May 09, 2005
Campaign Video
One of the most sensational moments in my life is the BdE Campaing week. Please read my post "About me" to get more details about it and to see the video you need only to click here ( and wait a little bit until the video get downloaded)
Enjoy our campaign week with us!
Good bye
Posted by Aymen Khammari on May 9, 2005 at 05:50 PM
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Summarizing & Assessing
Summary
I was happy to participate in this program, especially with a such a kind and interesting coach like Makus Henne the Core Competency Leader CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) and Program Manager Automotive & Ventures in Alcan Technology & Management Neuhausen, Switzerland. Through this program I learned many interesting things about research jobs and R&D.
R&D is a very important part of an industrial firm. It’s necessary for its survival since it’s the source of innovation and new technologies inside the firm. It consists in:
- developing new technologies or products according to the market demand
- collecting creative ideas in order to transform them in new research projects
- motivating his team members to keep them creative and productive
- achieving projects fulfilling the clients wishes
It’s interesting to mention too, that the clients of a research centre can be:
- an operational plant belonging to the firm
- a final customer (such as automobile constructors)
It’s very important for my coach to keep good relationships with his clients and colleagues because of the importance of human relationships in his job. Since he’s got a very kind character, he has many personal friends among them.
What attracted me the most in this experience is the nice atmosphere of the “Kafee kreativ” weekly meeting. It happens in a funny and friendly atmosphere, so that the employees feel relaxed and spontaneous so that they start giving birth to ideas, which could be very original.
Personal assessment
I can only be grateful for Alcan, especially for Mrs Sandrine Guyot, for this opportunity which allowed us to build a global idea about different Alcan sectors.
Through this experience I learned how to deal with themes, about which I had no idea before. It was mostly interesting for, since I learned much information about research jobs in general and my coach’s job in particular.
Even if I won’t win the prize (I don’t deny it was a strong reason for me to participate in this program), I won’t regret any second I spent dealing with my blog. However I regret that I hadn’t had more time to improve my contributions and blog. It was unfortunately parallel to a very loaded month of studies.
I think this experience would impact positively my choices for future. I’m thinking seriously of making a career in R&D field (although I didn’t think about it before the program) and why not, if I am lucky in Alcan.
For all my visitors I hope I was structured enough, to allow you to go fast to the parts which interest you the most. I advise you to visit the other blogs too. The fruit of this program is to see how different student of different cultures react to these same topics. I think we had better be a team not opponents, because we complete each other.
I wish the best would win the prize!
It was a pleasure to spend these interesting weeks with you; I would enjoy your votes even if they are not in my favour.
Good bye
Posted by Aymen Khammari on May 9, 2005 at 12:50 AM
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Challenge, Performance & Contribution
Hello dear blog readrers,
I’m happy to meet you again for the fourth and last topic of the program WAC. If you want to have detailed information about it, please read my posts “about me”, “about my coach” and “about my Alcanday”.
This time we had the choice between two topics, “Human beings, being human” and “Challenge, Performance & Contribution”. I choose this topic because I am convinced that life is a big challenge where everybody tries through his family, job and himself to stand out. We are facing challenges constantly and that’s the reason why we are incited to be original, to find solutions and innovate, in order to “survive” in such a competitive world.
In order to answer all the questions in this topic, I’ll try to structure my contribution:
1) The key role of my coach’s job:
Research & Development is an important department of each firm, not only because it provides it with new technologies and innovations, but also because it’s the guarantee for the firm to survive in a market where only the price performance ratio counts. Research is then a strong driving force in the society and particularly in industry. Without new innovations, a firm will decline and disappear slowly. In order to have a firm in good health,
R & D should be strong enough to face challenges existing on the market.
My coach’s job consists in leading projects of numerical simulations such as product design and process optimisation using the CAE (Computer Aided Engineering). Through his job, my coach is producing an important “know how” to Alcan, especially with his continuous ant constant output by developing new technologies.
