Lionel's Blog

THANKS !!

Thanks to all people that I met during the Program and make it so pleasant :
Marcus Mölkner who brought the most important contribution to the blog ; Agnes Garbe, his assistant; all the people I met in Landau (they can see their photos on the Blog !)
Sandrine, who is the "brain" of WeAllCan; Angélique, who always answered immediately to our questions,

AND THE OTHER BLOGGERS , who contributed to make the program so interesting !

A NEW EXPERIENCE : WEALLCAN

Up to now I had different experiences abroad and in France, in international Groups as well as in small businesses.
WeAllCan has a special role in my experience because it enables me to grasp immediately what was the job of Continuous Improvement Champion and to see how the firm Alcan is running.
It enables me to speak with people that I couldn't have met during an internship for instance; and I could have a general view of the CI job that it is impossible to have outside the program.
To sum up it is an experience that it is impossible to have through an internship.

But it is necessary to have a general view of the program !
- the "selection" : it is a good thing to have selected different people from different origins : technical, business ... I am actually student at EMLYON and I will attend Ecole Centrale next week to follow a program in the Industry Sector : It is this mix of various culture which is very interesting.
In an International Group everyone must be in touch with people from Finance, HR, Technic ... who have different way of thinking. The Program already offers an experience.
- the organization : ALCAN opens its doors to the students. You are welcome in the company and everyone is eager to show you his job !
- the Company : the program enables me to have a first sight within the company. I had no clue about the sort of industrial company in which I would like to work in 1 year ... The program shows me many opportunities which are really tempting !
- the priviligied contact with a Manager : what is really interesting in this experience is the close contact, the connivance I had with Mr Mölkner: before going into a company there are many things you would like to know ... and you cannot ask to people who present the company in a Forum for instance.

You are a Student ?? Some advices !!

About WeAllCan :

If you can try the experience, do not hesitate !!
Alcan is a huge Group in an industrial sector that often put off students from famous Universities who are more interesting in Consulting ...
This program is an extraordinary way to have a first experience in such a company. Personally I didn't have any bias about an industrial company (it is easy to understand as I want to work in a factory in the future), but it gives me really a different view on the sector :
as Mr Mölkner likes to say : "you must remain open-minded and open to new experiences!".

About Alcan :

I wanted to see how it is running a former french company which has just been bought by an Canadian one. I was surprised ! Nothing has changed ! It offers the same opportunities and everyone must be able to grasp them if he wants to evolve ... as with Pechiney !

About Continuous Improvement :

CI is something really new (it becomes now a specific field in the courses at the university ...) that has a blooming future : indeed it is always interesting to gain time and productivity without spending money ... it is the dream of each firm ...
I hope you would be able to have a general view of this Job through my Blog, and it might create vocations ...

Interview of a Champion ...

- Lionel : Could you please give a short definition of the CI Champion job ?
- Marcus :  The CI Champion is accountable for the development and delivery of the Continuous Improvement initiative within his/her business area.

- Lionel : Could you indicate me the key people with whom you work ?
- Marcus : There are 2 sets of people:
. Line managers: General managers, plant managers, department managers....
. CI community: Black Belts, Green Belts, other CI champions

- Lionel: I found the experience very interesting and I would like to become a CI Champion too : how can I do ?
- Marcus : Industrial work experience is a must, an additional business background is beneficial.

- Lionel : Is a previous experience necessary ?
- Marcus : Yes, absolutely.

- Lionel : And then, if you are a Champion, how can you evolve from this function within the firm ?
- Marcus : Both ways are open: move up the functional path (CI champion -> CI director) or return to an operational job as manager (of course, this depends on your experience prior to becoming CI champion)

- Lionel : Could you give the different activities you are frequently doing in you function ?

- Marcus : There are different activities

-> Coach Black and Green Belts, supervise CI projects: 25%
-> Organize training sessions: 20%
-> Conduct project selection workshops: 10%
-> Track results and report: 10%
-> Assist management in implementing CI: 10%
-> Communicate CI: 10%
-> Select Black Belts: 5%
-> Others: 10%

- Lionel : Which are the necessary Qualities to be a Champion?
- Marcus : there are 3 main qualities :                  

->Leadership skills: leading change with enthusiasm for Continuous Improvement
-> Team work: team player with passion for excellence
-> Strong organizer and good communicator

- Lionel : Thanks a lot

CI : an everyday Challenge

- A key Job in the strategy of Alcan

The Ci Champion is nowadays a key job in the strategy of Alcan. It is a key job because it is central in the politic of the firm to gain productivity and to remain competitive.
Each project of the CI Champion evolve within different departments (HR, Production, Finance, Legal ...) that force him to movbe the different pieces of the puzzle to reach the performance.

