Fabien's Blog

Summarizing & assessment

Hello everybody !

This is already the last post ! After a big experience which began approximately six months ago on We all can website, we are near the end of the program. Before everything I would like to say that this was a big adventure, and that I will remember a lot of things about this project !

What's a CI manager ?

To summarize my coach's job, I would say that he is a project manager. In his job, he has to find new projects and then to review them regularly with his team. It is a great responsibility because the Continuous Improvement has to increase the value of the firm permanently. The most difficult is to find new projects and then to achieve them, in order to deliver results. The second aspect of the job is the strong relationship with the management of the plant. The job is full of contacts with the director and the HR manager, the financial manager... it is a transverse job, between all the functions. The most important are people and then with good people you may lead good projects. Another characteristic of the job is the fact to doubt from everything, to always wonder : "Is that the best solution ?", and practically, this is the key to CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT.

How this project changed me...

I was deeply touched by the project. I had already some contacts with Alcan but WAC was an unique occasion to discover the truth. One of the slogan is "the only way to know" and, without any hesitation, it is the case : I had already visited an aluminum plant and with school we may visit a lot of plants, but there is a huge gap between a visit with the school and an inner point of view, which is far more interesting. Before the project I had doubts about my first job : would I work in industry or consulting ? After the project I realize that industry would be a very exciting first work experience and my choice is done... and why not Alcan ? I got in touch with the director of Gove's plant in Australia for an internship. I will maybe join them in their expansion project in the first semester of 2006 ! Nothing is decided but it could be a great great thing to achieve.

To conclude this blog, I would like to thank Sandrine, all the WAC team , my coach and all the persons who gave me this opportunity to live this experience. It was determining for me. As I told to my coach before leaving the plant at the end of my alcan day, whatever the results of the program, I know that I have already won : I lived a great moment very intense and very instructive. Now "alea jacta est"... Anyway, with my departure to Australia for my engineering internship from june to september, I won't have any time to go to Canada !!!! But to give a little pronostic, I think that Kaline could make a very good winner, her blog is very original and she has great chance to win ! But the choice will be very hard for the jury, because there are a lot of good blogs !!!

Good luck to all the bloggers ! Thank you very much to Alcan teams for this great program and see you on the 26th with Travis in the heart of Paris for the big final event !!!!!

Human being, being human

Hello everybody !

Last weekly theme but not the least : human being, being human. Before everything, before economic ratios, before production cycles, the most important thing about a firm is the human factor. This post is about this main subject.

Team playing

My coach, as CI Manager, is member of two teams. The first team is the continuous improvement team, where he has a both a manager and a coordinator role. As a team leader, he has to review regularly each project and to coach each member of the team, thanks to his experience. He also gives the big orientations to the team.

Laurent is also member of a second team : the plant management team, which includes the director, the financial director, the human ressources director and the CI manager. In this team, the organization is the same. The plant director has the responsibility and gives the main orientations. However, there is a difference : each member is more experimented and as a consequence is more autonomous.

Here is a second video, which was taken during a meeting with the plant management  team !

Download wac_035.mpg

Conflicts and compromises

As a human being, there is always a possibility of misunderstanding and of difficulties. The world of industry is only a succession of copromises and the difficulty is to find the best one. It is always a little bit conflictual. Continuous Improvement makes us understand that the success of a project resides in two factors : the quality of the project and the adhesion to the project. A good project will fail if no one is ready to follow the leader !

Difficulties can come from every level. The greatest challenge comes from the workers. The executives are, in general, ready to follow the instructions, but the most difficult is to manage the workers. They have to find and apply the solutions. Very oftenly it is not technically difficult, but it is a big management challenge. But with the collaborators, there isn't any difficulty and the relationships between people are always very good !

Outside the plant

In such an environnment, some friendship relations appear : sometimes dinner are organized between collaborators, outside the plant, to meet and discuss in another context. My coach has also a lot of contacts outside the plant but inside Alcan. Even if there is a gap between the french and english culture (in France the professional and the personnal world are clearly separated), some relationships appears and may become very strong between all these human beings !

Made in China

Hello everybody !

After the two weeks I spent in China, I couldn't end this blog without having told a word about this country and the enormous opportunities it presents !