2) Assessment of my coach:
The main points, that my coach consider important by his assessment, are:
- Customer satisfaction (Alcan internal and external customers): It’s a priority for my coach that his clients are satisfied. The satisfaction of a customer is the best reward for him, since they are his providers and his judges.
- To keep the leading role in technology: Since my coach is an engineer, it’s understandable that technology plays an important role in his professional life.
- To have motivated team members: The condition for creativity and innovation in research jobs is to have relaxed and motivated team members, who like the job they do.
3) Values & directives’ impact:
Alcan is a firm based on values and guidelines, which permit it to go ahead in its way of leading the Aluminium market; we can divide these values into three categories defined according to the Alcan sustainability report 2004 so:
a) Maximizing values:
“Maximizing Value was established as Alcan's governing objective in 2001 and is the basis for all strategic investment decisions, whether it is to invest in a world-class smelter operation in China or to spin off the bulk of our rolled products operations to form a new company. With a goal to double shareholder value every five years, Maximizing Value provides the Company with a disciplined way to focus on the highest value options for our actions and investments.”
b) EHS FIRST:
“EHS FIRST represents a new focus on environment, health and safety throughout the Company, from corporate offices to the shop floor. With this ironclad company-wide commitment, Alcan aims to be a recognized industry leader in environmental, health and safety excellence. EHS FIRST builds on best practices in our business groups and is aligned with ISO 14001, a globally accepted environmental standard, and OHSAS 18001, an international occupational health and safety certification.”
c) Continuous improvement:
“Alcan's Continuous Improvement system integrates two complementary approaches: Lean Manufacturing, with its goal of reducing waste and improving process speed, and Six Sigma, with its goal of improving performance on critical criteria for customers. With the same CI business tools now available across Alcan, the CI framework provides ample flexibility for each facility to choose the most appropriate improvement methods for their situation.”
The impact of these values is clear in my coach’s job. In research jobs the achievement of project is part of the achievement of the firm’s objectives and directives, executing initiatives with the financial discipline ensured by the maximizing values. Some of the new projects are focusing on the way how to protect environment, health and safety, here is the relationship to EHS First. Eventually research jobs and continuous improvement are like synonyms, because the main objective of research jobs is to decrease waste and increase productivity to improve the performance of the firm. This pyramid helps to understand more Alcan values and strategy:
4) Challenges in my coach’s job:
Here are some challenges that my coach face:
- To remain up to date in terms of technological issues.
- Financial issues: To control cost of projects and minimize expenses.
- Resource planning: each member of the team should use his competency in the most efficient way, meet deadlines of R&D projects.
- Development of my team: technical / personal training, conferences...
- Productivity is hard to measure in
5) Source of motivation:
My coach inspires his motivation from his team. If his team is motivated, he’s directly contaminated. That’s why he cares continuously for them, to keep them motivated.
Another factor of my coach’s motivation is the acquisition of interesting R&D projects.
That was my answer to the last topic; I confess it was a little bit more complicated than the others. But I’m happy because I chose this topic, and one feels more at ease if one works on his choice, even if it’s more difficult. It’s always nice to have choice, because in some circumstances people could not have this privilege.
Thank you for your attention!
Posted by Aymen Khammari on May 9, 2005 at 12:47 AM
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April 27, 2005
Innovation
Hello dear blog readers,
I’m glad to meet you again. If you haven’t known me yet, I advise you to read my last posts “about me”, “about my coach” and “about my Alcanday” in order to know me better and to have a clearer idea about the program.
Nobody doubts that innovation plays a key-role in Alcan strategy. First of all I will introduce the theme with global view on innovation strategies in Alcan, then I will talk about innovation within Alcan and finally, as usual, I will illustrate with my coach’s activity.
If you put Alcan and innovation in your Google, you’ll be astonished with the huge number of webpages talking about this topic. The first thing that attracted me is one site saying:
ALCAN WINS INDUSTRYWEEK TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION AWARD “As part of its 11th Annual Technology and Innovation Awards Program, the editors of the leading manufacturing management magazine, INDUSTRYWEEK, have selected Alcan’s Aluminium Vehicle Technology as one of the Technologies of the Year for 2003.”