Each CI Project has an original place in the strategy of Alcan : the fact that it is seen as a promotion to join a Black Belt (= a Continuous Improvement Team in charge of a specific Project) can easily prove it.

- How to remain motivated and productive ?

To separate your professional life with your family life is the best way to remain motivated.
Mr Mölkner has always kept a large part of his time for his family and his 2 children : is it possible to be concentrated 100% of the time in one thing ?
It is essential to see different thing to remain productive : to be open-minded is an other mean to remain motivated. To read (books, newpapers...), to be informed (on new methods ...) is a way to stay open to new problems, to search the best solutions and the perfection in a work !

An other way for Marcus Mölkner to be open-minded is to grasp each opportunities that are possible to find : to have new responsibilities (such as in the "Future option" Project that we have seen in the previous post!), or to change job are the best way to be always motivated for a Function !
Indeed Mr Mölkner meet continuously new challenges ... that urge him to be motivated.

- Challenge

To force oneself to never be satisfied : it is the best way to remain motivated.
It is always possible to discover new concurrents that will be able in the future to compete with us. And it is essential to stay alert !

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT & ALCAN

In the middle of Alcan Stategy

ALCAN defined his strategy through the AIMS (Alcan Integrated Management System) that shows the focus of the company on the commitment to environment, health and safety and the continuous improvement of business processes.
This system is the witness of the core value of the group.
But the most important strategy of the group is to maximize value : the strategic goal is to double the value of the firm each 5 years.
All these objectives (EHS First / maximizing value) must be implemented by Continuous Improvement : whereas the EHS First and Maximizing value are the objectives, Continuous Improvment helps to reach these goals.
The role of the Continuous Improvement is to bring ideas to implement the strategy.

CI : benefits for the growth of the firm

Alcan such as other companies can growth through acquisition : it is often necessary but never enough to enable performance in a company.
Morevover acquisitions are very expensive ... (it is good to have money ... but it really better to be able to spare it!)
That's why many things are at stake concerning the internal growth ; and Continuous Improvement has a great role to play.
CI enables internal growth combined with few expense.
Indeed CI is not an objective, but it helps to achieve business objectives.

The sinew of war

The role of CI Champion

Within the role of the CI Champion it is necessary to differenciate innovation/ creativity. Creativity is essential in the function of Marcus Mölkner: the Black Belt Projects that I described below are aimed to develop new solutions for specific problems.
But it is the creativity that must be taken into account because nothing new is created ! The Black Belt Project can modify a production line to be more efficient, or it can change a process in order to reduce delays !
Innovation is something different : it is a new technology, or a new product that can be implemented.

One Other role of Markus Mölkner : Manager of Innovation

Alcan has implemented a new project to improve Innovation within the group : the Future Option.
Mr Mölkner is responsible for the project within the factories of Extructed Product (the 9 factories for which he is responsible). This project aims to seek for innovation, that is to say to seek for new ideas.
The principle is to create a structure that is able to study each new idea. All people are participating to this new program : from workers to managers ...
The principle is to implement different checks (called "gates") to test every new idea : if the different tests (to check the validity of the idea) are succeded, RD teams are going deeper in the development of the idea that can lead to a commercial application.
The interest of such process is to involve the whole organisation in  an process of innovation. Everyone must participate ...

Innovation : the sinews of war

Today innovation is a central subject in most of companies. It is easy to understand !
There is a strong competition between countries worldwide : in Europe it is all the more important that the labor costs are really higher than within the eastern counrtries for instance.

If the firms want to remain competitive, they must reduce costs (it is always possible but it has limits), or they must be INNOVATIVE !
Besides a group such as Alcan must be able to propose new product to their clients to be continuously able to answer to their needs.

How to create innovation?

wHow to become a Champion ? if you are better than others !
How to become a CI Champion ? if you have more ideas than others !

A creator of innovation : the son of Socrate
The most important tool of Mr Mölkner is his neurons !
As you have already understood he produces nothing, only ideas !
He is an "ideabirth assistant" ! He is an "Innovation Producer" : that's why innovation is very important in the CI Champion job too.

During the workshops he is in charge to conduct debates and help people to define problem : To define problem is the fist step on the way of innovation.
Then Mr Mölknet is in charge of creating and training teams whose only aim his to be innovative : to find solutions !

An innovative Job
In his work methods, the Ci Champion must be innovative too. He must help people to find problem, to highligh problems !
So he must be innovative to bring people to find new problems. He must be innovative to pinpoint the problems.

