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SOLVAY ive<br />
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
What do you see<br />
that we don’t?<br />
SPECIAL<br />
Innovation<br />
Trophy 2006<br />
edition<br />
THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE OF THE SOLVAYGROUP | NO249 | JULY 2006
ContentsNo249<br />
2<br />
Dossier<br />
Innovation<br />
is everyone’s business<br />
SPECIAL<br />
Innovation<br />
Trophy 2006<br />
edition<br />
4 Editorial<br />
5 Reference Points<br />
> Innovation<br />
Scorecard<br />
6 Group Panorama<br />
10 Group Strategy<br />
> Innovation moving ahead.<br />
Solvay live interviews Jacques<br />
van Rijckevorsel<br />
Jacques van Rijckevorsel, General<br />
Manager of the Plastics Sector<br />
and Group Innovation Sponsor.<br />
The Solvay S.A. International Magazine – 70 th year – July 2006 – Published by Solvay S.A. – Communication Competence Centre – Rue du Prince Albert 33, B-1050 Brussels –<br />
Tel.: +32.2.509.64.48 – Fax: +32.2.509.72.40 – Communication.internal@<strong>solvay</strong>.com – Distribution: 20 000 copies – Managing editor: Claude Michel – Coordinator and<br />
editor-in-chief: Sara Curvelo – Editorial secretariat: Nathalie Feys and Frédéric Bouchat – Writing and translation: Guy Amoris, Izicom, Michael Lomax, Production – Printing:<br />
Deckers Druk NV – Photos: DR, Photographer’s Martin Barraud/Getty Images (cover), Pol Guillard, Hubert Mouillade, Jens Bacheberle. Iconothèque Solvay – Design and<br />
production: – Editorial Manager: Anne Brunet – Publication manager: Laurent Rousselle – Reproduction is subject to prior authorization and must carry the<br />
reference “Solvay live”. Solvay group magazines may reproduce the content without restriction. Legally registered with the Belgian national library. Affiliated to the<br />
Association Royale de la Presse Belge d’Entreprise (ABPE-BVB) Version française sur demande www.<strong>solvay</strong>.com
13 Dossier<br />
> Innovation<br />
is everyone’s business<br />
19 > CATEGORY 1<br />
New business<br />
29 > CATEGORY 2<br />
Customer oriented projects<br />
41 > CATEGORY 3<br />
Performance<br />
improvement<br />
51 > CATEGORY 4<br />
Management<br />
improvement<br />
59 > CATEGORY 5<br />
Sustainable development<br />
and citizenship<br />
69 > CATEGORY 6<br />
Replicated innovations<br />
BE OUR GUEST<br />
FOR THE<br />
INNOVATION<br />
DAYS.TAKE PART<br />
IN OUR<br />
QUIZ<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6 3
Editorial<br />
4<br />
WHEN ARCHIMEDES LEAPT OUT OF HIS BATH SHOUTING<br />
“EUREKA” (I’VE FOUND IT), EVERYONE LAUGHED. BUT<br />
BEHIND THIS 2 300 YEAR-OLD ANECDOTE LIES A<br />
REMARKABLE SCIENTIFIC ADVENTURE: ARCHIMEDES<br />
HAD JUST DISCOVERED A NATURAL PHENOMENON<br />
WHICH WOULD LEAD HIM TO FORMULATE THE<br />
PRINCIPLES OF HYDROSTATICS.<br />
NOT THAT THERE WAS ANYTHING PARTICULARLY<br />
DIFFICULT INVOLVED… NO MORE THAN OBSERVING,<br />
ANALYSING, LOOKING FOR CONCEPTS, FORMULATING A<br />
HYPOTHESIS AND VERIFYING IT.<br />
For 140 years we have been doing just that at Solvay.<br />
Even so, a new impetus was needed and was given a<br />
few years ago. Since then, the remarkable Solvay<br />
machine has moved into gear, and results are coming<br />
in fast – with our teams rising, as was to be expected,<br />
to the challenge. Wherever I go, I am impressed by<br />
the enthusiasm of our employees who are coming up<br />
AN INNOVATION<br />
DRIVEN GROUP<br />
CHRISTIAN JOURQUIN, CHAIRMAN OF THE EXECUTIVE<br />
COMMITTEE<br />
with new ideas in every field, with no holes barred:<br />
new products, new technologies, new sales techniques,<br />
new management approaches. The result is a<br />
rejuvenated Solvay which is going places.<br />
This emulation, which should lead us to move ahead<br />
together, is an example of a salutary step forward of<br />
which we would like to see many more, in particular in<br />
Europe with its declining industrial fabric. It is innovation<br />
that will continue to create jobs and wealth, and enable<br />
us to pass down a richer heritage to future generations.<br />
It is also a message of hope that we send out to our<br />
younger members. The future becomes less threatening<br />
if you are able to constantly seize the opportunities of<br />
progress, if you have the courage to “dare the future”.<br />
We shall soon be entering the decisive stages of the<br />
fourth Innovation Trophy. We can already talk of a<br />
tradition – well done everyone for your keenness and<br />
determination. I am as impatient as you are to know<br />
the winners – But will there be losers? Certainly not.<br />
It is in competing that we find the pleasure and – as I<br />
ardently wish – the recognition and gratitude of our<br />
fellow-employees.<br />
Thank you for everything you are doing. Let’s share<br />
together this Passion for Progress ® and once again,<br />
let’s dare the future.
2003<br />
0,57<br />
Innovation Scorecard<br />
97% 97% 97%<br />
ReferencePoints<br />
2004 2004 2004<br />
2004 2004 2004<br />
2004 2004 2004<br />
Green lights 76% 76% 76% all along 0,56 0,56 0,56 the 16,2% line 16,2%<br />
DEVELOPMENT OF THE THREE CHALLENGES BETWEEN 2003 AND 2005<br />
NEW PRODUCTS<br />
1 /5<br />
1/5 of our revenue should come from<br />
products, markets and applications<br />
developed over the past five years.<br />
2003<br />
16,5%<br />
Between 2003 and 2006, the number<br />
of projects collected has risen<br />
remarkably.<br />
Quantity and Quality: of the<br />
312 projects collected, involving<br />
1 381 employees, after hotly-disputed<br />
elimination rounds, just 96 (after<br />
a second pre-selection round)<br />
are competing in the six categories<br />
objective<br />
objective<br />
of for the 2006 2006 Trophy. 2003 2004 2005<br />
65% 65% 65% 0,57 0,57 0,57<br />
2005 2005 2005<br />
0,69 0,69 0,69<br />
2005 2005 2005<br />
20,1% 20,1% 20,1%<br />
PARTNERSHIP<br />
1 /2<br />
One innovative project in two should be<br />
generated in close collaboration with<br />
external partners, such as customers,<br />
universities, public authorities…<br />
2003<br />
2005<br />
2003<br />
65%<br />
objective objective<br />
0,69 0,57 objective<br />
2003 2003 2003 2004 2004 2005 2004 2005 2005for<br />
2005 2006 for 2006 for 2006<br />
COMMITMENT<br />
16,5% 16,5% 16,5%<br />
16,2%<br />
1 /1<br />
97% 97% 97%<br />
Every Group entity should be involved<br />
in at least one officially recognized<br />
innovative project.<br />
46.5<br />
% 16.5 16.5 16.2 % % 16.2 % 16.2 18.5 % % 18.5 2004 18.5 % 20% % 20% 20% 2004 49% 49% 51% 49% 51% 51% 46% 200446%<br />
46% 50% 50% 50% 65% 65% 65% 76% 76% 76% 97% 97% 100% 97% 100% 100%<br />
6<br />
16,2%<br />
2004<br />
2004<br />
0,56Upward<br />
progression at 16,2% Group level, despite<br />
application of a stricter definition in 2005.<br />
2005<br />
objective<br />
for 2006<br />
PERCENTAGE OF SALES<br />
GENERATED BY NEW PRODUCTS<br />
20,1%<br />
2003<br />
2004<br />
2005 2005 2005<br />
2003<br />
2005<br />
2003<br />
2005<br />
0,57 20,1%<br />
objective 16,5% objective objective 97%<br />
2003 2003 2003 2004 2004 2004 2005<br />
2005 for 2005 2006 for 2006 for 2006 2005<br />
2005<br />
97%<br />
2006,<br />
AN EXCELLENT HARVEST!<br />
objective<br />
for 2006<br />
for 2006<br />
46% 50% 65%<br />
50% 65%<br />
76% 100%<br />
76%<br />
97%<br />
97% 100%<br />
2003 2003 2003<br />
PERCENTAGE OF INNOVATIVE<br />
PROJECTS BEING UNDERTAKEN<br />
IN PARTNERSHIP<br />
2003<br />
65%<br />
2003<br />
0,57<br />
76%<br />
0,56<br />
2004<br />
2004<br />
76% This indicator is necessarily 0,56a<br />
fluctuating one,<br />
oscillating between 46% and 51%.<br />
350<br />
350<br />
300<br />
300<br />
250<br />
250<br />
200 200<br />
150 150<br />
100 100<br />
50 50<br />
0<br />
0<br />
0,69<br />
250 +<br />
250 +<br />
134 134<br />
26 26<br />
20 20<br />
27 27<br />
25 25<br />
19<br />
19<br />
16<br />
16<br />
2003 2003 2003<br />
312<br />
312<br />
2003<br />
2003<br />
2006<br />
96<br />
18<br />
20<br />
20<br />
12<br />
12<br />
16<br />
16<br />
10<br />
10<br />
PERCENTAGE<br />
OF ENTITIES<br />
INVOLVED<br />
2003 2003 2003<br />
THE SIX CATEGORIES<br />
New<br />
New<br />
business<br />
business<br />
Customer Customer oriented oriented projects projects<br />
Performance improvement<br />
Management improvement<br />
Sustainable development and and citizenship<br />
Replicated innovations<br />
2005 2005 2005<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6 5<br />
2003<br />
20<br />
65% 6<br />
2004 2004 20<br />
76% 76% 7<br />
objective objective objective<br />
2003 2003 2003 2004 2004 2004 2005 2005 for 2005 2006 for 2006 for 2006<br />
Whilst the definition of “entity” can vary,<br />
commitment is clearly on an uptrend.<br />
3<br />
3<br />
2<br />
2<br />
1<br />
1
GroupPanorama<br />
6<br />
At the cutting edge<br />
of renewable energies<br />
Backed by its experience in<br />
electrodialysis membranes, Solvay<br />
has ventured into the promising<br />
market of fuel cells (*) , a major<br />
technology in the field of<br />
renewable energy.<br />
Listening to the market and<br />
identifying promising technologies<br />
in which Solvay is able to play<br />
a major role have led the Group,<br />
and in particular its New Business<br />
Development (NBD) division, to develop<br />
a new “Renewable Energy” research<br />
platform.<br />
Recent activities and partnerships give<br />
concrete expression to this commitment.<br />
Since October 2004, Solvay has been<br />
a shareholder in Conduit Ventures<br />
Limited (CVL), a London venture<br />
capital fund focused on fuel cells<br />
and hydrogen technologies. Fuel cells<br />
are seen as a sustainable and clean<br />
source of energy for a whole range<br />
of applications, including portable<br />
electronic equipment, fixed energy<br />
sources for buildings, and electrical<br />
vehicles. Participating in CVL, which<br />
has already funded seven start-ups<br />
in the fuel cells field, brings us into<br />
direct contact with the market and<br />
enables us to adapt our research<br />
programmes to developing trends.<br />
On March 8, 2006, Umicore and Solvay<br />
concluded an agreement in principle<br />
to combine forces to research,<br />
develop, produce and sell Membrane-<br />
Electrode Assemblies (MEAs: the<br />
reactor in which hydrogen reacts with<br />
oxygen to produce electricity) and<br />
related materials, for fuel cell<br />
applications. This cooperation brings<br />
together two complementary fields<br />
of competence: Umicore’s catalyst<br />
expertise and Solvay’s knowledge<br />
of fluorinated polymers and<br />
membranes. The 50-50 joint venture,<br />
named SolviCore, is based in Hanau,<br />
east of Frankfurt, at Umicore’s main<br />
German R&D site. This joint venture<br />
has been operational since July, and<br />
employs some 30 persons in its first<br />
Solvay is committed to contributing<br />
to developing realistic<br />
and environmental-friendly<br />
alternatives to fossil fuels.<br />
© Masterfile.<br />
development phase. The R&D,<br />
promotion and sale of Solvay<br />
membranes to SolviCore are piloted<br />
by Solvay Solexis, with our own NBD<br />
division concentrating more on new<br />
fuel cell technologies. Around<br />
30 researchers at Bollate, Italy (Solvay<br />
Solexis) and at NOH, Belgium (Solvay<br />
R&T) are hard at work in this<br />
promising field!<br />
Let’s talk of outlets …. Initially, the<br />
experimental MEAs will be developed<br />
for industrial vehicles (fork lift trucks),<br />
but also for small stationary industrial<br />
units (electrogenerating sets,<br />
residential combined electricity/heat<br />
production…) and all this by 2010.<br />
In April 2006, CMR Fuel Cells plc<br />
and Solvay began working together<br />
to develop a new concept for easily<br />
miniaturizable fuel cells for electronic<br />
equipment. This revolutionary type<br />
of cell calls for a highly permeable<br />
AME structure and very specific<br />
electrode catalysts. This concept can<br />
improve performance five to 10-fold<br />
and is 80% less expensive than<br />
conventional fuel cells.<br />
Our cooperation with CMR Fuel Cells,<br />
one of the companies in which CVL<br />
has a shareholding, is in the form of a<br />
scientific partnership: Solvay<br />
is bringing in its skills in chemistry<br />
and polymer implementation<br />
(membrane constituents) and CMR<br />
its patented mixed fuel cell<br />
technology, giving us excellent<br />
advantages.<br />
(*) Fuel cells combine oxygen and hydrogen<br />
to convert chemical energy into electricity.<br />
The effective combination of these two elements<br />
requires the use of ion-permeable membranes,<br />
which Solvay is currently developing.<br />
In particular, Solvay Solexis has developed<br />
high performance fluorinated ion<br />
exchange membranes.
