purification capacity is reduced by 20%.

Decision

After the downstream reduction, how much released product remains? The comparison is between restoring purification capacity, adding upstream output, or moving budget.

How we modeled it

The network keeps upstream production and downstream release separate: fed-batch and perfusion merge into purification, then move through fill/finish and release. The shock is applied as a lower purification cap. Recovery moves are staged as small constraint changes and solved against the same released-product objective.

What the model shows

Released product after shock40 kg/month

First recovery optionRestore ~10% purification capacity

Remaining budget room~$1.08M/month

Active limits

Purification at capacity
Fed-batch also saturated

What this shows

A downstream loss turns a balanced line into a recovery problem. Modest purification relief restores output more directly than spending elsewhere.

Once purification drops, the whole line becomes recovery-limited; upstream keeps producing but released output stalls.

Budget is not the active constraint here. Purification capacity has to move before extra spend changes output.

Restoring even 10% of purification capacity recovers about 4 kg/month of released product.

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