Is China a danger for the market ?

This is the big question that everyone has in head ! With its very exceptional growth China is drawing all the capital and all the attention of the world. So do we have to fear this expansion ? Of course no ! In the beginning of the 90s Russia was an enormous threat for Europa and had consequences on the market. With China it's not the case. Indeed the consumption of aluminium for China is so big that they don't have any intention to export their products. Instead, they need a lot of material and as a consequence it represents a big growth opportunities for all the firms round the world. And they have understood that. When I was in China I visited a lot of multinationals that had settled in China and Alcan isn't an exception ! China is a very big market and we have to go there to make exceptionnal business !

The characteristics of the Chinese society

After having spent two weeks in China I noticed some elements. First it is the dynamism and the optimism of the society. They have a "good news culture" the good event are celebrated and they become the source of inspiration for everybody ! This optimism gives the feeling that everything is possible, and it's true ! In Shanghai new buildings are built each week, and the city is always changing ! This confucean dynamism is very important and we should take some inspiration ! There is also a rare social harmony. In all the plants I visited none had to claim from strikes or problems with trade union : the workers are always glad to come to work and they are ready to accept any hours ! This is another example for us, especially in France ;-) !

Any problem ?

There is still a lot of problems in China. The power supply may be a problem, especially for aluminium which need a lot of electricity for electrolysis for example. Sometimes in summer, the government asks the industrials to reduce their energy consumpion, which means a loss of production, and which may also have fatal consequences for a smelter (as you may know it is impossible to stop a smelter without loosing the tanks)... this remains a problem as well as their logistics and supply chain systems which doesn't really exist, but it could be my mission in the future to develop this aspect !

China was a great experience and the main lesson is : learn chinese, because you will need this language during this 21st century !

A new subject : innovation !

Hello everybody !

A few days before my departure to China, let's talk about innovation ! My coach is CI Manager... At the beginning I thought that there was a contradiction between Continuous Improvement and Innovation, because "continuous" means that it is a natural and fluid process whereas innovation is made steps by steps. I told that to my coach and he answered that I was wrong !

New problems, new tools !

This is something I have learnt in school : in the industrial story the battlefields have been very diverse. At the beginning, in the 30s the purpose was to optimize a single workshop, with Taylor work theory. My coach confirmed me that a few years ago his team's purpose was to increase the productivity of the plant... The problems have changed, the problems are new : supply chain management has become a strategical point for firms. And as the problems are new, so must be the solutions : that's where innovation has a role to play !

  Innovating in methods and organisations

It's not really a product innovation that my coach has to undertake but more precisely in methods and organizations. Where does he find the tools to innovate ? Where does he find the new methods ? There are lots of ways to find these innovative methods : thanks to a technological surveilliance, thanks to consultants, who have always new ways to solve problems, and, like me in school, thanks to training. Some specialized books and reviews may also provide some methods. Another good way to innovate consists in benchmarks. What is a benchmark ? It's a study, a visit in another plant , Alcan plant or not, to find their methods and to wonder if these methods can be adapted and potentially used in Issoire. Concretely what kind of innovative methods and forms of organisations are used ? I have studied a lot of these methods like TPM (total productive maintenance, which used key performance indicators to increase the productivity), SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Die, an efficient way to earn a lot of time in production), or any other technical acronym... If you ask the question, I will detail you these methods. In organizations the major innovation is the concept of "production unit" which can be summarized in : "give more responsability to the operator so as the decision may be taken at the closest point of the problem". This is a new work organization in order to give more responsibility to the operator.

The purpose of that ?

Each problem, each project is different, in CI it is the golden rule, that's why the innovation is permanent : on each new subject, you must find a new solution. That is the place of innovation, inside the CI process. That's why they are far from being opposed but complementary. The final purpose of innovation is to create value for both customer and shareholder. The customer wants reactivity, diversity, and quality at the lower price, and the shareholder wants to earn a lot of money !!! Thanks to innovation, organised in the CI process Alcan can reach both of these two goals...

I hope that I will be able to deal with the next subject, but it's not evident because I will be in China, for a travel with my school in the frame of my major subject of supply chain management... But I hope that I will be able to do it !

So see you soon !

The world is mine

Hello everybody !