Omega joins Solvay as a principal project sponsor.<br />
A technology dream<br />
named Solar Impulse<br />
e talk a lot of renewable energies, but not enough about the technology<br />
“W to make them possible and to promote sustainable development”,<br />
is the constantly repeated dictum of Bertrand Piccard, the Swiss “scientistadventurer”<br />
at the origin of the Solar Impulse project.<br />
Developing such technology is precisely the challenge that has to be met to<br />
circumnavigate the world in five stages in a manned aircraft propelled solely by solar<br />
energy. Solvay was the first main partner to commit to the project, following<br />
Bertrand Piccard’s well-received participation in the 3rd Innovation Trophy<br />
in December 2003. Since then Solvay has been financially supporting the project<br />
and providing technological support on a voluntary basis for developing<br />
and characterizing the advanced polymers and fluorinated materials needed<br />
by the aircraft and simulating their behaviour in extreme conditions.<br />
The arrival of a second partner, Swiss watchmaker Omega, in early 2006 has<br />
consolidated this daring challenge with funding to take the project into the<br />
construction stage. Construction of a prototype solar aircraft will begin in 2007,<br />
with the first test flights scheduled in 2008. These will serve to verify the<br />
performance of the technological options taken for the aircraft structure and<br />
for the solar energy management, by carrying out 36-hour flights, including night<br />
periods. In 2010 (or 2011 at the latest), Solar Impulse will undertake its<br />
round-the-world flight in five stages.<br />
© SOLAR IMPULSE / EPFL - Artist Claudio Leonardi.<br />
From canals<br />
to the sea!<br />
N ovosol® , an innovative<br />
environmental technology<br />
that Solvay has developed, has been<br />
selected by the Conseil Général<br />
of the French département of Var<br />
as a promising means for treating<br />
contaminated port and canal<br />
dredging sludge. This département<br />
manages 54 ports, including that<br />
of Toulon. Specialist laboratories will<br />
be carrying out a complete<br />
evaluation of Novosol ® under<br />
the control of the environmental<br />
authorities.<br />
The Novosol ® team uses an extensive<br />
network of partners - laboratories,<br />
universities and industrial companies<br />
- to test the treated materials.<br />
It is essential to be able to measure<br />
the physico-chemical qualities<br />
of treated products, and new official<br />
reference values are needed if<br />
recycling solutions for this kind<br />
of waste are to make the big time.<br />
This research is opening up new uses<br />
for hitherto neglected materials.<br />
Whereas polluted sediments are<br />
in most cases simply dumped at sea,<br />
the mechanical, physico-chemical and<br />
mineralogical properties of “Novosol ®<br />
sediments” make them eligible for<br />
recycling as road-building materials.<br />
At the same time, with its skills in<br />
evaluating cement and concrete, the<br />
Ecole Centrale de Lille is examining,<br />
together with Briqueteries du Nord,<br />
how to incorporate treated<br />
sediments into construction bricks,<br />
in place of the usual alluvia and clays.<br />
This study will supplement existing<br />
studies on road-building materials<br />
and the examination of a global<br />
solution to the problem of dredging<br />
sludges in Belgium. More than<br />
20 outside partners have already<br />
contributed with their research<br />
to casting a new light on the<br />
question of reprocessed sediments.<br />
For further information, visit<br />
www.novosol.be.<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6 7
GroupPanorama<br />
8<br />
CHEMICALS<br />
On the way to becoming<br />
number one in fluorine chemistry<br />
At the beginning of May, SBU Fluor<br />
started construction of a new<br />
plant in Onsan, South Korea, due<br />
to come into service in 2007. Using<br />
proven technologies, 120 employees<br />
will then manufacture the inorganic<br />
fluorine products sulfur hexafluoride,<br />
iodine pentafluoride, elemental<br />
fluorine and NOCOLOK ® in Onsan.<br />
Solvay has invested EUR 50 million to<br />
develop Asia’s new and fast-growing<br />
markets as part of its growth strategy<br />
of expanding both geographically and<br />
in existing markets. The Onsan plant is<br />
located close to major automotive and<br />
electronics customers.“Onsan is a<br />
significant milestone on the way to<br />
becoming the world’s number one<br />
supplier of fluorine specialties”, says<br />
Dr. Bernd Wilkes, General Manager of<br />
SBU Fluor. “Our commitment in Asia is<br />
clearly aligned to new markets. The<br />
activities will have no effect on<br />
existing production facilities.”<br />
The new look for Radel ® R<br />
sterilizeable plastics produced<br />
by Solvay Advanced Polymers<br />
is all about delivering custom colors<br />
with lower order minimums<br />
and faster delivery times. Equally<br />
important is doing this without<br />
compromising the material’s ability to withstand more than<br />
a thousand cycles of disinfection and steam sterilization with<br />
no significant loss of properties. The challenge of providing<br />
that performance in custom colors came with more than<br />
a few manufacturing and marketing wrinkles. Custom colors<br />
present an enormous opportunity for our clients<br />
to distinguish their brands and their products in a very<br />
The eye-catching visuals of “Customized<br />
Color” campaign used Emperor Penguin<br />
to illustrate that color doesn’t come<br />
at the expense of performance.<br />
The first soil is turned for the new SBU Fluor plant.<br />
Production capacity for the above<br />
mentioned products at Solvay Fluor’s<br />
existing plants is already largely utilized<br />
and cannot be readily expanded.<br />
An international team will support<br />
construction of the new plant.<br />
“Worldwide cooperation is the key<br />
to worldwide success”, Dr. Wilkes<br />
underscores, “This is why Solvay’s<br />
Korean employees have been<br />
familiarizing themselves with products<br />
and processes at the German SBU Fluor<br />
location in Bad Wimpfen during<br />
the last few months.”<br />
PLASTICS<br />
Radel ® R sterilizeable plastics: the look<br />
you want. The performance you need<br />
competitive marketplace. Whether they make sterilization<br />
cases, trays, lids or other orthopedic products, customcolored<br />
Radel ® R plastics can give them an exciting new look.<br />
The business challenge was a simple one. Find a streamlined<br />
way to produce custom color orders on smaller, limited<br />
runs with turnaround times and delivery dates that<br />
reflected the real world. The solution was manifold,<br />
involving technical expansion and production improvements<br />
coupled with enhanced scheduling responsiveness.<br />
In the end, the results were the elimination of barriers<br />
to obtaining custom colors based on volume runs<br />
and a much shorter delivery cycle. To learn more about<br />
custom-colored Radel ® R sterilizeable plastics, visit<br />
www.<strong>solvay</strong>medical.com.
