The complexity of many chemical and refining reaction systems and the thus-derived tedious and time-consuming process of building the associated kinetic models have been major obstacles in the use of fundamental kinetics in the solution of chemical engineering problems. This review summarizes work aimed at removing theses obstacles. Our recent work that has led to the enhancement of the Kinetic Modeler's Toolbox (KMT) and the development of the Kinetic Model Editor (KME) presents an end-to-end solution to the kinetic modeling process, including automated feedstock modeling, reaction network construction, kinetic rate estimation, model programming, process system configurations, model customizations, compilations, model execution and results analysis. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.