Nicolas' Blog

Leaving Saint-Etienne and leaving Weallcan

Hi everyone!

This is my last post. Today, I leave Saint-Etienne for the south of France to do my internship and the Weallcan program stops on next Wednesday.

I want this post to be a Good Bye one.

I would like to thank my coach. His carreer was very interesting to me. He started to work as I could have imagined before my Alcan day but his carreer was impressive. He travelled a lot to put into practise his managerial skills in Australia and in France. I will remember that when you are talented, an international group easily trusts you and makes you travel all over the world. Jean-Robert is currently working in Dunkerque Primary Metals works. He is the manager of Maintenance and Engineering. I mainly discovered his job as the manager of maintenance: his goal is to make the installations work the longer they can. To succeed, he has two ways: to improve the machines and to improve the organisation of the teams in charge of the fixing.

It is always difficult to me to think about what an experience brought me because I must remember what I used to think before the experience. I believe, I did not know that there was so many opportunities to work in different places and in different jobs. I met young engineers who had already worked in 3 works.

I would like to thank the WAC team for having given me the opportunity to meet Jean-Robert. I think that it will be difficult to me to take part to the final event of the Weallcan program.

Good Bye everyone!

Nicolas    

Welcome on my blog

This is my blog dedicated to my experience of one day with an engineer at Alcan "my coach".

On the left, in Recent Posts, you have the list of these posts:

In the post "About me", "About my coach" and "My Alcan day", you'll be able to discover who I am and who I met and discover during the Alcan day.

In the other posts, I told about different topic: International, Innovation, Team work and Clients and Suppliers.    

The role of my coach in his team

For the topic of the week, we were asked to talk about the role of your coach in his team.

I can tell about the role of my coach as the manager of maintenance because I saw him most of the time working for maintenance.

I think that in most of the projects in which he was involved, he was the inititator of the project. His experiences enable him to bring new concepts in the works in which he is currently working. But it is his only role, since he must also steadily show his commitment with his projects to his team. Once, I attended a meeting with Jean-Robert. He said to me that he was there just to show that it was important and almost didn't say anything during this meeting.

As far as the daily problems are concerned, Jean-Robert has the role of coordinator: he chooses who is going to qualify and quantify the problem and who is going to put the solution in practice.      

As I met many people working with Jean-Robert, I asked them how Jean-Robert interacts with their work. They said to me that Jean-Robert just gave discretly pieces of advice. Nowadays, manager does not give orders anymore. Jean-Robert trusts the people who assist him in his work and just shows them the way to the solution.

Finally, I would like to say that Jean-Robert seems to be very careful and tactful with his team, even if I saw him working only 2 days.

Feel free to post comments and questions!

Nicolas

    

Innovation

Hi everyone! The topic of the week is "Innovation".

I remember that I have already written in a cover letter something like "To my mind, an engineer finds new solutions or at least puts solutions in place". I do believe that innovation is the prerogative of engineers. It is what motivates people who want to become engineers.

As the manager of Engineering, Jean-Robert has many projects to improve the process. I can not tell about the examples he told me about because they are significant improvement that should not be given to other aluminium producers so that Aluminium Dunkerque remains competitive. You should just understand that it concerns technical details that helps keeping the installations working longer and faster.

As the manager of maintenance, Jean-Robert must find new solutions to improve the reliability of the machines. This is something which is obviously unvisible: to foresse or to prevent breakdown. Or there is another way: he may also improve the efficiency of the teams (better organisation of workers and tools) which are in charge of the operations of maintenance.

Innovation can be very impressive but can also be very small details that improve productivity.   

If you have comments or question, just click on Comments below.     

International group, International market, International career

The topic of the week is "International" .

I should have no problem to deal with this issue: my coach is, as far as many aspects are concerned, "International".

I should first remind you that he is canadian and is currently working in Dunkerque (France) in a primary metals works. He also worked in Australia. While I was in Dunkerque, I also met many people who had worked abroad (most of the time in Australia). This was maybe one of the most striking point of my alcan day: everybody seemed to have worked in Australia for at least 2 or 3 years (That proves that sunny beaches are nto so far from Dunkerque). My impressions were that when you were good at what you're doing, Alcan is willing to send you overseas.

Every day, my coach has many opportunities to work with foreigners: it may be an expert in quality management or in electrical insulation or with the manager of Maintenance for Europe who could be french, german, belgian, bresilian... The most efficient procedures have to travel to every Alcan works.