PLASTICS<br />
Specialty Polymers<br />
on the move at Chinaplas<br />
SBU Specialty Polymers took an<br />
innovative marketing approach<br />
at Chinaplas 2006 (Shanghai/China),<br />
the key Asian exhibition for the plastics<br />
and rubber industries.<br />
On the same 102 m2 stand, various Group<br />
enterprises – SolVin, Solvay Advanced<br />
Polymers, Solvay Solexis<br />
and Solvay Engineered Polymers – joined<br />
forces to present their products<br />
by market groupings, with specific<br />
emphasis on customers’ expectations:<br />
Design Engineering with Specialty<br />
Polymers (healthcare, plumbing,<br />
electricity, electronics, semiconductors,<br />
telecommunications); High Performance<br />
Materials for demanding conditions<br />
(membranes, oil and gas, chemical<br />
industry); Specialty Polymers and High<br />
Performance Materials for cars (inside,<br />
outside and under the hood) and Barrier<br />
Polymers for packaging. The stand<br />
also included presentations on the Group<br />
and on its activities in China,<br />
and spotlighted the innovations<br />
of the exhibiting companies. Under<br />
the slogan “Moving people and ideas<br />
with specialty polymers and high<br />
performance materials”, the Solvay stand<br />
drew large numbers of visitors (Chinaplas<br />
2006 hosted almost 60 000 visitors,<br />
15% from outside China) and enabled<br />
sales teams to make a host of contacts<br />
with various stakeholders.<br />
For the businesses taking part, the overall<br />
experience was positive and the global<br />
objectives were reached: establishing<br />
new contacts, increasing market<br />
awareness of Solvay and its specialty<br />
polymers and developing existing<br />
contacts. The same approach will be used<br />
on the Solvay stand at the next<br />
Kunststoffe fair, which opens on October<br />
24, 2007 in Düsseldorf (Germany).<br />
Moving people and ideas with<br />
specialty polymers<br />
and high performance materials.<br />
Research &<br />
Technology at<br />
the “Entreprendre<br />
2006” fair<br />
Solvay Research & Technology<br />
(Neder-over-Heembeek/Belgium) took<br />
part in the 2006 “Salon Entreprendre”<br />
(Entrepreneurship Fair) held in Brussels<br />
on 22 and 23 March. Featured at the fair<br />
was Solvay R&T’s unique “hosting<br />
start-ups” project, that makes a wide<br />
range of state-of-the-art competences<br />
available to entrepreneurs and young<br />
start-ups in one and the same location,<br />
in chemistry, pharmaceuticals, plastics and<br />
plastics processing.<br />
The added value for beneficiaries<br />
is beyond doubt. For Artelis, the first<br />
start-up on the site in October 2005,<br />
access to these services at competitive<br />
prices was a key decision factor.<br />
Participating in this fair is also a superb<br />
opportunity to make business contacts,<br />
especially with bankers who specialize<br />
in supporting young entrepreneurs.<br />
This rendezvous also facilitates contacts<br />
with companies looking for premises<br />
and development facilities. Face-to-face<br />
contacts with member of the interface<br />
cells of the main universities and with<br />
representatives of research support<br />
bodies have considerably enhanced<br />
the visibility of this project.<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
9
GroupStrategy<br />
10<br />
Jacques van Rijckevorsel is known to everyone at Solvay as General<br />
Manager of the Plastics Sector and a member of the Executive<br />
Committee. He is also Group Innovation Sponsor, a “passionately<br />
interesting” task which is particularly close to his heart and which places<br />
him in an excellent position to talk to us about innovation at Solvay.<br />
He shares with us his impressions, his convictions and his hopes.<br />
Jacques van Rijckevorsel, General Manager<br />
of the Plastics Sector and Group Innovation<br />
Sponsor<br />
Solvay live: Why such emphasis on<br />
Innovation in the Group?<br />
Jacques van Rijckevorsel: We live in<br />
fascinating times. Exchanges of every<br />
kind are multiplying across the planet,<br />
the “intelligence” of which (in the meaning<br />
of the capacity to interlink) is growing<br />
exponentially. At the same time we<br />
are becoming increasingly aware of the<br />
limits of our natural resources: energy,<br />
water, air, raw materials… Globally<br />
speaking, our planet is living faster and<br />
faster and our current production and<br />
consumption models are leading us into<br />
an impasse. We have to constr uct a<br />
future that breaks with the present. This<br />
is also the whole issue of “sustainable<br />
development”, which is calling on us to<br />
do more and better with less, but without<br />
sacrificing growth and jobs. A large<br />
part of the response to these challenges<br />
lies in Innovation. Innovation is not an<br />
option we are free to take or leave. We<br />
have to take it. Governments and captains<br />
of industry are multiplying the signals<br />
and initiatives that say to us: we<br />
need to innovate, and to do so fast and<br />
well. This imperative, which is valid for<br />
national economies, imposes itself<br />
with equal force on ever y enterprise<br />
individually: competition is global and<br />
less innovative enterprises will go to the<br />
wall. But we also need to read the situation<br />
positively: how many opportunities,<br />
some of them gigantic, become<br />
accessible to the best?<br />
S.L.: Being Group Innovation Sponsor<br />
is …?<br />
J.vR.: … promoting the development<br />
and deployment of this continuous<br />
change for the better, inspiring new ways<br />
of doing business, new objectives and<br />
catalyzing decisions in these areas. This<br />
is a mandate given to me by Comex in<br />
its determination to respond to the challenges<br />
I have outlined above.<br />
Innovation<br />
moving ahead
S.L.: As the six categories of the Solvay<br />
Innovation Trophy show, innovation is<br />
a multi-facetted reality…<br />
J . v R . : Yes, which also means that<br />
Innovation is a matter for each and every<br />
one of us. Each of us fits into at least one<br />
category. The Executive Committee has<br />
set the ball rolling and demonstrated its<br />
full support for the Innovation drive to<br />
be cascaded right through the Group.<br />
Ideally, all of us, wherever we are, should<br />
be self-starters, responsible for our own<br />
innovation efforts. Innovation should be<br />
inherent to the way we set about our<br />
work, not a bolt-on.<br />
This is why one of the first things I did<br />
as Innovation Sponsor was to publish an<br />
Innovation Charter. This reaffirms several<br />
principles, including that Innovation is<br />
everyone’s business.<br />
S.L.: And concretely?<br />
J.vR.: More and more internal processes<br />
are being aligned with the Group’s<br />
Innovation drive. Human Resources, for<br />
example, have introduced a system of<br />
Innovation-linked personal bonuses for<br />
managers. This should help Innovation<br />
cascade rapidly into the four corners of<br />
the Group. Innovation Champions have<br />
been appointed in each Group entity and<br />
networked to interact in real time on<br />
ongoing initiatives.<br />
The New Business Development (NBD) entity<br />
now has a New Business Board with wellknown<br />
outside personalities who bring a<br />
different angle and formulate recommendations<br />
on certain research directions. Every<br />
“Innovation<br />
is one of the most<br />
important<br />
investments a<br />
company can make<br />
to ensure its longterm<br />
survival.”<br />
year, SBUs and CCs are invited to present<br />
their approaches and Innovation Scorecards to<br />
the Executive Committee. And Comex itself<br />
periodically assesses the Innovation process<br />
and gives additional stimuli if needed.<br />
As you can see, Innovation is being carried<br />
out in a structured way, right across the<br />
© SOLAR IMPULSE / EPFL - Artist Claudio Leonardi.<br />
Solar Impulse: technological<br />
innovation serving<br />
sustainable development.<br />
organization, with the impetus and direction<br />
coming from the top.<br />
S.L.: You mentioned the “Scorecard”<br />
What is it exactly?<br />
J.vR.: The Innovation “Scorecard” defines<br />
a series of indicators which measure the<br />
degree of Innovation within the Group.<br />
This allows us to track progress over time<br />
and assess how the various Group entities<br />
are coming closer to their objectives.<br />
S.L.: Let’s come back to this assessment.<br />
What conclusions do you draw from it?<br />
J.vR.: First and foremost it seems to<br />
me right and important to remind ourselves<br />
that this approach was bor n<br />
143 years ago, along with the Group. It<br />
would therefore be presumptuous to associate<br />
a particular result with a particular<br />
initiative. Let’s observe simply that our<br />
Innovation drive appears to be broadening<br />
and gathering speed. The number of<br />
patent applications has increased by 50%<br />
in three years. Our Scorecard too, shows<br />
progress almost right across the board.<br />
So much so that we can be confident to<br />
meet and even exceed the three “challenges<br />
for 2006” (see our Reference Points<br />
page). Furthermore, entries for the Solvay<br />
Innovation Trophy have reached a new<br />
record with high quality projects. By<br />
showing us what we are capable of, this<br />
success opens the way to other even more<br />
ambitious objectives. Would such a result<br />
have been achieved without the innovative<br />
and momentum-raising initiatives<br />
which have sprung up everywhere?<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6 11
12<br />
GroupStrategy<br />
S.L.: Are there lots of examples?<br />
J.vR.: Yes, from local productivity gains<br />
to strategic projects. Allow me to cite<br />
some recent examples. These are concrete<br />
and therefore a little “technical”. In<br />
Pharmaceuticals: the new cell-based vaccine<br />
production technology recently<br />
rolled out at Solvay Pharmaceuticals at<br />
Weesp (Netherlands) and shortly to be in<br />
the USA. In Plastics: new vinyl and specialty<br />
polymers technologies, thanks also<br />
to the acquisitions of Mississippi Polymer<br />
Technologies and Gharda. In Chemicals:<br />
an opening towards Organic Chemistry<br />
with the acquisition of Girindus, the new<br />
H 2 O 2 process or the new Epicerol TM<br />
process. At NBD, the advances we have<br />
made in fuel cells, like the SolviCore joint<br />
venture or our participation in Conduit<br />
Ventures, leading in turn to a new collaboration<br />
with CMR. At DCRT, the development<br />
of the Novosol ® process for stabilizing<br />
and recycling canal and lock<br />
dredging sludge. In Finance, the recasting<br />
of our financial processes in the context<br />
of the 3S project, and the Nafta<br />
factoring initiative in North America. In<br />
the Legal Department: the OCAP (1) training<br />
tool. In Communication: the new<br />
Solvay live and the dynamic adaptation to<br />
the demands of the internal and external<br />
target audiences. In Asia-Pacific: the<br />
shock team that is helping us grow. In<br />
Europe: the ideas management, emulation<br />
and replication systems in Germany,<br />
Iberia, France, Italy… And in South<br />
America, the root-and-branch updating of<br />
our industrial vision. There are many other<br />
quality examples everywhere, so please<br />
excuse me for not being exhaustive…<br />
“In 10 years’ time we may<br />
find ourselves in domains<br />
we don’t even imagine today.”<br />
S.L.: And the future direction for the<br />
Group?<br />
J.vR.: In future, each SBU will be taking<br />
charge of its own destiny, with its strategic<br />
vision examined by Comex at least<br />
once a year. Multi-SBU partnerships are<br />
also being built, such as the Solution<br />
Units promoted by the Chemical Business<br />
Deployment entity.<br />
At Group level, our New Business Board<br />
has opted to explore two of the three top<br />
strategic technologies selected by the<br />
prestigious Battelle (2) research group:<br />
innovative materials (including for electronics)<br />
and sustainable energy (including<br />
fuel cells).<br />
Solvay is the technology partner for Solar<br />
Impulse, the solar aircraft dreamed up by<br />
Bertrand Piccard, a project that will push<br />
us to the limits of what materials can and<br />
ought to deliver.<br />
Externally, several of our SBUs have<br />
signed up to InnoCentive, a world-wide<br />
network of 80 000 scientists, offering<br />
leading-edge expertise unavailable elsew<br />
h e r e . I n t e r n a l l y, t h e S c i e n c e f o r<br />
Innovation Congress brought together<br />
140 researchers from across the Group to<br />
focus our competences around major<br />
issues like nanotechnologies… As you can<br />
s e e , t h e b e e h i v e i s b u z z i n g w i t h<br />
projects.<br />
S.L.: You have hardly mentioned global<br />
competition...<br />
J.vR.: Some people say this complicates<br />
things, and it’s true. But it can also be a<br />
source of at times unsuspected opportunities.<br />
Let us never underestimate human<br />
beings’ capacities to create and adapt.<br />
S.L.: Including those of people from<br />
emerging countries?<br />
J.vR.: We need to look at emerging<br />
countries in two ways. Yes, there is the<br />
short-term vision of low cost competition.<br />
We respond to this by choosing those<br />
professions in which we remain the best,<br />
in which we are increasingly specializing,<br />
and to which we give the resources of<br />
excellence. But alongside this relatively<br />
classical vision, I would like to juxtapose<br />
that of the opportunity that these countries<br />
offer us. First of all, they are keen<br />
for growth and we can participate in this.<br />
Second, we can also open up to their creativity,<br />
their curiosity, their spirit of enterp<br />
r i s e . T h e y i m p e l u s o n t o w a r d s a<br />
planetary view of progress. We have an<br />
enormous amount to learn from these<br />
countries.<br />
S.L.: What does the Solvay Innovation<br />
Trophy represent for you?<br />
J.vR.: Three things: A festive moment<br />
where all eyes are focused on certain<br />
achievements. An event where one is<br />
delighted at the sheer amount of energy<br />
and enthusiasm invested by those who<br />
have taken part, who have succeeded, and<br />
who have worked hard to defend their<br />
projects.<br />
A time for reflection also, to question our<br />
creative capacities and draw lessons in<br />
order to do even better. Finally, a stimulus,<br />
an impetus, a goad for the future.•<br />
(1) Online Competition Awareness Program.<br />
(2) See www.battelle.org/forecasts.
