My Alcan Day

It is 6:30 a.m., I’m quickly finishing my breakfast. The sun is already shining; it’s going to be a beautiful day: my Alcan day. I feel like a journalist, an insider for the students from Europe. A car stops in front of the hotel: that’s Cédric. We greet and he invites me to have a seat in his car. Our destination: Montroc, the last underground mine in France.

WeAllCan

As we have a few minutes before we arrive, let me give you insight into the Weallcan program. The purpose of the program is to give European students the opportunity to spend a day in the shoes of an Alcan’s professional and report it to his colleagues through a blog (an internet journal). Today, I’ll follow Cédric in his activities and I’ll discover his profession. He was the last manager to be hired before Pechiney was acquired by Alcan in 2003. Now that the merging is well underway, Alcan feels the moment appropriate to communicate towards European universities and schools. And I feel the moment appropriate to stop because we’re arriving at the mine.

Follow-me!

As we’re entering his office, Cédric explains me that ENVIRONMENT is a priority for Alcan, so the first thing he does when he arrives is to check the quality of water through the laboratory data. “In summer, when the river’s level is low, quality of water is an issue which monopolizes 70% of my time, as Fluorine must remain under certain levels”, Cédric tells me.

It’s coffee time and we’re heading to the cafeteria. Christian (open-cast mine responsible) and Jean-Louis (electric maintenance) are already there. It’s a perfect moment for an informal briefing : Jean-Louis mentions a quickly solved electrical failure during the week-end. SOGEREM, the subsidiary company of Alcan where I am now, operates three mines: two open-cast and one under-ground. Jean-François, the mining engineer, is very busy with news projects on the existing underground mine, and currently he doesn’t have time to manage the open-cast mines. So Cédric is helping Christian. “As a manager, we need to be very polyvalent.”, Cédric adds.

7:45 – As we’re heading towards the open-cast mine by car, we stop on our way to have a look at a place that used to be a mining site. It has been covered by earth since and now we can see a crop. Give back the place to mother nature is very important. We get back to the car and we arrive at the open-cast mine for a one hour visit.

As I look at all the trucks and machines being operated by the miners, Cédric tells me : "Do you know that each worker can operate any of the machines and work on any position ? This is a very important policy at Sogerem, because the workers never feel any routine in their job and their attention on security remains at the higher levels. For the company, it also adds a lot of flexibility."

9:30 – We are moving towards another place for an on-site meeting with the mining engineer in order to discuss about a new open-cast mine. I hardly can follow Cédric and Jean François, I need to hurry up, they walk quickly! This project represents a lot of work for Cédric, especially in terms of environment. Cédric studied all the impact this new mine will have on environment. He is in the center of the decision-making process. He plans everything from the number of trucks and diggers, number of employees (contract or sub-contract), maintenance area, ore stocking area, working infrastructure (water, toilets…). Today, the mining engineer’s attention is focused on an electrical line which is crossing the site suggested by Cédric. Will it be possible to evacuate the ore then?

11:00 - We are now on the road to the plant. Cédric explains me that the challenge there is to produce an homogeneous product with a very heterogeneous ore. The process is very well optimized : the final product presents a very high content of Fluor-Spar. The ore that comes from the mine is mixed together with an useless material (gangue) which needs to be separated. A good ratio is 1 m3 of ore for 10 m3 of gangue.

Now it's time to lunch. We're leaving with Claude, the technical director, to a restaurant in a little town close to Sogerem. We eat local specialties and we discuss about professional career. Claude explains that he followed Sogerem's growth. Meanwhile, he worked abroad, in Madagascar. And he says: “I go out through the Sogerem’s door and I come back through the window! I like it so much that every time I leave, I end up coming back.”

After this nice lunch, I'm heading towards the laboratory for another visit. The team provides analyses of samples from the mine because the concentration in Fluor-spar varies a lot. When Cédric is prospecting new sites, they also give the composition of soils. Then, they also analyze the plant's production and check the quality of the final product. As I said, samples of water are also analyzed to follow its quality.

It’s about 16h30. Cédric has a meeting with the director. As it is not my official Alcan day, he participates to the meeting and he suggests me to stay in his office to access Alcan’s intranet. Through this portal, all employees can consult the latest news, the EHS manual and everything about Alcan’s policy, values and culture.
I learn that Alcan has implemented the Business Management System that is based on three main points:

1. EHS first: EHS (Environment, Health and Safety) policy is there to remember employees of Alcan’s compromise to:
- Minimize environmental impacts;
- Ensure a working environment that is motivating and pleasant;
- Adopt attitudes and behaviors that protects and promote their own safety as well as that of their co-workers.
2. Maximizing Values: In simple words, it means to do the best in everything you do.
3. CI - continuous improvement: It means to continuously upgrade the performance, be always aware and opened to change, when it is necessary.

A company is made of people. In my opinion, it is all a matter of attitudes. Having the GOOD attitudes makes all the difference.

6:30 p.m. - Cédric invites me to have dinner with his family. I meet his wife and we talk of all aspects of African and Brazilian culture. Then Cédric tells us a little bit amused how the canadian managing culture, more relaxed than the french one, somehow puzzled some french senior managers. "In Alcan, everyone addresses you as 'tu' ", says Cédric. I nod. I think it makes relationship easier, people feel more equal and it is still respectful.

Talking about countries and culture, I ask Cédric where he thinks he will be in 5 years. "I wish I'll be in Australia." he answers. From what I've observed so far, there are plenty of opportunity inside Alcan for motivated managers!

After this delicious meal, I come back to my hotel to rest a little bit before my next Alcan day.

Read more about my second Alcan day.