Laure's Blog

WAC confessions

Now that I have knocked around quite a bit in Alcan, I may give you many advices...

• One advice: train. Endurance strength may be useful to resist the rhythm!
• Enjoy drinking coffee
• Learn as much languages as you can

No, I am joking. I am just trying to disgust you of the job!
Come on, I will tell you everything I learned during the program and express the conclusions I draw. They are my personal conclusions, if you don't agree just comment about it.

What I like in my coach’s job in Alcan?

His job seems to be really various as he is in charge of two different functions. I am not going to repeat what I said in my Alcan Day section but in short he is an ESH manager and Continuous Improvement champion. His first function allows him to tackle with environmental and security problems which is really closed to what he wanted to do as he was a student. However his second function let him manage people and assure the cohesion of a team which is really enriching and formative. He has to jungle with many problems and as he is in charge of three different sites: 2 in France and one in Sao Paolo, he has to travel a lot which is really a chance but makes his timetable really heavy. No time for jet-lag he told me when I called him when he was back from Sao Paolo. I wish I could manage to have such an interesting job and to be as involved as he is. And to succeed in juggling with both his job and his family preoccupations as he does.

What I liked in the WeAllCan program?

I really enjoyed this program for this reason: it showed us, thanks to the privileged tie we had for two months and a half with our coach, the reality of what it is to work in a firm. A reality, far away from my everyday life as a student! And in this way, the program goes beyond all I expected. I discovered that a job can really be exciting (good news) but in return, one has to be devoted to it and more important: versatile. For example, as I said before my coach has to be good at managing people but he also has to be aware of the security, health, environmental, productivity...problems. It was really interesting to have a sincere discussion with an engineer about his preoccupations which would one day become mine.

What I learned there?

During the Alcan Briefing, in March, my brand was: “if you join my team, I will listen to you and we will make things go further together”. I think I won’t change it because it sticks to what I learned during my Alcan Day or chatting with my coach: work teams are the key tool of a firm. They let projects be achieved. At school, we basically learn to think for ourselves: we have to get the best mark, answer the question in a better way than the others and find the solution. At work, we will have to think in group considering every aspects of the problem, even if they are not directly linked to what we are in charge of and there is not a solution but solutions with pros and cons to weight. It makes a high difference from my point of view.

The discussions I had with my coach have made me sensitive of the difficulty of combining a family life and an interesting career. I think this is a problem we all are bound to cope with in the future (yes men, it is not only a women's problem!!!) and to think about it let us acquire the maturity to face it. We might have the hindsight to take the best decisions when the time comes.

To sum up, everything I learned enables me to be better prepared to the future and to think about my career with full knowledge of the facts. My wish used to be to travel a lot and to work aboard. Not that I want to reconsider everything that motivated me but I think about it differently from now on. The full immersion in the firm world made me understand the consequences and the difficulty I must be prepared of but also the richness . Moreover, I have realized that an international career could be found (at least partially) in France, tackling with international problems or being in charge with sites abroad. Little do I know what is in store for me in the future but I have my feet more firmly planted on the ground!

It was a pleasure to discuss with you Benoit and I hope you enjoyed the program as I did! Thank you for your welcome and your help!

Sport team=work team

To show you the link between my coach’s job, Benoit Larade  (a manager ESH and CI) and a sport trainer, I have imagined the briefing he may have done, respectively in the stadium and in the meeting office.

What Benoit might say to his 4 by 100 meters relay team:

Ok, you‘ve been gathered today to set up the new 4 by 100 meters relay. As you know, it is a team sport and consequently, you will have to do your best for the all team to win ! The one who only wants his own recognition, goes directly to the changing-room!

The team spirit is compulsory because if one of you fumbles the baton, all the team fail. You are all good sprinters but it will not be sufficient. You have to adapt yourself to the others. I believe in you because if you train together, if you share the same wish, the same purpose, you have a chance to win. I am here to stimulate your capacity of training in team; I want to create the cement among you that would multiply the capacity of each of you. Such cement is usually called The Team Spirit!

What is the most important thing in such a sport is not the sprint but the way of giving the baton. The best sprinters way run faster but if they miss the area where the baton is to be given, they would fail!