Dossier<br />
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
Innovation<br />
is everyone’s business<br />
THE INNOVATION TROPHY BLENDS EXPERTISE, COMPETENCE AND KNOW-HOW WITH CREATIVITY, PASSION AND<br />
ENERGY. GROUP INNOVATION CHAMPION BRIGITTE LAURENT REVIEWS WITH US WHY SOLVAY ORGANIZES AN<br />
INNOVATION TROPHY, HOW IT HAS EVOLVED OVER TIME, AND THE MAIN EMPHASIS OF THE 2006 EDITION.<br />
The Solvay Innovation Trophy, a recurring landmark in<br />
the Group’s drive for Innovation, will be held this year for<br />
the fourth time. Each successive Innovation Trophy since<br />
1999 has been larger than its predecessor and attracted<br />
growing attention, both inside and outside the Group.<br />
Organizing it is a project in itself, involving a number of employees<br />
throughout the year. Despite its potent symbolism for the entire<br />
Innovation drive, this Group event is in fact only just one of a<br />
series of initiatives. To mention trophies only, we have the Trophy<br />
and Creativity Awards in the Chemicals Sector, the Pioneer Awards<br />
in Pharmaceuticals, various site-level Innovation Trophies, Innodrive<br />
at Pipelife, and the Solvin Award for innovative PVC clients, all<br />
contributing to dynamizing our creative capacity.<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
13
Dossier<br />
14<br />
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006 INTRODUCING OUR JU<br />
Encouraging the teams<br />
The Innovation Trophy exists to recognize the contributions<br />
that teams make through their innovations, and more generally<br />
to encourage the innovation reflex. But why recognize only<br />
the handful of innovations that make it to a trophy? In any competitive<br />
environment, healthy emulation inspires us to be constantly<br />
setting ourselves new challenges. In a business corporation<br />
it’s the same thing: Innovation progresses by employees pursuing<br />
ambitious objectives. The important thing is to have lots of<br />
projects participating. When we say encourage, of course the<br />
Trophy stimulates Innovation. But it is important not to see it<br />
in isolation, but as part of a drive to embed Innovation step by<br />
step into employees’ behaviour and thinking. In 2003 the Group<br />
published its Innovation Charter and invited everyone to contribute<br />
to the drive. In 2004 Group managers were asked at<br />
their annual assessment interviews to rank their contributions<br />
towards Innovation on a scale of zero to four and defend their<br />
choice. In 2005, all managers, in consultation with their superiors,<br />
set themselves one “Innovation” objective, to be included<br />
in their personal performance assessment in 2006.<br />
Measuring and comparing project quality<br />
The Trophy is a very special event in several ways. First as an<br />
opportunity to ask what benefits earlier trophies have brought.<br />
What has become of the projects presented then? What new<br />
products and processes have they given us? How have they<br />
taken us further along the learning curve?<br />
Pre-selecting projects from their own units is also a privileged<br />
moment for managers to see what direction Innovation is moving<br />
in, how far projects have advanced, how good they are; an<br />
exercise that becomes more difficult each time with the rising<br />
numbers and quality of entries.<br />
The Trophy is also an occasion to exchange ideas and give<br />
visibility to all proposed projects. Through Solia (http://innovation.<strong>solvay</strong>.com)<br />
and Solvay live everyone can learn about<br />
ongoing initiatives, establish contacts and share their knowledge.<br />
For Solvay, the Trophy is also time to reflect on challenges<br />
and priorities. As Jacques van Rijckevorsel, General<br />
Manager of the Plastics Sector and Group Innovation Sponsor<br />
The jury is presided by Jacques van<br />
> External Jury<br />
ALPHEUS BINGHAM<br />
CEO, InnoCentive. Board<br />
member, Fast Track<br />
Systems, Collaborative<br />
Drug Discovery, Phase<br />
Forward, YourEncore,<br />
Coalesix. Visiting Scholar, National Centre<br />
for Supercomputing Application,<br />
University of Illinois (US).<br />
“I am working on meta-innovation (innovating<br />
on how we innovate), and looking for new<br />
collaboration models. Without risk, innovation is<br />
doomed. The Trophy encourages appropriate risktaking.<br />
One of the best strategies for remaining<br />
creative is to be surrounded by creative people<br />
and ideas. So I look forward to learning about the<br />
innovations and meeting all of the nominees.”<br />
JOHN BUTT<br />
CEO, Conduit Ventures<br />
(UK). Former Director,<br />
Citigroup Global<br />
Markets, and Price<br />
Waterhouse LLP<br />
International Privatization Group.<br />
Biochemistry degree from University<br />
of St. Andrews. MBA from University<br />
of North Carolina (US).<br />
“Innovation comes not only from having the<br />
most elegant scientific discovery, but also<br />
putting in place the required systems to extract<br />
value from the innovation. The Trophy sends<br />
the right signals to talented individuals that an<br />
innovation culture is supported and potentially<br />
rewarding. As a jury member I look forward<br />
to exchanging ideas on the challenges facing<br />
new technologies, and the different criteria<br />
and steps required to bring such<br />
technologies to the market.”<br />
LUDO VAN DER HEYDEN<br />
Solvay Chair in<br />
Technological<br />
Innovation, INSEAD<br />
(France). Wendel Chair<br />
in the Large Family<br />
Firm, INSEAD. Recipient of Mercurius<br />
Award from Fedis Association, and ECCH<br />
European Case Award 2005. Formerly<br />
on the faculty of Yale and Harvard<br />
Universities (US).<br />
“I am involved in numerous projects focused<br />
on innovation in business models. I direct<br />
INSEAD’s Advanced Management Program, which<br />
increasingly addresses the need for innovation.<br />
At the individual, team and organizational levels,<br />
the Trophy is a meaningful way to communicate,<br />
celebrate, and prepare for the future. It is also<br />
a unique way to take the pulse of innovation<br />
inside a great international company. ”
RY<br />
Rijckevorsel and coordinated by Brigitte Laurent.<br />
HERVÉ LEBRET<br />
Manager, Innogrants,<br />
Ecole Polytechnique<br />
Fédérale de Lausanne<br />
(Switzerland). Formerly<br />
with Index Ventures.<br />
Former Dean of Studies, ENSTA. PhD<br />
in electrical engineering, Université<br />
de Rennes (France).<br />
“My activity at EPFL is exclusively about<br />
innovation: identifying and supporting innovative<br />
projects. I try to stimulate risk taking, as<br />
innovation is also about being more tolerant to<br />
risk and possible failure. I organize events and<br />
invite innovators to share their experiences.<br />
People need role models. This Trophy is an example<br />
that can encourage others to develop their<br />
own projects.”<br />
BRUNO VAN<br />
POTTELSBERGHE<br />
Solvay Innovation Chair,<br />
Solvay Business School,<br />
Université Libre de<br />
Bruxelles (Belgium).<br />
Chief Economist, European Patent Office.<br />
Formerly Vice-president, Solvay Business<br />
School, and Director of MBA and<br />
International Exchange Programmes.<br />
“Innovation and intellectual property are my daily<br />
concerns: I teach innovation economics<br />
and management. This Trophy shows<br />
management’s dedication to an innovation<br />
culture. It improves the company’s image<br />
by emphasizing its social role. And it rewards<br />
the creativity and innovation of employees.<br />
I enjoy discovering the forward thinking teams<br />
and their projects, as well as the intense<br />
Committee debates.”<br />
RENATE A.<br />
WEISSENHORN<br />
Head of the European<br />
Commission’s DG<br />
Entreprise “Support for<br />
Innovation” unit.<br />
Formerly Head of Enterprise Unit (DG/<br />
unit A6). Degrees in accountancy and<br />
foreign relations, University<br />
of Economics in Vienna (Austria).<br />
“My Unit helps companies make better use of<br />
innovative technologies. It also assists innovation<br />
development in the European Regions. I am familiar<br />
with the daily challenges faced by innovative<br />
entrepreneurs, companies and innovation support<br />
structures. The Trophy is a new service to get ideas<br />
to the market faster and promote cooperation<br />
between the public and private sectors. I hope to<br />
get insight into how an innovation system works<br />
within an industrial group.”<br />
> Internal Jury<br />
CAROLYN EGBERT<br />
Representing the<br />
Pharmaceutical Sector<br />
and the USA. Global<br />
Head of Human<br />
Resources, Solvay<br />
Pharmaceuticals. Formerly in-house<br />
counsel, Merrell-Dow Pharmaceutical<br />
Company. Degrees in pharmacology<br />
and law (US).<br />
“Innovation is a major key to sustainable<br />
growth and it continues Solvay's long tradition<br />
of valuable contributions to consumers<br />
and markets everywhere. The benefits<br />
of the Trophy are enormous. It is a symbol<br />
for one of the several core principles that<br />
define Solvay. As a jury member I will receive a<br />
deeper understanding of the commitment<br />
that Solvay and its employees make<br />
to sustain innovation.”<br />
MAURO FURLANETTO<br />
Representing the<br />
Plastics Sector and<br />
South America.<br />
Manager Plastics<br />
Sector Supply Chain<br />
Mercosur, Solvay<br />
Indupa (Argentine). With Solvay since<br />
1980 as electrical engineer, process<br />
engineer and industrial development<br />
manager.<br />
“Innovation has to be considered as the<br />
mechanism to differentiate a company from<br />
its competitors. The Trophy increases employee<br />
motivation worldwide, boosting the<br />
commitment to the Mission and Values of Solvay<br />
group. As a jury member I will have an exclusive<br />
opportunity to share innovation experiences<br />
and bring new ideas to Mercosur.”<br />
ANDRÉ NOTHOMB<br />
Representing the<br />
Chemicals Sector and<br />
Asia. Director, RBU<br />
Barium/Strontium<br />
Asia. President,<br />
Chemicals Sector/Asia,<br />
Solvay Korea. With Solvay since 1989<br />
in Singapore, Japan and Korea.<br />
Graduated from Solvay Business<br />
School, ULB.<br />
“The Daehan Specialty Chemicals team won<br />
two Chemicals Sector innovation trophies.<br />
I believe innovation is essential for a company<br />
to survive because the days of our existing<br />
businesses and practices are numbered.<br />
As a jury member I hope to get new<br />
inspiration and a chance to confront<br />