After a few days of silence, I'm back on the blog with a wide subject : international. How can my coach's job, Continuous Improvement manager, be considered as international ?

Inside / Outside

The first thing to keep in mind is the division between the work inside and outside the plant. Inside the plant, which is located in France with french teams and french management, it's hard to talk about international role. But the other part of the job, the relationships with the clients and the rest of the group, implies a lot of international aspects. Business has become international and on transverse subject, in continuous improvement for example, all the exchanges are international.

The CI Network

So the Continuous Improvement network is international. The call conference I attended on this subject during my Alcan Day was a good illustration : in this conference there were people all accross Europe : in France, in Germany, in Great Britain, or in Swiss. There are also some americans and of course canadian !!! The CI information of each plant are gathered at an international level, between pepople of different nationalities. During these meeting, either in call conference or on the web, the contacts are international !

ALuminium CANada

And what about Canada ? Alcan stands for Aluminium company of Canada and we all know that the top management is in Montreal. For my coach, the contacts with Canada are rare. Issoire's plant belongs to the "Engineered Products" (EP) business unit, whose center is divided between France and Germany. Even if the director of the unit comes from Canada, his life is divided between Paris and Zurich (visit the other blogs to discover Alcan's implantation in these two cities !). As a consequence the contacts with Canada remains exceptionnal (during my Alcan Day a canadian woman visited the plant in the frame of a recruiting process), but are really important !

Training round the world

The job of my coach doesn't imply any regular travel. But in certain period, for training session, he has the opportunity to discover other countries and to travel abroad. He undertook his blackbelt training session between Zurich and Amsterdam and he had another training session in Quebec ! He also go once or twice a year in England to meet clients in aeronautics. He has also sometime the opportunity to visit other plants from the EP group for benchmarking or for meeting, and they are located in Swiss or in England.

Even if this job doesn't imply big regular travels, it is absolutely necessary to keep contacts with international, inside CI Network for example, to be aware of the situation ! As my coach said : "We exchange with persons, thanks to phone or mail, but we never know where they are, if they are in their plant in Europe, or in Canada... it's impossible to know, and it is not really important." The most important is the person...

See u soon, and feel free to comment and ask questions !

Coach's clients & suppliers

As a student in logistics and supply chain, I could say a lot of things about the supply chain I saw during my Alcan Day, because Issoire's plant is a very interesting and very complex subject. But I won't explain you that today !

The analysis of clients and suppliers is a very important one ; indeed in Issoire each time a team has to start a project, they engage a SIPOC analysis, which means : Supplier Input Process Output Customer. That's this kind of analysis that I'm going to do !

Let's focus on my coach : as a person, who are his clients and his suppliers ? I remind some details about him : he's the continuous improvement manager of Issoire's plant. What is the place of Continuous improvement in the plant ?

To simplify, it can be considered as a big support process for the whole plant. As a  consequence his clients are all the plant services : the different workshops and also the other support process like human ressources, financial departement, general management, quality control...and all the others that I forget here. He supplies them with methods and tools to identify and solve the problems, and also with ressources like the green- and blackbelts that are going to solve these problems.

Who are his suppliers ? It's harder to define... The input of his process are the persons who organise training session for blackbelts, like consultants, as I saw them during my internship, it's also the Master blackbelts who are also giving tips about the methods to provide downstream, about the CI process. And last but not least, there is also the corporate CI team, which gives him instructions to follow and purposes, in terms of training rate of green- and blackbelts and as a consequence he must do everything to reach these quantitative goals.

I hope that you understood the clients & suppliers of my coach, now I have to leave because I'm already late for my next cost evaluation training session !

Don't hesitate to provide comments and questions !

Another guess what...

To wait for my coach's description here is another "guess what ?", maybe simpler than Remy's one ! You have 5 days to find the answer !

What is it ??

A price for the winner !

Alcan Day Report part 2 of 2

Hello !!!

Ok today it's raining on Paris, so instead of having a nice walk in the most beautiful city of the world, I'm going to put on this blog the end of my report !

I'm sure that all of you couldn't wait any longer for the next part of this report !!!

Ready, steady, go !!!!