I don’t know if you’ve heard of the team composed of tops models participating in the Discovery Channel Adventure Race, which is a particularly hard Raid.  The same year, an other team was composed of soldiers who were supposed to be much better suited and trained for such a hard race. Guess who finished the competition? The top models!! Paradoxically, thanks to their mental and their team spirit, they succeeded in sticking together to overcome the event whereas the soldiers who had the physical capacities did not get along and did not have any team spirit. They were alone against the difficulties and consequently they failed. This is a perfect example of what a team can relay the individual person to make thing go further...

For further informations about the Discovery Channel Adventure Race, click here:

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/wcar/wcar.html

What Benoit might say during a meeting in Alcan with his colleagues:

Ok, you’ve been gathered today to plan the new project in order to reduce the time of developing the product on all the line. I need all your collaboration for this project to be a success. You are all in charge of different task: production, quality, human resources... I want you to contribute together to the project.

You all need the advice and the point of view of the other branch of activity. Your ways of thinking are all supplementary. I want you to work together to achieve this project which is the priority of the policy of the site from now on. I want to make sure that each of you is aware that the time of production is really a problematic and can be easily reduced setting up simples rules. The TRS which is the time that allows to follow the productivity is today of 0.82. Our objective is to stabilize it at about 0.86. Considering the figures, you may see that what brings down the TRS is the time of stopping of production.

We consequently have to improve the performance of the machines reducing their breakdowns for example. This is only a way of solving the problem. Two Black Belts will work on it. I want all of you to communicate your propositions. I know the problem is hard to tackle with but with the willingness and the collaboration of everybody, nothing is impossible. You know Chantal Petitclerc, the Paralympic Champion Alcan is sponsoring, she is the best example of where voluntarism and willingness may lead: success and recognition.  Let’s follow her example!

For further information about this fantastic sportswoman, click here:

http://www.chantalpetitclerc.com/2003-2004/intro.php

What you have to remember among what I have said:

a manager has to

• convince people that the project is really an improvement and not too much restricting (habits are the carpet slipper of the life)
• let the tools and the methods for the project to be applied
• energize people and create a real team spirit
• adapt himself/herself to the situation and to be flexible
• create the following line to follow
• guide and control people work

Managing a sport team and a work team definitely relay on the same qualities. To improve such qualities, Benoit has run the Marathon of Philadelphia in order to see how the mental is stronger than the physics in such a case (see My coach). Meeting the dead-lines for a project is sometimes like finishing a Marathon!! 

the Berbers' World

Hello everybody!

I am just coming back from Morocco where I went for a trekking in the Atlas Mountains. It was fantastic! Let me introduce you the Berber world.
I welcome you for a little trip in the magical country of Morocco, country full of charms and contrast! You're guaranteed exotic new surroundings! Just follow me...

Download trek_berber_pdf_2.pdf

Download trek_berber_pdf_2.pdf

The two Morocco

As you might have seen, I really enjoyed everything I have seen. However, I discovered one thing: there are two Morocco!

One is the well-known Morocco, popular with tourists. The second one is to be discovered along the less travelled roads.
The first one has made Morocco made for its hassles and its scams. Most of the time, in Marrakech, one feels like, if it was not for money, the local people would have nothing to do with the traveller. Indeed, it seems that friendship here is not given freely, but bought and sold. This can be a discouraging experience, leaving one feeling like an unwelcome outsider. I know lots of people who feel really disappointed of their trip to Morocco for they only discover one face of this multifaceted country.

The second one is the Morocco of quiet villages, never empty tea pots, and open-armed hospitality. The stranger receives endless invitations to share a meal, attend traditional festivities, and sleep in the simple homes of the Berber people with a natural incomparable. 
"The other Morocco" can be found in the villages of the Atlas Mountains, a stunningly beautiful and rugged range of mountains. Stone, mud and pisé settlements and cascading terraced fields line the stream beds of this high, dry, and rocky terrain. Shepherds for the most part children traverse the countryside with their flocks, without forgetting to say a great “Bonjour” as they hardly have seen us. Women work the fields in kaleidoscope coloured dresses, babies slung on their backs. They live in the mountains in dignity making the most of everything it gives them and adapting their way of living to the area. Living among them is a really life advice I am not likely to forget. I feel as they offered much more than I gave to them. One last word: Choukrane!!

Download trek_berber_pdf_2.pdf

What about playing Lego?

Coach, they ask me another odd question: what is the link between your job and a Lego game?
As I am sure they don’t think you spend your time playing with your son at work, in any case, he is too young! I think they are considering Lego in a more metaphoric way! What do you think about it?