our approaches with those of real experts.”<br />
JEAN-MARIE SOLVAY<br />
Representing<br />
shareholders and New<br />
Business Development<br />
(NBD). Director,<br />
member of the New<br />
Business Board, Solvay. CEO, Real Estate<br />
Development, Teimmo. CEO, Germany<br />
Real Estate Construction and<br />
Development, Albrecht re GmbH & Co.KG<br />
Formerly CFO, Business Development,<br />
Iridian Technologies (Switzerland),<br />
and CEO, Helitradewinds (US).<br />
“Throughout my career I have always been<br />
confronted with the urgent need to find<br />
innovative solutions to fulfil customers’ needs.<br />
In each case the challenge is unique<br />
and exhilarating and customer satisfaction<br />
determines whether a business lives or dies.<br />
This Trophy fosters the spirit of innovation<br />
and gives recognition to all those working hard<br />
to serve the customer.”<br />
CHRISTINE TAHON<br />
Representing the<br />
Functional Managements<br />
and Europe. HSE<br />
Director, with Solvay<br />
since 1980 working in R&D materials,<br />
engineering & construction, and the<br />
alkali sector (NOH/Belgium). Degrees in<br />
civil and material sciences engineering,<br />
Faculté Poytechnique de Mons (Belgium).<br />
“Many current HSE issues require new<br />
approaches and technologies, especially those<br />
that are environmentally friendly. Innovation<br />
visibility is essential to support Solvay’s global<br />
approach. The Trophy event is one way to<br />
achieve this. Additional support for innovation<br />
is needed to insure continuous development.”<br />
NOËL TRITZ<br />
Representing the<br />
European Works<br />
Council (EWC). Founder<br />
member of the EWC,<br />
Secretary since 2000.<br />
Joined Solvay Laboratory Division<br />
(Tavaux /France) in 1968. Quickly became<br />
involved in trade unionism (May 1968),<br />
first in the local works council,<br />
then at a national level.<br />
“My engagement on the local, national<br />
and European levels emphasizes the need for<br />
innovation so that tomorrow chemistry will still<br />
have a place in Europe. It is also necessary<br />
to be imaginative in developing renewable<br />
energy and managing the burden of waste.<br />
The Group must remain a leader in order<br />
to insure its long term economic health.”<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
15
Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
16<br />
reminds us: “Innovation is a must for every enterprise. We have<br />
to innovate fast and well and construct a future that breaks with<br />
the present.”<br />
Concrete outcomes<br />
Many of the winning projects from earlier trophies – in particular<br />
new products and new processes – are today household<br />
names at Solvay and making significant contributions to growth<br />
and performance. Everyone at Solvay knows Peptisyntha, now<br />
part of the SBU Molecular Solutions, and Vinyloop ® , both winners<br />
in 1999. The 2000 winners included Hugo & AMAP<br />
ANTOINE AMORY<br />
INTELLECTUAL ASSETS MANAGEMENT<br />
We were facing enormous technical<br />
problems getting our project<br />
launched. At one point we were close<br />
to abandoning it because all the<br />
objectives seemed far too ambitious<br />
given the limited internal resources<br />
available to us. The problems were,<br />
however, solved in an innovative way<br />
by setting up a number of<br />
partnerships which provided the<br />
missing expertise.<br />
JOACHIM BELT<br />
CHEMICALS BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT<br />
As the Innovation Champion of SBU<br />
Fluor, and then of Chemicals Sector<br />
Business Deployment, I had the<br />
opportunity to organize Innovation<br />
Trophies for this SBU and then for<br />
the Chemicals Sector, in 2005, with<br />
Georges Snoeck. This was a<br />
tremendous experience too! It is of<br />
course very hard work gathering all<br />
the projects, preparing the selection<br />
session with the jury and defining<br />
“The real Challenge is<br />
making optimal use of the<br />
energy of the 1 381 employees<br />
involved and of the 312 projects<br />
counted this year, as well<br />
as all the other projects.”<br />
Brigitte Laurent,<br />
Group Innovation<br />
Champion.<br />
Innovation Champions on record<br />
(performance improvement) and<br />
“Turnaround at Tavaux” (management<br />
improvement), a project that<br />
got a whole site working together as<br />
a team. Major investments have since<br />
been made in the USA to bring into<br />
production Inergy’s “PZEV fuel system”, one of the six 2003<br />
winners. Also widely deployed since then is the “H 2 O 2 production<br />
reviewed and corrected” project, the winner in the<br />
“Performance Improvement” category. It is important to stress<br />
that other less media-grabbing projects have been just as fruitful<br />
as Innovation Trophy winners and that certain projects would<br />
probably have made it without the Trophy. But the Trophy can<br />
strengthen an image, open doors and motivate teams.<br />
Each new Trophy is more successful than the last: 312 projects were<br />
submitted for this 4 th edition. The various managements pre-selected<br />
150 projects. 96 will finally be presented to the jury, who will plunge<br />
into this voluminous dossier during these two summer months.<br />
This uptrend in the number of initiatives is also reflected in the<br />
Group Innovation Scorecard indicator which consolidates the number<br />
of New Business projects across the various entities: 223 projects<br />
in 2003, 266 in 2004 and 308 in 2005.<br />
This process is clearly paying dividends in terms of keenness to<br />
develop new projects. It is also demonstrating just how much<br />
The Innovation Champions network was created in 2004 and is led by Group Innovation Champion<br />
Brigitte Laurent. Each SBU, CC and BSC in turn has its own Innovation Champion, tasked with promoting<br />
and organizing its own Innovation drive. Innovation Champions' profiles vary according to the entities<br />
they represent: more R&D-minded in Specialties entities, more quality coordination-oriented in entities concerned<br />
with performance improvement, more project management-minded elsewhere in the organization, etc.<br />
Our Innovation Champions play a vital role in the deployment of Innovation in the Group.<br />
It is they who have been the driving force behind the early stages of this fourth Solvay Innovation Trophy.<br />
19 of them give their testimonies.<br />
the prize-giving ceremony. But it is<br />
also very impressive to see how<br />
Innovation is being integrated into<br />
Group strategy and how the Chemicals<br />
Sector is moving more and more<br />
into Specialties.<br />
FRANÇOIS CARETTE<br />
ENGINEERING, CONSTRUCTION AND<br />
MAINTENANCE COMPETENCE CENTRE<br />
Collecting projects for the Innovation<br />
Trophy was a valuable opportunity to<br />
discover the many competences, skills<br />
and creativity existing within my own<br />
entity. The toughest part was whittling<br />
down the lists of candidates we finally<br />
put forward for the Group Trophy,<br />
a long and arduous task given the<br />
enthusiasm of the project teams.<br />
GRAHAM CARR<br />
SBU CAPROLACTONES<br />
As Innovation Champion (not my<br />
word!), I have been active in our small<br />
SBU Caprolactones since 1999. I have<br />
coordinated the presentation of
creativity there is in the Group and the value of healthy emulation.<br />
“The real Challenge is making optimal use of the energy of the<br />
1 381 employees involved and of the 312 projects counted this year,<br />
as well as all the other projects across the Group. This is why the<br />
many initiatives by different entities to organize their own Awards<br />
are just as important”, concludes Group Innovation Champion<br />
Brigitte Laurent.<br />
We can also draw parallels here with another Scorecard indicator<br />
which shows the evolution of the number of ideas collected<br />
per employee – 0.52 in 2003, 0.56 in 2004, 0.69 in 2005 –<br />
essentially via the ideas box.<br />
The 2006 Trophy: growth and competitiveness<br />
“For the 2006 Solvay Innovation Trophy, we have kept the best of the<br />
previous trophies. We have also launched some new ideas to give the<br />
Trophy even greater value”, Brigitte Laurent tells us. “The categories<br />
are the same as in 2003 (New Business, Customer-Oriented Projects,<br />
Performance Improvement, Management Improvement, Sustainable<br />
Development and Citizenship), except that ‘Transposable Innovations’<br />
becomes ‘Replicated Innovations’ By shifting from ‘transposable’ to<br />
‘replicated’, we want to place the accent on what has actually been<br />
implemented.”<br />
The call for projects has been coordinated by the Innovation<br />
several files, two of which have won<br />
Chemicals Sector trophies. The Innovation<br />
Trophy 2003 was an unforgettable<br />
experience for me, even though we came<br />
away empty-handed. I will never forget<br />
the artistic performance to display<br />
chemistry.<br />
PIERRE COERS<br />
HEALTH-SAFETY-ENVIRONMENT<br />
Being a Champion is not all fame and<br />
glory. This morning I passed a facetious,<br />
if not ironical colleague, who once again<br />
greeted me with a loud “Aaah, good<br />
morning Chammpiyon” (pronounced like<br />
the sound of a popping cork). My<br />
Outlook awakes from its slumber and<br />
brings me down to earth with a bump:<br />
scorecards, datasheets, Trophy, all<br />
awaiting my attention, deadlines,<br />
deadlines, deadlines… the flames<br />
of Innovation attack my diary…<br />
Where can I flee to?<br />
ÉTIENNE COLLIGNON<br />
FRANCE<br />
The French Innovation Champions spent an<br />
entire day together to speed up the<br />
processing of twenty or so ideas. They<br />
invited project authors, experts, managers<br />
and employees to a “Beehive" meeting. Two<br />
hours of spontaneous exchanges between<br />
these 60 people served to invalidate or<br />
redirect certain ideas and accelerate the<br />
processing of others. Recognizing and<br />
motivating the authors of the selected<br />
ideas was another objective<br />
of the operation.<br />
JUAN ANTÓNIO DELATTE<br />
COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE CENTRE<br />
AND IBERIA<br />
Xavier Catalan, the Managing Director<br />
of Benvic called me into his office.<br />
“Juan”, he said to me, “I’m convinced<br />
that unless we stake everything on<br />
innovation, our future is limited.<br />
I would like you to help us stimulate<br />
innovation at Benvic”. We set<br />
to work. He had clear ideas, and<br />
