A New Product changeover Strategy (NPS) is presented in this paper for simple, safe and time-optimal product changeover operations of distillation columns. The NPS is theoretically developed from analysis of time-depending changes of the concentration profiles during a product changeover operation. The NPS is a two step strategy from which a successive change of the process variables can be obtained. The time, at which these variables are optimally changed is at the beginning of the product changeover operation and at a certain time determined from the minimum of an analytically derived characteristic function.