Pursuing Excellence

Puzzle is my favorite game since I was a little child. I’m sure everyone knows about it. It consists in putting little pieces together and at the end, we can see the whole picture.

Nowadays, I am in an Engineering school; so soon I will be in the Labor market, just like most of you, readers. And then, I just find out that we keep playing puzzle our whole life! Isn’t it amazing?

At school, we play puzzle when we work in group, each one gives his piece of contribution and we construct something great together.

At work, it is the same: our job will help to complete a big puzzle and when all the different functions act together, we discover the whole, the global result accomplished.

Then, I went to Sogerem, I spent a whole day in the shoes of my coach and I could observe how he is playing puzzle at Alcan, what is his job’s role, where is Cédric giving his contribution.

The main Cédric’s responsibilities are geology and environment.
The geology is a key service because it will define the exploitation plan and it will allow the work in the mines. Moreover, the Environmental survey Cédric provides is a key service too which involves water quality control.

But, how Cédric’s contribution is evaluated?

Firstly, objectives are established. My coach’s objectives for this year are five:

1 - Achieve two actions concerning environment:

• Control the fluorine level in the lake close to Sogerem;
• Carry out rehabilitation‘s plan of one of the open-cast mines.

2 - Improve the financial performance

3 - Ensure that the ore provided to the plant meets quality and quantity standards

4 - Carry out prospecting projects:

• Obtain the opening authorization of a new open-cast mine (take a look in what have been done in my Alcan day post, at 9:30!);
• Finalize the prospecting campaign 2005 before July 31st.

5 - Preserve work/life balance

• Finish the work day at 18h!

It is important to highlight that some of the objectives requires the involvement of other people. It means that some objectives are shared. For example, the improvement of the financial performance is an aim which Cédric shares with Didier, the General Director, and Jean François, the Mines responsible. Water quality control involves also many people’s participation.
 
Contribution will be evaluated with what was carried out to reach the objectives and performance will be assessed checking if the objectives were accomplished. Besides, at the end of the year, a self-evaluation review must be filled out. Thus, the assessment can be done!

Another way to evaluate the quality of Cédric’s job is to compare his modeling work with the results obtained in reality. For example, Cédric is responsible for estimating the quantity of ore which will be extracted and its fluor-spar level. It is essential to plan the exploitation. Cédric will have done a good job if his estimates are actually close to the values found. As fluor-spar ore is very heterogeneous, indeed, it is not a very easy task!

As you can see, all the corporate values and strategic directives are incorporated in Cédric’s objectives:

- EHS is present when we talked about minimizing environmental impacts. It includes rehabilitation of mining sites and the water quality control.
- Maximizing values is represented by the improvement of the financial performance
- Continuous improvement is directly linked to the underground mine, because its exploitation requires a good compromise with the open-cast mine production. They need to run together to balance their weaknesses and assets to satisfy their client: the plant.

Cédric is constantly dealing with various challenges:

Firstly, he needs to look for new fluor-spar reserves. If he detects the presence of these reserves, he needs to localize it and then plan their exploitation. Thus, when reserve supplies are getting smaller, he needs to prove it as soon as possible for a good planning organization.

Secondly, he also needs to forecast the ore’s fluor-spar level to deliver a product of quality to the plant.

Finally, as an environmental manager, Cédric’s challenge is to reduce environmental impact.

But Cédric, how can you remain motivated and productive?

“It is not difficult! The variety of the subjects which I tackle, the new aspects and the various problems require versatility and creativity. It is what allures me most! And to remain productive, there is always necessary to update knowledge!”