Well, that was the points I wanted to talk about with you.

Post comments or questions now.

What do you expect from your future employer?

Do you think that working abroad will be a part of our education in tomorrow school (because we'll have to know how other people work) ?

      

"Clients and suppliers"

This is the issue that I will tackle this week: "clients and suppliers". Alcan has, of course, clients and suppliers. But today, relationship between professionnals are often considered as "clients/suppliers" relationship even if the two professionals work in the same group and their office are next to each other.

We can understand this policy as a way to define what people can and cannot obtain from their colleagues just as a traditionnal contract.

I asked my coach if this kind of relationship was really formal or if it was just a word to influence the way people worked, and I am waiting for the answer. But still, I can say that my coach as a manager of maintenance and engineering do have a lot of clients and suppliers.

As a manager of the maintenance service, he may consider people who repair the installations as suppliers and the managers of the three production services as clients. These managers ask for available production time. For this task, he asks the technicians of the maintenance service to repair the installations and to check up them frequently (the frequence being itself defined).

As a manager of the engineering service, he has to ask for expert's reports, so that he is able to supply the whole works with improvements and solutions.

When I get more information from my coach ,I will say more about it.

See you soon!

Nicolas   

About me

As you can read above, my name’s Nicolas. I’m a 21 year- old student in materials engineering and that’s mainly why you can read about me. I’ll try to say more about me without being too boring so please do not believe I can’t be serious. Actually, I often am serious or a least, I can stop joking for… a quarter an hour.

I am french and was born in France near Grenoble. You may not know it but there was the Winter Olympics Games in Grenoble in 1968. I also don't live far from Lyon (with its well-known european football team). As far as sport is concerned, I’ve been playing football for 14 years, I sometimes play tennis and I love hiking in the most beautiful mountains.    

When I was younger, I wanted to be a carpenter (I can not remember why), a computer specialist, and then a physician (like in Emergency Room). The fact is, that mathematics and experimental sciences have always been fascinating me.

After my baccalauréat, I attended a two years class to get me ready for the exams. As many of you, I studied a lot physics, chemistry and last but not least mathematics (I remember that 1+1=2 was not so obvious after that! ). That’s over and we’d better talk about my school and my schoolmates.

I am studying in the Ecole des Mines de Saint Etienne. I chose a picture of Saint Etienne… yeah, I know that’s only a sky with the moon but the city architecture is not that cool and the sky is much delighting. But the guys I live with are rather nice.

We do a lot of things that people do in engineering schools. 

If I got into the Weallcan program, it's because this was a very good opportunity to really understand what an engineer actually do in his every day work. 

A few last words about me:

I love:

Football, Handball, Reading novels, isolated Outdoors, Radiohead and Cheese

I can't bear:

Pessimistic people, Subways during the rush hours, People talking about things they don’t know

Soon, I'll be talking to you about my coach, the engineer I followed for two days in one of the most technologically advanced works of the world. See you!

About my coach

And now, let's the Weallcan program really start!

His name is Jean-Robert Claveau and he is canadian. As you may have understood, he arrived in Dunkerque last year when Pechiney which owned the works in Dunkerque was integrated in the Alcan group. At present, he is the maintenance and engineering Manager in Aluminium Dunkerque (AD), a works which buy alumina and coke and produces aluminium ( it belongs to the part of the group called "Primary Metals" ). It is a very crucial job in the primary metals industry. The installations are almost totally automated and consequently cost a lot. They must work 24/24H and 365 days a year. When a machine breaks down, Aluminium Dunkerque loses a lot of money. Jean-Robert's job is to prevent breakdowns and to manage Investment projects to improve safety, environment, efficiencies and plant capacity. So I'm not joking when I say that his work is crucial.

Of course, Jean Robert is a manager and do not fix himself the installations. I will try to tell you about his path through the Alcan group.

Jean-Robert has always worked for Alcan. When he got out of University where he had got 2 masters (one in engineering and one in administration management) , he was recruited by Alcan. As every engineer who was recruited by Alcan at this time, he started to work as a technician. This is one of the most important point in the cursus of my coach. First, he learned a lot about the process. But as he didn't know much about the work of technician (despite his master in engineering), he also often had to ask the other technicians to teach him how to do the job.