If you want to have detailed information about this reward, you can visit: http://www.newmaterials.com/news/1177.asp
Actually Alcan is not only a firm, which wins innovation's rewards, but also which encourages innovation by giving rewards to their best innovative employees. An example for that is the Alcan Packaging Innovation Award 2001 Zurich, Switzerland. In fact Alcan Packaging announced the eight winners of the Alcan Packaging Innovation Awards for 2001. Armin Weinhold, President of Alcan Packaging, was on hand to award the trophies at the R&D Center in Neuhausen, Switzerland. This center as you know is the place, where my coach Markus Henne works. That shows that Innovation plays a decisive role in the research and development. A company such as Alcan can secure a lasting future, only if it remains innovative in all fields (product, processes, administration...). Therefore also the central research (location Neuhausen & Voreppe) and the development teams locally in the plants. Innovation is a key for the future! Innovation can also be measured at the life duration of the products of the company. A firm is innovative if a multiplicity of products, which were successfully brought on the market, is relatively young (dependent on the product life cycle). Alcan has a budget, which exclusively serves the financing of innovation. The program for supporting innovation is called "Future Option" and is a priority of the Business Group (Engineered Products). Concretely at the research location of my coach in Neuhausen Switzerland, there is weekly the coffee-creatively meeting, which is encouraging innovation. Innovation normally begins with the birth of good ideas, which could be further developed in a research project belonging to the “Future Option” programm. Here are some details about the “Future Option” program : For the Engineered Products “Future Options” program four stages have been identified as follows:
To conclude I can say that the innovation is the reason of Alcan co-leading position in the world, and also the choice, which secures the future of Alcan. Such a stategy shows the wisdom and farsightedness of Alcan managers.
Thank for your attention. I hope I was interesting.
See you next time
"Future Options" has employed a Stage GateTM system of programme management since technology driven innovation can lead to problems:
To overcome these (and other) issues, many companies adopt "StageGate" management of new product development.
Every project is divided into well defined stages each with a set of necessary criteria. At the end of each stage a "Gatekeeper" meeting is held to review progress. Each "Gatekeeper" meeting is responsible for a decision -
proceed - stop - on hold - repeat
The key features of "Stage Gate" management can be reduced to two points:
The first 3 stages must be passed before the programme becomes a business project.
Posted by Aymen Khammari on April 27, 2005 at 12:00 AM
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April 14, 2005
International
Hello again,
I’m happy to meet you again. If you haven’t known me yet, I advise you to read my last posts “about me”, “about my coach” and “about my Alcanday” in order to know me better and to have a clearer idea about the program.
I think this topic “International” is a part and parcel of Alcan in general, and research jobs within in particular. I’m going then to tell you about the common issues in order to be short and interesting. In fact Alcan is a firm with more than 73,000 employees in all the continents on earth, represented in over than 60 countries. Only numbers prove that the international aspect of Alcan is undeniable. Here are some of Alcan international activities found in the alcan sustainability report of 2004:
- Alcan is helping to steer a special project of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) that is focused on the relationship between accountability, sustainability and business objectives.
- Alcan is an active member of the water initiative of the WEF (World Economic Forum), which is co-chaired by Travis Engen.
- Alcan is an active participant and supporter of the work of the World Environment Center (WEC), an international organization dedicated to the establishment and promotion of partnerships among industry, government, and non-governmental organizations, as well as serving as a bridge for the exchange of information among these groups.
- Alcan is a member of the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF), a focus for businesses around the world to work together in the global promotion and practical implementation of socially responsible business practices.
- Alcan has been an active supporter of a number of international activities through the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
Alcan is accordingly a world-wide active company. I can still write pages about Alcan international activities, but I think these examples are enough to show the international diversity and richness.
