Innovation : Dig it !

"Give me something new!". Everyone is dying for it, but do we really want it? Actually a company needs innovation for sure to adapt and to improve itself, but are men really willing to provide it? Sometimes innovation scares as well.

Some companies adopt a top-down organization; they feel more comfortable with it. Innovation then follows the rigid structures of hierarchy. Should Innovation come exclusively from the Innovators? Is that the best way to improve? What if wisdom was collective instead of individual?

North American usually prefers bottom-up organization. That means anyone can participate and submit new ideas to the organization. Who better than the workers know how to improve the processes? How better can you have the workers to accept an innovation when it came from the workers themselves?

I personally experienced that philosophy when working in an iron mine in Brazil. Volunteer workers arranged themselves into groups of five or six animated by a manager. Regularly a prize was awarded to a workgroup coming with the best idea. When each worker turns into a little Leonardo Da Vinci, you can be sure that the company will perform better. This is usually called "Circle of Quality".

In Sogerem, the mine I've spent my Alcan Day, that philosophy is applied too. Anyone can participate to informal meetings and give his opinion or submit ideas. Offices are opened and you are invited to come and exchange. The director of Sogerem even invited me to share with him my impressions inside Sogerem team!

Cédric told me "For important problems, formal meetings are organized and everyone is invited to think about it and provide his piece of advice”.

There are two sources of ideas: ideas which come to fulfill a need and ideas which, like a shooting star, arrive unexpectedly.

As Cédric’s job is involving geology, environment and management, the problems he needs to solve are mainly related to these topics.

The tool Cédric is using to keep himself updated is the technological survey. For example, he receives the summary of scientific journals of geology to be informed on what is going on in this area.

Cédric gave me a good example of a challenge he went through which led to an innovation. Do you remember of the water reservoir? Nearby the mine, there is a lake which is a drinkable water reservoir. Fluorine level must be controlled because it cannot exceed a certain value. But once, during a very dry summer, levels rose above required levels. The problem had to be solved as fast as possible. In such moments, creativity must be working at maximal speed!

After a careful study of available documents related to that issue, Cédric found a method to clean the water but it was generally used for industrial treatment. Here, Cédric’s Innovation was adaptation. With some modifications, Cédric and his team tailored the method to be used with drinkable water treatment. And it worked! Now, fluorine level rarely exceeds the preset level. Anyway, Sogerem is now equipped with an effective weapon to fight against the problem!

We need to keep in mind that Innovation must remain economically coherent. Actually, new ideas can also satisfy an economical goal. Improve results is great, but it is even better if we can do so lowering the costs!

But let’s move back to water treatment. Sogerem has a good method to treat the water which drains through the mining site.  Any water resulting from human activity can be neither acid nor basic. So, treating water with a base will require an acid to equilibrate the final result and vice versa. The balance doubles the costs!

So, Cédric had the EUREKA idea of a hybrid treatment! In fact, water is treated with Aluminum salts, which can be acids or basics. As Aluminum is the active agent in the treatment, putting half of acid and half of base will eliminate the need of neutralization! Tests will be undergone during June and July to verify the results of that innovation. They are all confident about it! Try is very important!

In the prospecting area, Cédric looks for innovation as well! He and his team are currently using Geographical Information System (GIS) combined with teledetecting methods to find new prospecting place to mine. GIS is a database which associates terrain data with geological data. As we can see, Sogerem adapt new methods to their specific situation and they ensure to dispose of cutting-edge technology.

As Cédric told me, “the most important thing is that you mustn't be afraid of original solutions, this is how a breakthrough can appear”. Dare is the key to innovation!”