This paper presents a personal, thus necessarily subjective, view of the operation of batch and semi-batch reactors. The emphasis is on safety, product quality and scale-up. Key characteristics of discontinuous reaction systems are discussed, along with the resulting implications for monitoring, control and optimization. The industrial needs are compared with the research solutions proposed by academia. It is argued that, in industry, measurement and modeling issues are often more important than the algorithmic aspects related to the computation of control and optimization strategies. Major challenges and selected research opportunities are discussed.