I was enthusiastic at the idea,<br />
and his employees were committed<br />
and motivated. The outcome is that<br />
Benvic has filed a patent application for<br />
a “colorimeter” with unique features.<br />
And there is more in the pipeline.<br />
The recipe for successful Innovation<br />
• Take a good handful of objectives: make sure they are fresh and<br />
good-sized. Remove at once any mediocre or timid objectives.<br />
You need ambitious objectives.<br />
• Place these objectives in the hands of a motivated management<br />
team which is not afraid to take risks and make mistakes. It is<br />
management commitment which makes the cake rise.<br />
• Marinate in a favourable corporate culture. After of course carefully<br />
clarifying the concepts of calculated risk, responsibility and the<br />
independence of your guests. Reserve in a separate bowl: be careful<br />
at this stage to prevent the dough from collapsing.<br />
• Beat everything together as a team, as a lone wolf is a lost wolf.<br />
Daringly add a dash of ingredients from elsewhere: exotic fruits,<br />
selected spices… Originality is a key component of novelty.<br />
• Place in the oven in a dish generously buttered with communication,<br />
watch the cooking process carefully and banish improvisation,<br />
because Innovation is very different from fantasy: big kitchens need<br />
to be run tightly.<br />
• Before serving, don’t forget a pinch of reward, but in particular<br />
decorate with recognition and serve with brio: this will make<br />
it all the more tasty.<br />
• And bear in mind that Innovation is an appetite-whetter: your guests<br />
will ask for more!<br />
PIERRE DEWITTE<br />
SBU SPECIALTY POLYMERS<br />
How do we arouse, encourage, amplify<br />
everyone’s creativity to innovate? Certain<br />
examples fascinated me. Luc De<br />
Brabandere showed us an analogy-based<br />
method. In his Innovation Café, Tom<br />
Balsano at SAP challenged us with other<br />
people's ideas. Anne Goldberg used TRIZ<br />
(Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) at<br />
Marietta. In every case “inventive<br />
thinking is inevitably dissident thinking,<br />
opening us up to ourselves and the<br />
outside world”.<br />
EILEEN DIAKUN<br />
SBU DETERGENTS<br />
One of my SBU customers defined<br />
Innovation as the ‘transfer of knowledge<br />
into money’. It is also ‘matching what’s<br />
needed with what’s possible’.<br />
Hence the significant challenge<br />
of innovation in an industrial context<br />
and in particular in chemistry. Finding<br />
the perfect answer to a particular<br />
problem is perhaps less important<br />
in itself than persevering<br />
and networking to get there.<br />
ERN EDMONDS<br />
SBU MOLECULAR SOLUTIONS<br />
Just arriving in Molecular Solutions, I was<br />
immediately overwhelmed by the ingenuity<br />
and energy of the scientists<br />
and engineers I encountered - often well<br />
beyond the cutting edge of new science<br />
invention, into the realms of exploration.<br />
The Innovation Trophy has been a golden<br />
opportunity for the new teams to convert<br />
ideas into innovation. As a humble physicist<br />
my role has been to play professional<br />
simpleton: “if it can be explained to me,<br />
anyone can understand it.”<br />
EDVAM FONSECA<br />
BRAZIL & ARGENTINA<br />
We created a seminar for our employees,<br />
bringing together the Values<br />
and Innovation around the message:<br />
Innovation is a result of Teamwork.<br />
We took elements from the “Living Values”<br />
seminar, adding information on the Solvay<br />
Innovation process and some creativity<br />
techniques from Professor Edward De Bono.<br />
Taken by groups of 20 people a time in<br />
2004 and 2005,this seminar was evaluated<br />
really well by all attendants.<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
➔<br />
17
➔<br />
DossierSolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
PAUL HARDING<br />
NAFTA<br />
In January 2006 we hosted Brigitte<br />
for an innovation showcase at Alpharetta<br />
and Houston, at which people reviewed<br />
projects on which they were working<br />
and intended to submit to the Innovation<br />
Trophy competition. The typical comment<br />
made by participants was: “I had<br />
no idea we had so many interesting<br />
and innovative projects in our<br />
organization”. The lesson here is that<br />
encouraging innovation at Solvay may<br />
be as simple as just taking the time<br />
to publicize it.<br />
HIELKE HOEKSTRA<br />
PIPELIFE<br />
I was amazed to see how proud<br />
the entities are of their projects…<br />
The fact of filling in the detailed<br />
project forms made them much more<br />
visible and understandable to me. It also<br />
highlighted the fact that innovation is<br />
relative. What is very<br />
innovative for some people<br />
is not necessarily for others.<br />
18<br />
“The Trophy points to the importance of thinking<br />
today how we are going to perform tomorrow.”<br />
Champions (IC) network. This has allowed them to gain visibility<br />
in their role, to develop specific initiatives and to offer<br />
advice to their teams whenever needed.<br />
The selection criteria differ from 2003. This time they are six in<br />
number: contributing to growth, contributing to competitiveness,<br />
creating value for our customers, acting for sustainable<br />
development, developing new and original projects and innovating<br />
in partnerships. These criteria express our desire to embed<br />
the Trophy in the Group’s wider thrust for growth and competitiveness.<br />
With its main theme “A better future. What do you<br />
see that we don’t?” the Trophy points to the importance of<br />
thinking today how we are going to perform tomorrow. “We<br />
must manage the present as a consequence of the future”, the<br />
Chairmens of the Executive Committee and of the Board of<br />
Directors wrote in our 2005 Annual Report. It is today’s innovations<br />
that will pave the way to tomorrow’s successes.<br />
And next... The winning projects will be chosen by an international<br />
jury of outside personalities and internal members<br />
(including representatives of the Sectors, Regions and<br />
YVES HONTOIR<br />
APPLIED TECHNOLOGIES ANALYSIS<br />
Our entity covers in- and on-line<br />
industrial analysers, bridging two<br />
worlds, that of Process Instrumentation<br />
and Control and that of Laboratory<br />
Analytic Technologies. Coming from<br />
the former background, I enjoyed getting<br />
to know better the lab<br />
people and their techniques.<br />
More synergies are already<br />
on the way.<br />
SANDER VAN HULSENBEEK<br />
PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR AND THE<br />
NETHERLANDS<br />
The SIT 2003 celebrations were<br />
an unforgettable moment of great<br />
pride and of a sense of working<br />
together: the captivating presentations<br />
in the afternoon, the films shown,<br />
some of which, including my own,<br />
drew audience applause,<br />
and the evening show.<br />
In brief, a Solvay Innovation Trophy<br />
is the occasion for us to gain visibility<br />
and possibly fame!<br />
Competence Centres). This<br />
jur y will select a winning<br />
team in each category and<br />
award the special partnership<br />
prize. The of ficial prizegiving<br />
ceremony will take<br />
p l a c e i n B r u s s e l s a t t h e<br />
closing ceremony of the<br />
Innovation days planned for<br />
the December 19 and 20.<br />
In conclusion, well beyond<br />
the context of the competition<br />
or festive event, the<br />
Trophy proclaims loud and<br />
clear the importance of creating<br />
value, the need for<br />
everyone to contribute, the<br />
role and importance of active management involvement, and<br />
the link between strategic thinking and teamwork results ●<br />
HORST KROEGER<br />
SBU FLUOR<br />
It’s very invigorating to see how many allies<br />
our SBU has in other Business Units:<br />
• Plastics has entered a project that<br />
involves a fluorinated product, SIFREN ® ;<br />
• SBU Molecular Solutions has submitted<br />
a project under our name which spotlights<br />
a multipurpose production concept from the<br />
Bad Wimpfen plant;<br />
• a project from the Central Laboratory<br />
describing how to analyse and characterize<br />
high purity hydrofluoric acid.<br />
Fluorine is decidedly the most attractive<br />
and reactive atom in the entire<br />
periodic table.<br />
MARC LACROIX<br />
SBU ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MINERALS<br />
Acting as an Innovation Champion is not<br />
just a matter of promoting or supporting<br />
innovation and replication within the<br />
Group. Very soon I found myself facing a<br />
new challenge: how can we go and find<br />
sources of innovation from beyond the<br />
Group boundaries? The reply that a group<br />
of colleagues and I found was the<br />
?<br />
BE OUR GUEST<br />
FOR THE<br />
INNOVATION<br />
DAYS.TAKE<br />
PART IN OUR<br />
QUIZ<br />
You know everything about the<br />
deployment of Innovation at<br />
Solvay … or you will after reading<br />
this issue of Solvay live. Follow the<br />
clues and find the answers<br />
to the 10 questions. Surf<br />
to www.innovation.<strong>solvay</strong>.com (1)<br />
from August 16 to September 22<br />
to take part in the Quiz.<br />
The 10 winners will be invited (2)<br />
to the Innovation days on<br />
December 19 and 20 in Brussels.<br />
Now that’s worth spending<br />
10 minutes testing your<br />
knowledge on!<br />
Happy searching and good luck.<br />
(1) A specific address will we available for Pipelife<br />
and Inergy Automotive.<br />
(2) Travel and hotel costs paid.<br />
“Innocentive@ Solvay” program.<br />
Can you imagine that Solvay’s R&D today<br />
has the power of over 80 000 researchers?<br />
And that you pay only for the successes!<br />
ALEXIS MARCHAND<br />
FINANCE<br />
If you ask for my personal assessment of<br />
the Innovation Trophy initiative, I would say<br />
that the Innovation Trophy is a formidable<br />
opportunity for all of us to get the message<br />
that we are all innovative (at times without<br />
being aware of it) and to have our work<br />
recognized by the outside world.<br />
GISÈLE MARÉCHAL<br />
SBU SODA ASH<br />
The Innovation Champion is the lubricant –<br />
but the engine driving Innovation is the SBU<br />
Top Management team. My satisfactions as<br />
Innovation Champion?<br />
To feel the energy and to see good ideas<br />
successfully deployed on the ground.<br />
It’s also seeing Innovation approaches<br />
from different parts of the SBU<br />
rewarded internally or externally.