Tuesday, AM

22.03.05 - Pariou Hotel, Issoire - 7:44AM

I got very early in the morning on Tuesday (at 6am), in order to live this day which would be very intense ! After a small breakfast, I paid for my room and I went outside, under a small rain to wait for my coach. He arrived a few minutes later and we took a few seconds to greet the activity leader of the greenbelt training session and to have some news of the training. Just after we left the hotel to go to the plant. As soon as my coach arrived, he checked his mails (there wasn't any since yesterday evening). He printed and readed the feedbacks from a seminary he organised a few weeks ago. He also had a look at the "Usine nouvelle" a magazine that he had received, but just a couple of seconds ! He also talked with Amandine who is an intern who works on a project for my coach in continuous improvement.

22.03.05 - Alcan's plant - 8:13AM

After this morning check up we went to the administrative building to meet the management team, like each morning. The first subject is,of course, security. the plant's director, the human ressources manager, the financial director and my coach discussed then about various subjects, like production volumes or internships. Just after the meeting, Laurent went to the secretary to ask her to book some tables in a smart restaurant of the surroundings, for the "social event" of the greenbelts. At 8:59, he followed the HR manager in his office to discuss from the presentation they will give on Thursday to the unions. Pierre Trouilloud also informed my coach that a canadian woman, who is candidate for a very important job in Paris about security, would arrive in the morning to meet the different members of the management team, including my coach.

22.03.05 - Alcan's plant - 10:17 AM

My coach brought me to the visitor's security equipement local, to begin the visit of the plant ! I won't give all the details here. He showed me the foundry, the plate shop and the sheet shop. We hadn't enough time to see the third shop : the cast shop. He also presented me the different projects of continuous ameliorations that were also currently run to improve the performance of each shop and of the whole plant. More details in other posts in a few days ! During the visit we met the canadian woman, with her guide : she was also visiting the plant...

22.03.05 - Alcan's plant - 11:40 AM

After the visit, we're back in the plant manager office for a call conference with consultants. They are expected to work on the plate shop performances in a couple of weeks and they had this conference to define more precisely how they could work together. A thing which was very surprising was the difficulty they had to agree on the part of work the consultant team had to do. Conciliating the vision wasn't evident in this case ! I will give more details about it also in the following of this blog ! When we exited the office we met once again the canadian candidate and my coach apologized her for not having the time to meet her. After all these adventures, we were very hungry !

Tuesday, PM

22.03.05 - Restaurant of the plant - 12:22 AM

We had lunch in the very nice building of the restaurant which is in a calm area of the  site, near a couple of trees, in an old farm. As I promised it to Sandrine during the interview, I will give her a lot of details about this meal ! At 2:01 PM my coach was back in his office, the time for me to download the pictures I had taken in the morning (my camera was full !) and for him to check his mails.

22.03.05 - Alcan's plant - 2:29PM

Last big meeting of the day, in the main meeting room. The plant manager, the financial director and my coach presented to the team managers of the different part from the plant (the differents shops, the human ressources, the technique direction...) the future objectives and initiatives in the next five years. This time I won't give you any further detail because these informations are highly confidential. Sorry ;-) ! The meeting ended  at 3:36PM and some of the managers, including my coach remained in the room to discuss informally and exchange some jokes ! Nice moment after a decisive meeting...

22.03.05 - Alcan's plant - 4:21PM

After the meeting my coach greeted Christophe Weishaar, one of the commercial  director, who's also one of his friends : they play golf together ! We left the administrative building to go back inside my coach's office. He finished the presentation of the plant he had begun on Monday and explained me other things about Issoire and Alcan.At 4:37 PM Amandine was back in his office to explain him how her project was going on. I saw the last minutes running... I was already near the end :'( ! At 5:42, the taxi driver arrived and I left my coach and the plant to go back to Paris. I caught my train at 6:16 for a five hour trip... and I was back, tired, but very very happy !

Is this always so intense ?

The answer is : yes !!!! My coach told me that the days I spent in Issoire were typical day. He begins at 8AM anb end around 8PM ! He goes from meeting to meeting, spending approximately 8 hours in meeting and 2 or 3 hours in his office. With a one hour lunch, we have our whole daytime !!! Some meetings are recurrent. Each morning he attends at 8:15 the plant management team meeting, to discuss of all the subjects. Each week, on Monday he meets his collaborator of continuous improvement projects at 2:00PM. Exceptionnaly this week the meeting was set at 4PM because of the greeenbelt training session.