For sure! Have you ever played with Lego?

Yes, I used to playing with it with my brother when I was younger. It was really a pleasure to create personages and to make them live.

You used the key word: creation! What do my job as to do with Lego? I have to create, to apply rules and to make sure projects would be achieved.
Consequently, when a new rule is deployed in Alcan, I have to make sure that every thing is done so that it could be easily applied in the site. Sometimes, I have to adapt to the situation and to the particular requirement. The innovation can also be part of the interpretation of the rule to make it suited easier to the today’s work of everyone. The satisfaction of each part: workers, direction, inspectors…is the purpose of the work I am in charge of for both my ESH job and CI job. It requires a high quality of adaptation because finding an alternative solution is not always easy!
For example, on one hand the rule that should be applied would be a higher protection against fire and on the other hand, the client would like to go on with using chemicals products as he is used to, without be bothered with your new rules. I have to manage to convince him into accepting it.

Your job has to do with diplomacy, hasn't it?

Yes, sometimes. But no concessions are to be admitted when it deals with security; only alternative solutions can be found. Remember the way we consider security in Alcan! I also have to find new solutions to control risks and to minor it. The most important question is what might be done for everything to be even better both for clients and workers.

Yes, I could have seen during my Alcan Day that Security was the leitmotiv of Alcan policy! I remember the first thing you told me was how to go out of the site in case of emergency! Do you sometimes take the initiative of rules or do you only apply and adapt Alcan’rules?

I sometimes have to be innovative when it deals with applying a higher level of security. It is part of a three steps process called proactivity:

• curatives rules
• corrective rules
• preventive rules

To illustrate it let’s take the example of your car. A curative action would be to change your tyre when you have a puncture on the highway, a corrective action would be to take your car to the garage because your fog light is weak and a preventive action would be to change your car because you know it is a trash!!! The purpose of all the process is to raise the three steps from the curative one to the preventive one to become more reactive and more flexible. To do so, each incident has to be taken into account and several lessons should be drawn from it to improve the process. The key words of the process are flexibility and innovation. Within the contest of my continuous improvement work, I organize meeting during which we thing about everything that should be improve in the site.

Yes, I attended such a meeting during my Alcan Day! It was the first time that managers from anything: production, quality, Human resources… had had a meeting in which they were all able to expose  their vision of the site. You took a great initiative organising such a meeting!

Thanks, such a meeting will now take place twice a year in order to organize new projects.

If I knew I was working as an engineer playing Lego when I was younger!!

Juggling with languages?

Hello! As we are asked to talk about the international aspect of our coach, I've decided to show you how it is to juggle with many languages so that you could understand how enriching it is but also how difficult sometimes! Consequently, I have written every section in a different language. You will find Portuguese, Malagasy, German, Chinese, Italian and French!!!!! However, there is a link to a more “conventional” text, all written in English! To see it, click here:

Download english_version_pdf_2.pdf

A primeira porta aberta para o mundo de meu supervisor foi a fábrica que ele teve que administrar no Brasil como responsável pelo meio-ambiente, saúde e segurança (EHS), e pelo desenvolvimento contínuo (CIC). Se você quiser mais informaçoes sobre o seu trabalho, veja o post sobre o dia Alcan. Ele é responsável por três fábricas: Challes, onde eu fui para meu dia Alcan, Plouhinec, na Bretanha, e Sâo Paulo, no Brasil!! Por causa disso, ele tem que viajar para lá constantemente. Trabalho chato esse, né? Como deve ser ruim ir para um pais tao interessante (peça para a Aline, a brasileira que participa do WAC, sua opiniao sobre isso!!!)!
Entretanto, trabalhar em um país tao diferente nao deve se reduzir a uma simples visita mensal! A diferença de culturas acaba por causar grande parte do trabalho, porque uma regra posta em prática em Challes ou Plouhinec pode nao ser adequada para a fábrica de Sao Paulo e vice-versa. A cultura acaba fazendo parte do trabalho. Benoît entra em contato com Sao Paulo diariamente, por emails ou por telefone, em inglês principalmente, porque o português nao é uma das línguas que ele fala melhor!