A large advantage of international companies is the global knowledge exchange between plants and central research: One called the "share OF best practice". In fact the network of research centres all over the world is the source of innovation in the mother firm. In the case of Alcan, the global Research and Technology network is comprised of Research Laboratories, Applied Engineering Centres and plant technical departments covering all major markets and regions. The firm has research centres in Switzerland, France, Germany, Canada, Australia and the United States. This network, which is located in three continents, is providing steadily the five continents’ production departments with new innovations. My coach, a manager in the centre of Neuhausen Switzerland, has daily contacts with European clients and research centres. A Client for central research could be an operational plant such as Alcan production locations in Singen Germany, or a final customer, in particular German and French automobiles constructors, rail vehicle manufacturers and OEM (original equipment Manufacturer).
Alcan’s Research and Technology laboratories also collaborate on projects with leading universities throughout the world and the Company’s scientists and engineers regularly publish articles on cutting-edge research topics in leading, peer-reviewed journals. One of the main partners is the University of Cambridge in Britain, with which Alcan International cooperates in many fields such as Modelling of heat treatment, hot working and recrystallisation of aluminium alloys and Knowledge management in materials processing…
So we notice the importance of the international research for Alcan. The greatest challenge in such a global company is communication between the different cultures. That’s why English was chosen as the firm’s language for communication. The knowledge is transferred in both directions between plants and research centres, that means idiomatically “the wheel doesn’t always need to be reinvented”. That’s the philosophy of Alcan international research.
I hope I was interesting and not so boringJ
Have a nice time & See you soon!
Posted by Aymen Khammari on April 14, 2005 at 01:44 AM
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April 07, 2005
Clients & Suppliers
Hello dear blog visitors,
I’m very glad to meet you again. First of all I would like to introduce my coach’s job. In fact my Coach Markus Henne is the Core Competency Leader CAE and Programm Manager Automotive – Neuhausen (Switzerland). CAE means Computer Aided Engineering, which is an indispensable part of the engineer’s job. Nowadays computer softwares offer accurate and fast numerical solutions for complex problems, which makes their knowledge a very important criterion of a successful engineer.
There are three main fields in this important research domain:
- Mechanical Design and Engineering: that’s my coach’s field
- Electronic Design and Engineering: that the field where I’d like to beJ
- Prototyping and Design for Manufacturing
1) Mechanical design and Engineering:
Mechanical Design: Provides customers with mechanical design services specializing in product improvement and new concept innovations.
2) Electronic Design and Engineering:
That deals with:
- Electronic System Design: Service includes programmable logic and multi–layer circuit board design.
- Mechatronics: Offers integrated electronic/mechanical systems.
- Printed Circuit Board Prototyping: Service includes testing via wire wrap, multi–layer layout, Gerber files/plots, board population, assembly and testing.
- Complete System Simulation and Testing
3) Prototyping and Design For Manufacturing:
Computer–Aided Manufacturing: Coupling CAD with Computer-Aided Manufacturing can fabricate designs in material of choice. Staff also can effectively produce tooling for small production runs.
Clients
Of course this domain is closely related to clients and providers. Fortunately I had the opportunity to meet two clients of my coach during my Alcanday. They were Gino Dallo and Thomas Huber two Alcan managers of the sales organisation of Alcan Extrusion. The topic was how to provide Alcan Extrusions with a variety of numerical simulations for Mass Transportation applications.
So we can notice that the clients of an Alcan employee can be an Alcan employee too, a so called internal customer. It could sound stupid, but in that kind of research works, the intention is to provide the mother firm and its departments with results and solutions. So we see interdependence between Alcan’s sections in Switzerland and I suppose in the whole world. In the case of my coach, clients could also be universities, other partner firms such as automobile and aircraft constructers. My coach has very nice relationships to his clients, since he’s got a very kind character and also because of the importance of human relationships in his job. In fact he has many personal friends among them, and that confirms what I’m saying.
& Suppliers
About my coach’s suppliers, it’s very easy to find them out. That’s his professional environment. Markus Henne said me once: “In our job creativity and original ideas are our capital”. In research fields, we need of course financial means to be able to develop projects, but ideas are also the base and the motoring forces, which lead to perfection.