He uses a Method for innovation !The DMAIC Method which help ideas to be born : Define - Measure - Analyse - Improve - Control. Due to each step of the method he analyses problems and bring people to find solutions, to find innovation.

International : Many funny memories ...

Mr Mölkner must be able to adapt oneself to different culture such as a chameleon ...
But it is not a new thing for him :as I had already told you we worked for a british company, he leaded project in India, he worked for a french company in Germany .... and now for canadian  ...
German, French, ... they have all different methods of working and systems of thinking ! If the CI Champion cannot adapt, he cannot do his job !

Short Stories ...

German / Indian

As I already explained you Mr Mölkner worked for a british company. He was in charge of a project in India.
He keep in mind from this experience the extraordinary fatalism of Indians : there are really resigned to their fate !
He had worked 6 weeks on the project and Indians told him that if it was running, it was due to God that had decide that ! It was not his competencies, but this one of God !

And if it was not running , it was the same thing : it was due to God; nothing to do to hinder that !

German / French

He had organised a visit of french engineers on a german factory near Berlin.
Their plane landed to AM 12:00 and they must go directly to the factory : their arrival was planned for 13:00.
Germans waited up to 15:00 before seeing the french engineers ... they had taken time for Lunch ... As the factory closed at 16:00 , you can imagine that the first day was not really profitable ...

An International Job

We can continue to explore the job of Continuous Improvement Champion ....

Landau
Burg
Crailsheim
Singen
Decin
Ham
St-Florentin
Nuits St-Georges
Sierre

That's the 9 Plants for which Mr Mölkner is responsible !
So it is easy to understand that International take an important place in his job.

1- Trips 
Markus Mölkner must be a Globetrotter who continuously goes from one country to another.

2- Telephon call
Switching from German, to English or French from one call to another is something easy ... (or seems to be easy ...)

3- Animation of Workshops
The Continuous Improvement Champion must be able to speak the different languages of the staff in each Plant.
Indeed in order to not hinder the good communication within the Workshop the different participants must speak their native language to be sure that the problems are really understood and defined.
That's why the Ci Champion must adapt oneself.

4- Work methods

Work methos can change from one place to another, and the culture too !!

French / German : Work Methods

Difference between the two countries are really important and easy to see.
It is really important to know these differences to conduct a meeting or a Workshop!
In a Workshop, French prefer to concentrate in reflexion, to define problem.In contrary to German who are more pragmatic and concret. That's why the role of the CI Champion is to conciliate this two characteristics in order to reach more interesting results.

Clients/Suppliers : Who is supplier?

In order to go deeper in the view of the function of Continuous Improvement Champion, we can try to see his environment that is to say persons with which he is working.
Who are these persons? Is he working with clients ? with suppliers ?

As I explained you, Markus Mölkner is responsible for Continuous Improvement in 9 factories.
His role can be considered as the job of a consultant (in term of clients/suppliers) !

CLIENTS

It is the Plant Management team, that is to say all the directors (Production, Purchasing, HR...)
They gather during a Workshop (as decribed below!) and they present their problems. They need products to solve these problems. These "products" are CI Projects that aim to find solutions; that's why the Management Team can be considered as the client.

(You can see they have problems ...)

So the function of CI Champion can be placed in a classical scheme of Market:
- Need : problems to solve
- Product : the implementation of CI teams (Black or Green Belts)
- Clients : those who have problems : the Management Team

SUPPLIERS

It's not so easy to define suppliers. It is the same problem as for the Consulting companies or people who only use neurons ... : who are the suppliers? only those who supply equipment? as I explained during my ALCAN DAY, "Post-it" is the most important supplier of the CI Champion ...

Supplier are really more numerous ... and it is in fact all the partners with which he can work to reach its aims.
As I mentionned, the "product" is the CI teams that Mr Mölkner is in charge to create in the plants. The objective in the future is to create 18 Black Belt Projects and 112 Green Belt Projects. So he needs "stuff" to create these teams: that's why the real suppliers of Mr Mölkner are Employees ... all the Employees of the 9 Plants because each of them must be trained to the CI Problems.
To create the CI Teams (each team is composed of 5 or 6 persons), Mr Mölkner need employees: these Employees are chosen between the most reliable employees (Becoming a Black Belt Member is considered as a mean to boost one's career, because it's one part of the politic to manage High Potential Managers within the Group).
Suppliers are all the employees : Managers and workers from different departments : Finance, HR, Production, Purchasing ... because you can find CI Projects in each of these sectors !