The chemical industry is experiencing major changes. The experts of the "Solids Processing Industrial Network" expect that in the future two kinds of chemical plants will develop: on the one hand the polyvalent, multipurpose, modular plant and on the other hand the world-scale plants. At the same time the high percentage of solids as products of chemical processes will continue to increase and therefore new challenges have to be met. Small-scale production of solids has to be customized to the individual customer needs, which means that product design will be a technology that defines the competitiveness. For large plants techniques have to be developed that enable large volumes to be produced but that also allow the reliable scale-up from laboratory scale to world-scale production. Automatization will play a crucial role in the success of solids processing, which will depend on the availability of on-line measurement systems and the development of simulation models for the processes and the particle properties involved.