The other important moment in his career was when he left Canada for Australia. He was the director of the operational services. QAL is the biggest works for alumina production in the world and had poor performance, a new management team was formed and suceeded in leading QAL beyond the three best works in the world concerning safety performance, production, costs…  He spent 4 years and a half there with his family. Finally, when Pechiney was integrated in Alcan, Jean-Robert was called to come to France, to work for Aluminium Dunkerque (AD).

In 1999, after this job, Alcan offered him three jobs: one in Jamaïca, one in India and one in western Canada. He finally chose Kitimat in Canada where he was the maintenance Manager. A study had shown that Kitimat did not evolved as fast as the other works and Alcan wanted Kitimat to catch up. Similarly to QAL a new management team was formed to direct the works to significant improvements to their results for an old plant.

Finally, when Pechiney was integrated in Alcan, Jean-Robert was called to come to France, to work for Aluminium Dunkerque. His main challenge is now to work with the AD Management team to continue the good work undertaken by their predecessors and take  AD to become an Alcan model in Europe, Jean-Robert himself looking after maintenance and Engineering.

We can be certain that he will complete his job and he will be offered other challenges. I asked him what he wanted to do after Aluminium Dunkerque. He answered me that it could be a job which would allow him to get back in Canada or maybe a job as a Regional director of Maintenance or maybe a totally different job… You all understand now that Jean-Robert like challenges. 

You can post your questions and comments by clicking below on "Comments".

My Alcan Day

My Alcan Day took place the 10th of March.

The day starts at 7 o’clock with a breakfast with my coach in my hotel. We spoke about many things: career, private life, people I am going to meet. The works was not so far and here we were! The site is huge. There is only one entrance, that's a question of security. A long footbridge led us to the central building where the office of my coach as the director of maintenance is. My coach (and I too) had already shaked the hands of at least 10 colleagues before we are in his second office (the office of the director of maintenance). I can notice that both of his desks are totally empty.

First, an interview with a worker who wants to work in another part of Aluminium Dunkerque was scheduled. The worker doesn't mind if I attend the interview. This is an opportunity to see Jean-Robert explaining his point of view about the work and the new things he would have to do. As a good engineer may do, he even draws a curve on the board.

Then, we go to a meeting of the maintenance about the 5S. This is a kind of policy to improve the maintenance by very basic measures like tidying up his desk or giving a place to every tools.

We go in another room where the technical director with the finance director meet the directors of each service to examine the profitability of their projects in relations to their risk. It is very fast and we have to go to the amphiteather to a meeting where a lot of people seems to have been invited (at least 50 people are there). Every managers seem to be here. The director gives the main results of february: financial results but also results concerning the number of industrial injuries and rejection. A young engineer explains a technical issue. He has to popularize it and succeed in being understood by the whole audience. I wish I were as gifted as he is! 

 

After the meal in the cafeteria, Jean-Robert wants to meet the experts he appointed for a potential problem of electrical insulation. Jean-Robert wants to know if it is dangerous and in this case what should be done. 9 people are there including people in charge of the security of the site and people who belongs to the CHSCT (the comitee in charge of the safety policy). Jean-Robert listens to the first conclusions. He speaks little but asks questions to make the group focus on the most important issues so that at the end of the meeting, everybody agree with what has to be done. The experts are going to make more measures and everybody will meet again at the end of the day.

I am going to attend a meeting which aims at finding the causes of a breakdown and its solutions. Every workers who were involved in the breakdown are here: engineers and simple technicians. It's like an investigation. Everybody tells his point of view and the animator try to unify it to point out the causes whatever they are : technical failure and human factor. The people have very different knowledge and it is almost thrilling to watch them examining every probable causes.

To those who still don't know: Team work is powerful! 

I get back in the other small meeting room where we are going to hear the experts' last conclusions. The facts are confirmed by the measures and it is time to decide what to do. Jean-Robert ask if it is so dangerous that the installations should not work. Everybody immediatly answer that it is not. Jean-Robert just managed to calm everybody as he said to me later, he had to "defuse the crise".  And then everybody argue about what should be done. Jean-Robert who knows very well electrical issues since he studied it at school almost doesn't say a word. He will say to me later that even if he had known the best solution, he would not have imposed it and he would have tried to draw people toward this solution. Today a manager doesn't give orders anymore and Jean-Robert is a talented manager.

May you have questions or comments about Jean-Robert's work and career or about Aluminium Dunkerque, feel free to post comments by clicking below on "Comments".