A lot of things surprised me during this meeting. The main was the view point that I had during the day. The slogan of We all can is : "The only way to know" and it's true. I visited a lot of plants with my school including Alcan's Dunkerque plant, but there is a huge difference between an official visit, where the minimum of things are shown and a visit I could have in the frame  "We all can". Thanks to such a visit I could understand deeply the problems and what is the daily life of a manager. It was very very instructive and the difference between these two ways of visiting a plant is absolutely astonishing !

That's all for today, I hope that you found this report interesting. If you have any questions don't hesitate. In a few days, you will know more about my coach and if you want me to talk about a specific subject in the next posts, don't hesitate to ask for it in the comments !!!

See you soon and I look forward to reading all of the report from other bloggers !

It's gonna be a bright sunshining day

Today I take the train to Issoire to meet my coach for the Alcan Day. The weather forecasts had announced that the good weather that we have for one week in Paris would end today !!! I've just taken this picture from the windows of my room in Paris as you may see it : the sun is still shining...

Don't trust the forecasts !

I don't have much time, my roommate is still sleeping and my train is in 1 hour, and I don't want to be late !

If I don't have a connection in Issoire, see you on Wednesday when I will be back !

A (very) brief history of aluminum

Hi everyone !

Tomorrow it's my alcan day !!!! Like Davide, I'm going to Issoire plant to discover more deeply the world of aluminium production. I'm looking forward for it, and as I have read on other blogs, it seems to bevery great.

I will give you more details when I'll be back on wednesdays, but before, I wanted to giveyou some indications about the history of aluminum. I attended a conference about it in the frame of TMS annual meeting in San Francisco in February. TMS stands for "The Mineral Society" it is a big american association gathering a lot of industrials and students about mineral, material and metallurgy.

A very old story

The story of aluminium is a very old one. In the Antiquity egyptians already used it, as a pigment in cosmetics for example. They didn't know anything about its existence or properties but they used it already. It was also used by the Romans and during the middle age with the same uses (and it is still used in certain cosmetics !). During the middle age it was also used as a mordant for clothes dyeing. This other aspect is also still used in modern dyeing. At the beginning noone expected the appearance of aluminium as a material : only his chemical properties were used !

And light appeared

The XIXth century was the period of industrial revolution and it is in this period that aluminium was discovered. In 1808, Sir Humphrey Davy, an english chemist discovered aluminium as a chemical element.  He tried to produce it through electrolysis but he was never able to do it. But the first step was done... In 1821, a french chemist discovered in France, near the Baux de Provence, an aluminium oxyd mine. This oxyd was called bauxite. In 1848 the process used to produce aluminium is the reduction thanks to sodium. It was a very expensive process. Aluminium became a rare material and was a symbol of luxury like gold or silver. Furthermore his major property (light density) excited all the scientists. To prove you this fact : this metal was so rare that it was used for the crown of Denmark's queen !!!! It was a symbol of wealth to have items made of aluminium.

The magic of electricity

But the story is not over ! In 1886 the french scientist Paul Heroult and the american Charles Martin Hall discover quite simultaneously the process of aluminium production through electrolysis. Using bauxite as row material, it becomes very easy to produce aluminium. In 1888 the big french and american companies are constitued, they will become Alcoa and former Pechiney. At the beginning of 20th century, Alcoa decides to install plants in Canada and they create the Aluminium Company of Canada, which will become Alcan. During the 20th century the production is increasing and aluminium becomes used in many sectors : aeronautics, packaging, and a lot of applications. As a light metal Aluminium is very interesting for many industries and products.

Many uses

In 1947, the Dyna Panhardt, the first car made of aluminium is designed by the engineer J.A. Gregoire. The model is a success. After that a lot of produces will use aluminium, and it is still the case today.  My alcan day will occur in the "engineered products" business group in Issoire, which means that when I will come back, I will be able to give you a more complete list !!!

This is just one example ;-) !

I hope that you have learnt some interesting things about aluminium ! This is not a complete story but if you have questions or comment don't hesitate, I will try to answer !

See u soon !