Tsy i Benoît irery ihany akory no miandraikitra sites samihafa amin’ny firenena samihafa. Nambarany tamiko tokoa mantsy fa misy EHS sy CI iray hafa koa monina any Milan, izay miandraikitra ihany koa ny site ao Barcelone ary site iray hafa eto Frantsa! Izany ka andraikitra mivelatra amin’ny vazan-tany efatra! Mitsinjara ho sokajy jeographika vitsivitsy ny Business Unit, ary ireo dia misahana firenena vitsivitsy.
Mifandray amina olona miandraikitra EHS sy CI toa azy i Benoit. Ireny dia miparitaka manerana izao tontolo izao, ary BU isan-karazany no misy azy, toy ny aluminium, packaging, sns. Misy ny fivoriana izay ahafahan-dry zareo miresaka momba ny asa ataony amin’ny BU misy azy avy, sy manazava ny fomba fijeriny ny asa ataony. Ireny fivoriana ireny, na ny an’ny EHS izany na ny an’ny CI, dia atao in-droa isan-taona. Afaka mandray izany daholo rehefa site, na aiza na aiza misy azy eto ambony tany – iray volana lasa izay, ohatra, dia tany Atlanta no natao ny fivorian’ny CI! Tsy ratsy an! Ary tamin’ny taon-dasa kosa dia teto Frantsa. Azo heverina fa manamora ny fifandraisana iraisam-pirenena ireny, satria olona avy amin’ny vazan-tany efatra no miara-mandinika raharaha iombonana. Noho izany, mazava ho azy fa teny Anglisy no ampiasaina! Raha ny teny Anglisy aloha, dia isan-andro vaky izao no ampiasain’i Benoît azy, na izany hiresahina amin’ny vahiny, na hamakiana antonta-taratasy avy amina BU hafa. Izay no takalony, rehefa mpikambana amina vondrona iraisam-pirenena ny tena, indrindra moa izany fa vondrona Kanadiana!

Die allerletzte Verbindung zu internationalem, jede Leute in der
Gruppe muss mit fertig werden, was auch immer seine Funktion ist, ist
die angelsächsische Weise des Denkens, die in den Richtlinien
wahrgenommen werden kann. Es ist manchmal besonders schwierig für
ex-Pechiney Aufstellungsorte, ihre französische Weise des
Denkens bis das kanadische anzupassen.

他并且有一次月度电话会议与美国和亚裔EHS 经理使他意识到什么发生在另一边行星没有行动。新通信手段变换基本的定义国际。我了解为什么大家继续说英语是真正地重要在学校。国际不仅去登上, 国际来在您的书桌上!
既使您总不能来到国际, 国际意志来到您!

L'altro lato della moneta: Benoît ha ritornato appena da Sao Paulo,
quando lo ho telefonato ultimo venerdì. Gli ho chiesto circa il suo
getto-ritardisi, appena mi dicesse che non avesse tempo per
getto-ritardisi!!!Vivà il caffé!!!

Voilà, j'espère que ça vous a plu. C'est ça l'International! Prétendre être ouvert sur le monde, c'est aussi ne pas avoir peur de passer d'une langue à l'autre, d'une culture à l'autre et savoir s'adapter à chacune. La difficulté rend le défi encore plus enrichissant et le jeu en vaut la chandelle?!!

Now, go on with the English version?!!!

Download english_version_pdf_2.pdf

Alcan Employee or owner of a Chinese Restaurant?

Coach, they ask me an odd question, they might be kidding: they want me to ask you if you have any clients and suppliers! They maybe have forgotten that you work as an engineer, you are not a commercial person!

I am working as an engineer but I do have clients and suppliers!

What!!! You own a bakery during the week end or what? So that you have your own clients and suppliers, you have hidden that to me haven’t you?
Does Alcan know you have you own business? Clients and suppliers!!! They will one day happen to know it and you don’t know what they can do…

Every employee at Alcan has clients and suppliers!

What! You all have clients and suppliers! Is it a fashion? Are you sure you are not working in a grocery? Who are your clients for example?

As I told you during your Alcan Day, I am in charge of two different functions:

• ESH: Environment, Health and Security
• Continuous improvement 

Let’s focus on the first one:
I have to make sure that the factory respect both France and Alcan legislation upon Security. My suppliers are not less than …laws and governments!! I consequently have to be sure that both Alcan rules of conduct or demands and particular laws of the country in which the site is planted are respected. When I am talking about Alcan, it is Alcan Inc, but also Alcan Packaging, Alcan Packaging Beauty and the site. The demands are increasingly specific and may differ a little. My clients are leaders ESH of the site who are supposed to apply the rules and the head of the site who is the final responsible in case at issue.