So I think it’s no longer difficult to guess my coach’s job suppliers, they are colleagues, his boss, his clients too and even his kind secretary.
Thanks to the weekly creativity meeting (I’ll send you to “about my Alcanday” if you never heard about it before), which happens in such a lovely atmosphere, he can get innovative and original ideas from spontaneous relaxed colleagues who are drinking coffee without any pressure. That’s how Ideas are born! In fact that’s the stake of my coach’s job, to invent and innovate inspiring from his environment and keeping nice relationships to everybody of them.
Thank you for your attention, I hope I was informative and interesting in this post. I’m ready anytime for your remarks and critics.
Posted by Aymen Khammari on April 7, 2005 at 12:38 AM
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February 25, 2005
About me
My life can be divided into three main periods: 1) Childhood in Tunisia: 2) First studies in Germany: 3) Exchange studies in France: If you want to visit our campaign webpage, here is the address: http://reflet.via.ecp.fr/~bde-casanova/index.php?width=1024&height=575 Some pictures of the campaign week in january 2005 Spoken languages: Arabic and French are my native languages I have a good command of German and English I have been learning Spanish for a year but my level is still ridiculousJ Practical trainings: Wesertal Hanover: Mechanical bases in August & September 2002 Siemens Munich: Electrical bases from 23rd February to 9th April 2004 Interests: Sports: Basketball, fencing, jogging, swimming … Others: movies, music ( Hip pop, R’n’B, Latina, Café del mar …), travelling, going to partiesJ... I’m waiting for your questions and suggestions!
Posted by Aymen Khammari on February 25, 2005 at 12:07 PM
Here is a happy photo of them, taken during the dinner of the Alcanday:
Born on the 10th of May 1972 in Schaffhausen Switzerland, he grew up there until his high school certificate in 1992. He then completed his military service for one year. In 1993 he started his mechanical engineering studies at the ETH (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule / Federal Institute of Technology) in Zurich. He was awarded his Bachelor in 1995 and then took a year off. During that year he spent 3 months in Ingolstadt Germany, where he worked for Audi as a trainee, three other months training in Fiat – SIG Schienenfahrzeuge AG, a rail vehicles constructing firm in Neuhausen Switzerland. Finally he spent 4 months in the military service where he was upgraded to first lieutenant. After that year he carried on his studies at the ETH majoring in Aeronautics, Combustion engines and Combustion Technology. In 1999 he obtained his degree with an excellent mark. Alusuisse had a very good reputation in Switzerland , that's why many engineers dream of working there. Markus Henne applied for two jobs, one in Zurich at Alcan Mass Transportation systems and the second in Alcan Technology & Management Neuhausen. Thanks to his nice results he was accepted in both of them. Of course he decided to go to his home town to Neuhausen, which is very near to Schaffhausen. He started in this research centre as a project engineer in the field of structural fibre reinforced composites. One year later he took the direction of a large development project at that time, which dealt with the Structure of the research activities in the field of the fiber-reinforced plastics. This project interested one of the institutes in the ETH, which allowed Markus Henne to do his PhD thanks to this project. In 2001 Alusuisse was bought by Alcan and then he became program manager of the Structural Composites R&D programme. Since 2003 he has been in charge of the total Transportation Programme (Automotive, Mass Transportation Systems, Engineered Shaped products, and Structural Composites). In late 2004 he was named as the Leader of CC-CAE (Core Competency – Computer Aided Engineering), a group of 10 people who do numerical simulations such as product design and process optimisation. That’s the team Markus joined when he started in 1999 at Alusuisse. Spoken languages: He speaks German and English fluently and good French. Free time and memberships: SIA: Member of the Swiss engineer and architect association, member of the executive committee of the specialized group of engineers of the industry SAMPE: Member of the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering Sport: Member of the Rowing Club Schaffhausen, Cycling, walking, Mountain climbing… Hobbies: Architecture & design, alternative vehicles, Design and manufacturing of a self-developed electrical vehicle
Posted by Aymen Khammari on February 25, 2005 at 12:07 PM