© Henrik Sorensen / Getty Images<br />
New business<br />
New products,<br />
markets, applications and services.<br />
New entreprises<br />
\ INNOVATION AT PHILIPS LIGHTING \ Page 20<br />
THE APPLYING PROJECTS \ Page 22<br />
\ The best of both worlds \ A decisive step towards supremacy \ Nutrition: opening new horizons<br />
\ Purely competitive \ A product that makes life easier for the paper industry<br />
\ A miracle product… that appeared out of nowhere \ Solvay, the leading producer of H 2O 2 in China<br />
\ Made-to-measure manholes \ One brand, several products<br />
\ A new product for high end solvent formulations \ A wall plaster that proudly displays its colours<br />
\ The competitiveness of “honeycombs” \ Sodium bicarbonate: a specific partner for each application<br />
\ Everything is replaceable \ Winning the leadership \ An end to toxic accumulation \ New<br />
developments for capacitors \ The Swiss knife of the pharmaceutical industry<br />
> Contact person and team<br />
> Entity submitting the project<br />
JULY 2006<br />
19
Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
20<br />
The lighting market is under heavy pressure from<br />
an invasion of Chinese products. How do we<br />
react to such a situation? How can we protect our<br />
know-how? Should we relocate? Innovation<br />
is central to Philips Lighting’s response.<br />
Innovating<br />
to stay up front<br />
Lighting life has changed 360 degrees in<br />
recent years”, was Klaas Vegter's opening shot. “The<br />
good old days when Philips, General Electric and<br />
Osram together shared 70% of the world lighting<br />
Philips<br />
“At<br />
products market between them are long since gone”, the Chief<br />
Technology Officer of the Lamps business group told Solvay live.<br />
The shock came from the Far East. For the past fifteen years,<br />
Chinese companies have been flooding the lighting market (incandescent<br />
and TL lamps) with lower quality but very cheap products.<br />
“They penetrate the market through major retail chains”, Klaas<br />
Vegter explains. “So we set up shop in China where we produce certain<br />
low energy consumption lamps – real ‘commodity’ products –<br />
whilst improving their quality to maintain our brand value.”<br />
Protecting one’s know-how<br />
Philips Lighting, on the other hand, protects its mainstream business.<br />
“Office lighting, industrial lighting and street lighting are sectors<br />
where longevity, quality and reliability are still criteria of choice.<br />
In certain environments it is an expensive job replacing blown lamps!”<br />
There’s no question of know-how transfer or cooperation with<br />
China. “Here we jealously guard our know-how”, Klaas Vegter warns.<br />
But competition is not just about products. New technologies have<br />
irrupted into the lighting market, totally changing the entry barriers<br />
to the profession. Semiconductors were foreign to the Philips culture.<br />
Today, Taiwan alone has hundred of companies which together<br />
can feed the entire world market with light-emitting diodes (LEDs,<br />
OLEDs). Philips’ response to this situation was to acquire<br />
Californian LED producer Limuleds. “Diode production is still marginal<br />
to our main business. However, we cannot rule out that one day<br />
we will need diodes in our traditional applications, where we want<br />
LED die (Light Emitting Diode).<br />
to remain present.” Semiconductor technology is so different,<br />
though, from that of traditional lighting, that the two worlds live<br />
their own separate lives at Philips.<br />
Innovating to maintain a lead<br />
It is in traditional lighting that Philips remains leader. Here too<br />
though, the Dutch company is feeling the growing pressure from<br />
China. “We will remain the best only if we maintain our lead”,<br />
Klaas Vegter acknowledges. The research department is first of<br />
all confronted with a question of internal organization and recognition<br />
of its true mission, see-sawing between “obligatory<br />
service” to the operating units that finance its research projects,<br />
and its need to pursue a longer-term vision, by definition of less<br />
immediate interest to the operating units. Greater financial<br />
autonomy was the first necessary step. “15% of our budget is now<br />
devoted to long-term projects. I’m careful to make sure we do not<br />
take on missions that are really the job of the operating units. I’m<br />
putting my team back on the track of their real profession, that of<br />
finding new ideas. Each team member is given 5% of his or her time<br />
to explore new avenues, with bonuses for success! This has redynamized<br />
my team.” Klaas Vegter has also demanded that each<br />
team that is developing a new idea construct a demonstration
pilot model. No matter if this piece of equipment looks foolhardy<br />
or a little mad, we need to touch and feel it. This dynamizes<br />
team work (it is also great fun) and twice a year, R&D organizes<br />
a demo day on its own premises which has a bit of the feel of an<br />
inventions fair about it. “The marketing people are beginning to<br />
come and look”, Klaas Vegter told Solvay live. “You swap ideas<br />
differently in front of a contraption than in front of a diagram,<br />
however smartly done.”<br />
For Klaas Vegter, you don’t force someone to produce new ideas.<br />
But once you’ve got thirty or so people together, there is a statistical<br />
effect and new ideas emerge. “What stimulates creativity best<br />
is the logic and consistency with which management encourages its<br />
employees, by recognizing their efforts, providing logistic support and<br />
with a direct impact on remuneration.”<br />
No one likes being ridiculed! Within an enterprise like Philips,<br />
everyone evolves within a hierarchy, and all managers occupy<br />
positions vis-à-vis their peers that they have to protect. “It is the<br />
most competent people in particular who hesitate to take risks, as<br />
they are putting at stake their image, and at times their functions<br />
or roles in their groups.” Developing a creative culture<br />
means giving people confidence that they can take the risk of<br />
advancing into unknown territory... Without paying the consequences<br />
if it doesn't work out. •<br />
© Digital Vision/John Cumming<br />
The right<br />
to be wrong<br />
ccepting one’s own mistakes<br />
“Aand those of others”, is a wellknown<br />
management principle. “And<br />
even so, it’s not as easy as that to<br />
apply”, Klaas Vegter admits. “Let me<br />
give you an illustration. We had<br />
organized a project presentation day<br />
for which I had strongly encouraged<br />
my employees to be creative”, Klaas<br />
Vegter recalls. “One of my researchers<br />
made a very personal presentation of<br />
his project in the form of a humoristic<br />
little play. At the time I didn’t catch<br />
onto his approach, and my face<br />
probably expressed a certain<br />
irritation. After his presentation, he<br />
came up to me and apologized and<br />
said how sorry he was he had taken<br />
the wrong approach. It was then that<br />
I understood his choice, and was<br />
highly embarrassed. I answered that<br />
on the contrary, I was impressed<br />
by his daring and also his courage<br />
to take the risk of doing things<br />
differently from the rest. It was I who<br />
had lacked imagination and openness.<br />
I often use this example in front<br />
of all the others. Even the Research<br />
Director came close to discouraging<br />
an original idea!”<br />
New business<br />
Innovation demo day<br />
- sharing ideas and projects.<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
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22<br />
PVC AND NATURAL FIBERS COMPOSITES:<br />
A SYNERGISTIC MARRIAGE<br />
THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS<br />
PVC is without a doubt the most widely used<br />
plastic in the home. It is therefore only<br />
logical that it should meet the expectations<br />
of consumers, who are becoming increasingly<br />
demanding when it comes to design<br />
and aesthetic innovations.<br />
Hence the idea of setting up a marriage<br />
between PVC and natural fibre composites<br />
to make the most of two worlds: the<br />
properties of PVC (low maintenance, good<br />
stability in humid conditions, very good<br />
reaction to fire, flexibility in terms of shapes<br />
and colours) can be harmoniously combined<br />
with the characteristics of natural fibres<br />
(pleasant appearance, feel and even odour<br />
of the wood and other fibres, tried and tested<br />
rigidity, good stability for external uses).<br />
The innovation consisted of the development,<br />
in partnership with the fibre suppliers<br />
and the clients, of shaped interior and exterior<br />
materials but also injection moulds and films.<br />
These materials can be handled as easily<br />
as PVC (without the need for any specific<br />
equipment), can be worked like wood (they<br />
can be sawn and nailed) and can be recycled<br />
in the same application without losing their<br />
properties. Furthermore, as they contain 20 to<br />
60% of natural fibres (including wood waste)<br />
they help preserve non-renewable resources.<br />
These kinds of wood-like composites are<br />
already used in the US and are starting to gain<br />
a foothold on the European market, offering<br />
a promising potential for commercial<br />
development.<br />
> Claudine Bloyaert; Jean-François Cart; Xavier Coudry;<br />
Dirk Dompas; Saramas Duangport; Isabelle Georges-<br />
Guerand; Pierre Lomenech; Jean-Louis Lorand;<br />
Carmelo Ricci; Wuthilaohaphan Siriporn; Richard<br />
Thommeret; Alain Wyart.<br />
> SBU VINYLS<br />
104761<br />
TSBM IS A NEW METHOD FOR PRODUCING FUEL<br />
SYSTEM WITH FULL INTEGRATION OF COMPONENT<br />
A DECISIVE STEP<br />
TOWARDS SUPREMACY<br />
The PZEV (Partial Zero Emission Vehicle)<br />
was imposed in 2005 in certain American<br />
States. Inergy took up the gauntlet and<br />
developed TSBM (Twin Sheet Blow Molding)<br />
as an answer to the generalization of this<br />
regulation. Quite an achievement, as it not<br />
only offers advantages in terms of a<br />
reduction in pollution (emissions and noise)<br />
but also cuts costs. The manufacturing<br />
process developed allows molding and blow<br />
molding in one single step, along with the<br />
simultaneous integration of all of the system<br />
components. The TSBM is the fruit of an<br />
intense partnership between R&D (pilot line<br />
in NOH between 2003 and 2005),<br />
the industrial departments, the development<br />
centres of the clients and external suppliers.<br />
After conducting various tests on the<br />
prototype and validating the industrial<br />
procedures, the tool will be transferred<br />
to Rottenburg in 2007. Inergy is expecting<br />
to sell up to 3.4 million units of its system in<br />
2012 and will do so by increasing by half the<br />
number of new markets, in particular in Asia<br />
where its strategic clients are concentrated.<br />
They are already showing strong interest:<br />
in addition to the various aforementioned<br />
reductions, the TSBM will allow them<br />
to increase the useful fuel volume of their<br />
vehicles, to more easily integrate the various<br />
components into fuel systems with a reduced<br />
number of connections and thus simplify<br />
the assembly lines. The TSBM process is so<br />
revolutionary that is paves the way for<br />
the development of new components for<br />
the fuel systems of the future, sounding<br />
the knell of steel tanks.<br />
> Bjorn Criel; Mireille Paulus; Philippe Bournonville;<br />
Pascal Dehenau; Franck Dhaussy; Serge Dupont;<br />
Daniel Hayot; Frédéric Jannot; Hervé Lemoine;<br />
Richard Lesschaeve; Barbara Mabed;<br />
Philippe Martin; Pierre-François Tardy.<br />
> SBU INERGY<br />
105040<br />
VITALOA: LET’S FEEL BETTER!<br />
NUTRITION: OPENING<br />
NEW HORIZONS<br />
In a sector where scientific rigueur is a key<br />
success factor, Vitaloa aims at producing<br />
and selling nutritional ingredients that are<br />
beneficial to our health. The first target<br />
segments are the intestinal transit, the<br />
mineral balance and the weight control.<br />
The project is developed in cooperation<br />
between Lactalis, the leading cheese<br />
company in Europe and the second largest in<br />
the field of fresh dairy products, bringing its<br />
knowledge of the food industry and market<br />
access, and Solvay, contributing both with a<br />
raw material and with its<br />
pharmaceutical/health expertise.<br />
Vitaloa is based on a particular disaccharide<br />
resistant to gastro-enzymes of which Solvay<br />
Pharmaceuticals is the leading producer<br />
world-wide – the GalactoFructose or<br />