It is clearer in this way! And what about your work as a Continuous improvement manager?

As you know, I have to select, train and coach people in charge with projects aiming at solving problems dealing with time of development, costs, service given to customers and quality of the product, decreasing its variability and the scrap rate.
Consequently, my suppliers are again Alcan, the site and the Business Unit. Alcan gives me the methodology I have to cope with and the site and the Business Unit (Alcan Packaging Beauty) give me the raw material: contents of the project, data and information. I have forgotten one supplier: the person in charge of Human Resources who provide me of Black Belts who will be in charge with the project.

I don’t think I really understand!!!

To give you a metaphor, imagine that I am the owner of a Chinese restaurant! My suppliers are the one who let me cook a meat, Alcan would be the suppliers of bowls, the Business Unit and the site would provide me of rice, meat, dresser and the person in charge with Human Resources gives me the cooker… The first gives the means you can’t see eating a meal, the second one the ingredients and the third the staff.

I was quite right you were working in a bakery!!! And what about your clients?

My clients are the head of the site, all the comity of direction of the Business Unit and the sponsors of the projects. The sponsors are answerable and accountable for the projects you have chosen. They monitor the project.

To sum up, if I understand well: to go on with your metaphor, the meal would be the project and the customer would be the Head of the site who would take advantage of the improvement the project would generate and the sponsor who would pay for him to it!

Exactly! The key word of the process is the added-value the project will generate. If there is no value-added, everyone in the line I have mentioned is useless!

It would be exactly the same thing for the restaurant: if you don’t cook your ingredients or if you are a bad cooker, there would be no customer any longer.

My Coach : Benoît Larade

Hi everybody, I am going to introduce you the engineer who has guided my very first steps into the frightening world of firms. Brrrh!

His name is Benoît Larade, he is 28 years old. We got along very well for he loves sports and travels as I do, even if he is much more athletic than I am (you’ll see it during the interview). He is authentic, dynamic and hard-working but I am still wondering how he manages to juggle with both familial and working priorities.
He does a job I would like to do as he has the eventful and international career-path I would like to have. Thank you so much, Benoît, for your warm welcome among your team. I really enjoyed being an Alcan employee.

How come have you come to Challes ?
I have spent five years in New York. I wanted to come back to France to be closer to my family and friends. We moved to Challes in July.

You said “we”?
Yes. “We” includes my wife and my son, Amélien who has just tuned 1 year. (I have seen him, he is so cute!!)

How long have you been working for Alcan and what are you in charge with?
I have been working for Techpack, bought out by Pechiney, itself bought out by Alcan so that I haven’t been working for Alcan much time. Currently, I am an ESH manager & Continuous Improvement Champion. (see the report on Alcan Day for translation)

What do you like in your job?
What I like is that it is really various. I am in charge of two different functions that enables me to cope with environmental and security issues in the same way as relationship issues. I have to cope with three different sites Challes and Plouhinec in France and Sao Paulo in Brazil. It enables me to travel a lot. My first function is really close to what I have always wanted to do as a student: dealing with environment problems but the other function is really rewarding. It deals with everything that makes the emulsion of a group that is the real strength of a firm. We don t add up capacities of each person, forming a group but we multiply them. It makes the management of humans thrilling. 

Apart from your job, what do you enjoy doing?
Everything that provokes a little bit of adrenalin! I enjoy skiing, surfing, climbing, karting. I used to organize kart competitions at school. I used to do a lot of squash too. I climbed in Central Park when I was in New-York, there was a wall and a huge rock on which we could climb. It was really great to climb in such conditions. I try to do as much sport as I can even if it is sometimes quite difficult to juggle with my job and my family! I like to go running during the week-end. I took part in the Marathon of Philadelphia in 2002! We were no more than 4565 participants. I was the 3106th (not bad, is it!!) without any training. I just wanted to experiment the impact of psychological aspect against physical aspect during such a difficult strenth test. I wanted to put the stress on the superiority of moral compared to physical. The real purpose was to convince myself that I was able to take part in raids in the future and to anticipate the problems that could appear among a team during such a test. I would be really interested in doing a raid but it is sometimes difficult to motive people! I hope I will one day be able to realize it. Doing a raid is a perfect experience of management of people. The mental state is fundamental. If people among the team don’t get along perfectly, the team can’t win. I think the spirit of sport is also really useful in a firm. Sport learn you how to react confroncted to difficulties and show you your own limits.