My Alcanday is one of my most sensational days in my life. I enjoyed it so much that I am dreaming of going back to Schaffhausen soon and live there. My trip began Wednesday night, when I took the train from Paris-East at 10:42 PM. I had abunk, and then I fell asleep until I was woken up by a train employee in the morning at 6:24 am, when I arrived to Zurich. It was my first time in Switzerland, but I felt that this country was not foreign to me, perhaps because the town was similar to German towns. Anyway I felt at ease. Here is a photo of Zurich’s main station: I stayed only 50 minutes in this beautiful town, and then I took my second train to Schaffhausen. At 7:50 amI left the train there and I found my dear coach waiting for me on the platform. We were glad to meet each other and then I gave him his T-shirt, which made him happier. He asked me about my trip, I answered that it was comfortable and nice. We drove to the Alcan Technology & Management centre. On the way I saw the most beautiful water falls I had ever seen, the Rhinefalls, which are water falls on the Rhine which runs through Neuhausen-Schaffhausen. Here are some of the many photos I took: I was fascinated with these falls. I told Markus that this would be the first thing I’d insert in my blog, and then he joked and said to me:” You are not allowed to show this, otherwise they would say, he has already done a nice trip, he doesn’t need the trip to Canada anymore”J. We arrived at Alcan at 8 o’clock. I was hungry and a little bit tired. We found a nice breakfast which had been prepared by Madeleine Hartmann, the kind secretary of Markus Henne. Here is a picture of her: She welcomed me warmly then I thanked her for the nice breakfast, which really came on time. After that I felt really better, so I asked Mrs Hartmann to take a picture of me and Markus, and this was the result: I was so happy with their welcome, that I felt grateful to them. Now I am going to give details about the schedule of the working day:
- Numerical Modelling - Welding laboratory (Mr Stefan Kempa) - Anti-Corrosion Laboratory (Mr. Andreas Bleistein) - Full Scale Testing (Mr. Denis Hofmann) Here are some pictures of the labs visited:
The working day was over. I think now I am allowed to return to my own writing style. After work we went, I and Markus, to the town centre of Schaffhausen. We met his wife Claudia with a friend of her there. Her friend left us after a few minutes and then we started walking through Schaffhausen’s streets. We also went up long stairs to the town tower, where we had a nice view over the whole city. Markus and Claudia met an American Friend of theirs there and we spent a little bit time talking to her. After that Markus took us to a good bar-restaurant to have dinner. The time went by fast. After that we accompanied Claudia to her bike, because she was tired. I told Markus to go home too, but he insisted on staying with me until my departure time. So we went to a bar and we took two cocktails and spent there the rest of the time in a friendly atmosphere. At 9:45 pm he brought me to the train station because my train would leave at 10:11 pm. We said good bye to each other and I promised him to do my best to win the prize. He would be then the second person who goes to Canada with me in this case. I took my train, I did the same route to go back and now I am back home. Impressions: I was fascinated with the beautiful nature of the Rhine falls and I wish I could live later in a similar place away from the stressing big towns. I really liked the working atmosphere in the research centre of Neuhausen on the Rhine falls. Everybody was so kind and friendly to me and to the other colleagues. I also wish I could have the opportunity to work later in such a lovely environment. I really enjoyed the welcome of Markus, his secretary and his wife. Although they did not know me before they were so kind to me. They really made me happy. I hope that someday I could achieve half of what Markus Henne has achieved. I consider him as an example for me.
Posted by Aymen Khammari on February 25, 2005 at 12:07 PM
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About my coach
Here is my dear coach, his name is Markus Henne and he is the Core Competency Leader CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) and Program Manager Automotive & Ventures in Alcan Technology & Management Neuhausen, Switzerland. He is a 32-year-old constant, creative and talented manager. He is Swiss. He married Claudia, a 28-year-old pretty and kind theologian, in January 2005. 
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My Alcan Day
Hello dear blog readers, 
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