You said you have lived in New-York, have you been living somewhere else, in an exotic place?
I am coming from the suburbs of Paris, a place called Pontoise and I moved to New-York just after the end of my studies and you know the following steps!! I have been travelling across the United States and Canada when I was on holidays. I also went to Mexico, which is a really nice place. I would like to visit Italia and Greece for these two countries have cultures that are thrilling.

Where have you done your studies?
I have been studying at EBI (Ecole de Biologie Industrielle: School of Industrial Biology) which is a school in 5 years in which I have learned about environment, genetics, marketing, industrial engineering… I was really interested in industrial engineering in which it enables us to create, for example, a line of production of yogurts without anything at the beginning. If you want further information about it, check the web-site: www.ebi-edu.com

Which languages do you speak?
I speak French, English and Spanish. Speaking different languages is really important for we live in a world without any borders and it is a kind of respect to people when you are doing an effort to speak their own language. They are generally really sensitive to it and it can make easier commercial trades. Learning languages, you learn to think differently. It helps becoming open-minded.

Why do you wake up every day?
To see my child growing up, to take part to his education, to see him improving his walk…
It definitely turns me the most on my life. My job is also a great motivation for me. 

A very last question: Why have you agreed on being a coach for WeAllCan?
I would have liked to have had such an opportunity, when I was a student, of discovering the world of firms in such a way. I think students are not really aware of what is an engineer or a commercial real work, so that it is important to let them know!!

My Alcan Day or How to take part in a real engineer’s life?

I was told I was about to meet an ESH Manager & CIC (CI manager), gloups I said! What on earth can it deals with??? It sounded to me even worth than Chinese (because I am learning it), it sounded like biblical Hebrew!!! So I took the bull by the horns and tried to understand these strange initials. It happens to be comprehensible, you will see:
first ESH, it means: Environment, Health and Security and Manager…no, you won’t make me believe you don’t know what it is!
Then, CIC : Continuous Improvement Champion this is less transparent but you will understand later I promise you.

Alcan Packaging Challes

Where is Challes?

What you don’t know this famous tiny little village of more than…300 inhabitants! The contrary would have astonished me! The next question would be what a group like Alcan is doing in the middle of nowhere? There are some historical reasons that have resulted in such a choice. Indeed, there used to be a familial firm linked to perfume there, that happened to be bought out by Techpack itself bought out later by Pechiney, itself bought out last year by Alcan! What an action-packed serial! It explains the presence of a Canadian Group in the very countryside of France. As the building used to be a familial firm, the office are in a pretty huge house renovated and the meeting room is an attic room which gives an original atmosphere.

What do they package?

You know the perfume Kenzoki by Kenzo or Angel?
Famous perfumes aren’t they? You might even have one of them at home! It’s Alcan Packaging!!!
They are working with famous customers like P&G, Yves St Laurent, LVMH (Guerlain-Christian Dior), Paco Rabanne…

How do they work?

These customers are developing a new perfume and they want to design it in a great way so that we might be longing to buying it. They ask Alcan to concretize their dream. The team in charge with management of project try to see the problems they might have to cope with, such as problems to remove from the mould or problems dealing with the screw. They also give the customer some idea of the cost so that they can change their mind or accept the production.
The staff production go into operation to make their best to create the mould as quick as possible. Generally, it takes 4 to 6 months for the very first perfume bottle to go out the factory since the demand of the customer had been laid on the desk of the management of project staff.

How was my day and a half among them?

Great!!! I have learned about so many subjects such as the development of a new product, the relationships between the different units of a factory, how to manage a meeting….how to survive with coffee in intravenous injection! I have never drunk so much coffee in one day!

I arrived at about midday on the 21st of March in Le Mans; I took a taxi to go to Challes which is at about 20 kilometres and I met my coach! The first thing he told me ( after of course welcoming me) was : how to get out of the factory in emergency case !!! Where we were supposed to meet after the evacuation and he gave me a plan of the factory.  Always security words to introduce the Alcan spirit!

After lunch, we visited the entire factory, I have seen every structure needed to create a new perfume bottle: accountants, management of project team, staff production, commercials, person in charge with Human Resources, conception of machines and of course the machines!!! To go in the factory, I had to wear a beautiful blouse (it doesn’t change a lot, I am used to wearing it in Organic Chemistry practical work) with a mobcap I am less used to wearing! These rules are both for security and hygienic precautions. You would not agree if there would be a hair in the middle of your perfume bottle. The visit allowed me to follow the entire process of the product line: formation of pieces, moulding, assembling of pieces with the use of ultrasonic sound, filling of perfume bottle. In each step, the product is drastically controlled to avoid any default.
The perfume stopper also called "lining" are made of polypropylene which is a very useful polymer for it has thermoplastic properties. I could make you a real polymer class as I am studying their properties, formation mechanism … (thank to Bernadette, my Polymer teacher) but I don’t really think this is the subject of this blog. However, if you are interested in it you can ask me questions, I would answer with pleasure. As the polypropylene is white, some colorants are generally added. However, as you might have seen it in your favourite shop, the very latest fashion is working on transparency. Something funny: as we, as customers think we have bought more perfume than we have paid for, they load down the bottle so that it seems more heavy.
I have a great half day in a real engineer shoes, discovering a world far away from what us, students, are used to.

What do my coach do?

As I said at the beginning of the blog, my coach is in charge of environment, security and health so that he manages a team created to see to it that these three key words are at the root of the firm economic development policy. As they used to be a Pechiney firm, they have to adapt to new rules. They have to make sure that the factory respect both France and Alcan legislation upon Security. They have to make the workforce sensitive to the problem of security: wear of ear-plugs when needed, mobcaps… They try to reduce the detritus, recycling the polypropylene and improving the selective sorting. They also try to improve the working conditions.

My coach is also in charge of the continuous improvement. It is where you learn what it is!
In brief, he has to display Lean Six Sigma methodologies. It is much clearer isn’t it?!!
Lean brings tools aiming at decreasing time of development, costs… Causes of delay and steps with no added-value should be identified in order to improve the line.
Six Sigma means improving the service given to customers and the quality of the product, decreasing its variability and the scrap rate.
Consequently, Benoît Larade has to select, train and coach people in charge of projects aiming at solving such problems. There are two categories of people, first, the Black Belt, totally devoted to the project and the Green Belt, who spend only 15 to 20 % of their time in the project. It is linked to Martial Arts.Consequently, there are also two types of training.

How to manage a meeting?

During my Alcan Day, I attended a meeting dealing with the selection of projects that will be followed. It was really interesting and formative. Such a meeting takes place twice a year in Challes. It aims at creating a group of discussion on a subject and at bringing different people from different part of the market to talk to each others. There were Production managers, Black Belts, Human Resources managers, Quality managers… They were altogether to find solutions to problems. The meeting was really interactive, the problems they dealt with was so far away from my, as any student, every day preoccupations!! They have to juggle with customers’ satisfaction, employees’ satisfaction, market…But they were also …games!!! Indeed, they had to fill in the gaps in a phrase, supposed to sum up all the meeting, put some post-it on a graph where the benefits of propositions were plotted against the efforts that would have to be set up to realize them. To explain the rule of the game, we had to say how much money we had and where we were hiding it. If it was in a bag it was considered to be difficult to steal but easy to steal if it was in the pocket (I did not have any pocket so the deal was done!!). The graph represented the benefit a thief would do against the difficulty he would have to steal. I also learned that managing a meeting respecting timing and trying to make it as constructive as possible was really hard. Should we leave a problem aside to keep to the timing or try to run through every subject to jump to a conclusion? I think the biggest difference between being a student and working in a firm is that in the first case, facing a problem in practical work for example, we react the same way because we have for most of us the same career path, whereas in a firm, people have a different way of thinking because they all see the problem differently for they all belong to different units of the firm. It makes a work team stronger but harder to manage and sometimes the meeting turns into a ping pong game!!! I would like to sum up what was said during the meeting but it is confidential, Hé Hé Hé! No I won’t talk even under torture!!!

come back to school (Snif!)

I have just done my Alcan Day. How to describe it in one word ? Interessentissimo!!!

I have learned so much things about the today's life in a firm, that will become one day our today's life! I will tell you everything soon! See you.

Tomorow is my Alcan Day!!!

Hi everybody!

How do you do? Are you looking forward to hearing about my Alcan Day with Benoît Larade ? I will tell you everything next week since I am going to Le Mans to learn much  about my coach's job tomorow. I hope I will see you later on my blog!!