lactulose (DUPHALAC ® ). Vitaloa can be a<br />
launching pad for Solvay to develop in a new<br />
and growing market. The scientific and<br />
pharmaceutical foundations of Solvay,<br />
combined with the experience of Lactalis<br />
create a simple recipe meant to succeed.<br />
> Pascal Ronfard; Baerbel Grams; Chantal Heroux;<br />
Perrine Immer; Jean-Jacques Maugas; Marc Welz.<br />
> NBD
103495 104912<br />
NANO-COMPOSITE TECNOFLON ® PFR<br />
FOR SEMICON APPLICATIONS<br />
PURELY COMPETITIVE<br />
The demand for high quality<br />
fluoropolymers entails the use<br />
of compounds that meet the new criteria<br />
of macromolecular chemistry. The resulting<br />
challenge lies in the capacity to control the<br />
macromolecular structures and to produce<br />
compounds that combine the polymers and<br />
highly dispersed fillers. That is the case of<br />
our Tecnoflon ® perfluoroelastomers, which<br />
have the highest chemical and thermal<br />
resistance capacities of all the elastomers on<br />
the market. They have been produced<br />
through the combination of different<br />
technologies held by Solvay Solexis. It is<br />
important to point out that the nanoparticles<br />
that have gone into the manufacture<br />
of the Tecnoflon ® PFR 5910 and PFR 5920 are<br />
effectively dispersed, thanks to a proprietary<br />
co-coagulation technology, and not<br />
agglomerated as is the case for several<br />
materials unduly described as nanocomposites.<br />
As is proven by their transparency. These<br />
ultra-clean and ultra-resistant products are<br />
used as joints in equipment earmarked for<br />
the plasma etching of silicon wafers, which<br />
necessitates the highest degree of purity,<br />
the absence of metallic ions, good sealing<br />
properties and exceptional chemical<br />
resistance qualities. The first industrial sales<br />
of Tecnoflon ® PFR started in 2005 in the semiconductor<br />
sector. However, its performances<br />
destine it for other segments such as the<br />
pharmaceutical, food, medical and aerospace<br />
industries, and for use in all processes that<br />
call for a material of an extreme purity<br />
combined with good mechanical properties.<br />
> Vincenzo Arcella; Margherita Albano; Marco Apostolo;<br />
Stefano Arrigoni; Giovanni Comino.<br />
> SBU SPECIALTY POLYMERS<br />
SOLV-X, A NEW STABILIZER FOR PULP BLEACHING<br />
A PRODUCT THAT MAKES<br />
LIFE EASIER<br />
FOR THE PAPER INDUSTRY<br />
The paper industry has long since been<br />
using hydrogen peroxide as a pulp<br />
bleaching agent. The bleaching process calls<br />
for the use of stabilisers (silicates) to avoid<br />
the decomposition of the peroxide under<br />
the effect of the metallic ions (manganese<br />
and iron) which come from the soil in which<br />
the tree has grown. The action of these ions<br />
not only reduces the quality of the bleaching<br />
but also affects the characteristics of the<br />
pulp. Sodium silicate is introduced into<br />
the process in order to counter these<br />
negative effects. But given that the silicate<br />
precipitates in the presence of calcium,<br />
industrialists who use hard water face other<br />
problems, since they frequently have<br />
to replace or clean the equipment and<br />
are confronted with difficulties when using<br />
recycled water in the process. To overcome<br />
all these problems, Solvay has developed<br />
a new product, the SOLV-X, based on<br />
a polyhydroxyacrylate molecule. Two<br />
variants of the product are proposed, one<br />
which is highly active and another less<br />
active, to meet as much as possible the needs<br />
of the paper industries. The product is<br />
biodegradable, which tangibly reduces the<br />
environmental impact. With SOLV-X, Solvay<br />
offers an alternative to silicate with a new<br />
product. One single competitor is present on<br />
this niche market. A partnership has been set<br />
up with the chemical company Clariant<br />
for the development and subsequent<br />
world-wide production of SOLV-X. Research<br />
is also currently underway to check whether<br />
the SOLV-X can be also used for paper<br />
de-inking.<br />
> Rodney Soccombe; Pierre Dournel;Anna Mannaerts.<br />
> SBU H 2O 2<br />
New business<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
23
Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
104809<br />
24<br />
FERRATE OF SODIUM OR POTASSIUM:<br />
A NEW PRODUCT FOR WATER TREATMENT<br />
A MIRACLE PRODUCT…<br />
THAT APPEARED<br />
OUT OF NOWHERE<br />
Ferrate of sodium (or potassium) is a<br />
powerful oxidant, a biocide that coagulates<br />
like ferric chloride in water: a unique<br />
combination of properties for water<br />
treatment, whether for water contaminated<br />
with arsenic or manganese, with effluents<br />
from dyeing or tanning activities. The only<br />
problem is that this compound is very unstable<br />
in solution and has never been produced in its<br />
solid state. As part of a European project,<br />
Solvay, along with eight partners, took up this<br />
challenge.<br />
The result, after four years of hard work, we<br />
managed to:<br />
• produce large batches of the product to feed<br />
the post research;<br />
• develop a technology for solid production<br />
via a fluid bed;<br />
• reduce the cost of the raw materials;<br />
• carry out broad research into the treatment<br />
of drinking water, municipal and industrial<br />
wastes, and others…<br />
The decision to roll out this project on<br />
industrial scale should be announced in 2006.<br />
> Léon Ninane; Claude Criado.<br />
> NBD<br />
104724<br />
HIGH PURITY HYDROGEN PEROXIDE – NEW<br />
MANUFACTURING PLANT AND JV IN CHINA<br />
SOLVAY, THE LEADING<br />
PRODUCER<br />
OF H 2O 2 IN CHINA<br />
China is witnessing a very strong growth<br />
in the demand for high purity hydrogen<br />
peroxide for the production of semiconductors.<br />
Surprisingly, China currently has<br />
no H2O2 producer. The obstacles to the<br />
investment are the high amounts required<br />
and the fear of losing precious know-how.<br />
Therefore, China continues to import high<br />
purity H2O2 from Japan and Taiwan, keeping<br />
away from European imports because the<br />
transport cost for these high purity products<br />
is too high. Solvay decided to find a way<br />
around all these difficulties. First of all, by<br />
developing a new purification process that is<br />
much less expensive and also by carrying out<br />
in China only the last stages of the product<br />
purification. The previous stages will be<br />
carried out in the Solvay plant in Bernburg<br />
(Germany). The transport cost of the<br />
intermediary product remains standard.<br />
The two plants are therefore intrinsically<br />
linked and the industrial secret protected.<br />
Again to protect its know-how, Solvay will<br />
build the new Chinese plant… in Germany!<br />
The plant will be commissioned on site<br />
before being transferred to China in separate<br />
parts. Such a project could not be developed<br />
without a solid Chinese partner. An in-depth<br />
search made it possible to identify Suzhou<br />
Electronic Materials, a reputed producer of<br />
high purity chemical products based in the<br />
Chinese “silicon valley”. It is with this partner<br />
that Solvay has created Interox SEM Co. Ltd,<br />
in which it holds a 51% stake. After being<br />
developed in Bernburg, the plant has headed<br />
for China to be assembled. It is set to be<br />
inaugurated in September 2006.<br />
> Steve Dobson; Juergen Bosse; Matthias Dabrunz;<br />
Robert Owen; Thomas Ploetzke; Michael Sell;<br />
Luzhen Wang.<br />
> SBU H 2O 2<br />
104659<br />
PRO 630-800-1000 MANHOLES.<br />
MADE-TO-MEASURE<br />
MANHOLES<br />
Manholes are key to the drains and sewer<br />
business and must be wide enough<br />
to allow easy access. To gain a foothold on<br />
this new market, from which it was absent<br />
until now, the SBU Pipelife got its creative<br />
juices going and put its finger on a gap<br />
in the market. It has developed a competitive<br />
and original solution that is able to reduce<br />
the material and labour costs. Its new<br />
generation manholes are manufactured<br />
in such a way as to allow the various<br />
compatible components to be easily<br />
assembled. Thanks to this design, the client<br />
can enjoy a high degree of flexibility. He can<br />
ask for specific configurations, which is a<br />
huge advantage when you think that these<br />
kinds of manholes often have to be installed<br />
in difficult, extreme or unexpected<br />
environments, often at the intersection<br />
of several pipelines. The R&D department,<br />
in partnership with manufacturers, came up<br />
with assembly machines that are specially<br />
designed to optimise the quality of the<br />
investment and to reduce the cost. Several<br />
machines have been developed to meet<br />
the needs of various markets.<br />
The result, which is a clear move away<br />
from the products offered by the<br />
competition, immediately went down well<br />
with the clients, who are particularly interest<br />
in the possibilities of customisation. Sales<br />
exceeded forecasts from the outset,<br />
but Pipelife has not rested on its laurels<br />
and has gone out to meet prospective clients<br />
with a promotional lorry.<br />
> Hielke Hoekstra; Hans Guitonneau;<br />
Andrzej Kowalewski; Vilnis Puce.<br />
> SBU PIPELIFE
105133<br />
SOLVAIR TM : NEW BRAND<br />
FOR ALL AIR QUALITY PRODUCTS<br />
ONE BRAND,<br />
SEVERAL PRODUCTS<br />
In the US, as in Europe, the air quality<br />
control is increasing, pushing the industries<br />
to constantly improve the purification<br />
of their air emissions. Taking into account the<br />
important potential business this context<br />
represents, the commercial teams of the<br />
different Solvay Chemicals’ SBUs organised<br />
themselves in an original way in order<br />
to effectively approach this market and its<br />
customers. The idea is to offer solutions<br />
rather than presenting a simple portfolio<br />
of separate commercial products. The teams<br />
worked together to set up a transversal<br />
platform able to study the customer’s needs<br />
and provide him with the ideal air quality<br />
control solution. The products can come<br />
indiscriminately from any of the Group’s<br />
units. The team is totally client focused when<br />
it comes to determining the optimal solution<br />
in line with the specificities of the demand.<br />
To acquire the necessary visibility, a new<br />
brand - SOLVAir TM - has been registered<br />
and deployed according to the products.<br />
A commercial communication campaign has<br />
been launched in the professional press to<br />
inform the market of this new partner. Under<br />
one and the same brand, SOLVAir TM covers<br />
several sodium carbonates, sodium sulphite<br />
and oxygen peroxide. Having got off the<br />
ground in May 2005, SOLVAir TM should<br />
channel to Solvay a strong demand of this<br />
growing market.<br />
> Mike Wood; Mike Attwell; Bob Ball; Paul Bradley;<br />
Stande Carpenter; José-Manuel de La Hoz;Alastair<br />
Mcneillie; Jim Phillip; Bob Skogley; Jim Vysoky; David<br />
Calvo; David Henry; John Maziuk; Gary Mularski;<br />
Marcie Peters; Rissa Prince.<br />
> SBU SODA ASH<br />
104818<br />
SOLKANE ® 365MFC AS A KEY COMPONENT<br />
FOR SOLVENT APPLICATIONS<br />
A NEW PRODUCT<br />
FOR HIGH END SOLVENT<br />
FORMULATIONS<br />
Industrial cleaning, dry cleaning<br />
and precision cleaning face several challenges<br />
in the coming years. The electronics industry<br />
for example is driving their designs to<br />
smaller and smaller parts with increasingly<br />
complicated geometries and surfaces. Various<br />
solvents and a large variety of combinations<br />
are currently in use. Solvay has launched<br />
a new product onto this market, SOLKANE ®<br />
365mfc, which boasts many advantages. Asia<br />
is a key market, the Japanese market in<br />
particular, as Japanese companies are setting<br />
technology standards in a number<br />
of industries (electronic, optical, automotive,<br />
Dry cleaning). SOLKANE ® 365mfc is already<br />
very successful in dry cleaning applications<br />
in Japan. Three major suppliers of dry<br />
cleaning machinery are now on the market<br />
with equipment specifically designed for<br />
SOLKANE ® 365mfc – one of these machines<br />
now cleans the clothes of the guests of the<br />
Imperial Hotel in Tokio, probably one of the<br />
most prestigious addresses in the country!<br />
The success of the project is largely due to<br />
the dynamism of the Nippon Solvay team.<br />
The list of advantages of SOLKANE ® 365mfc<br />
is long. In dry cleaning for example it ensures<br />
fast cleaning cycles at low temperatures<br />
(saving energy) while delivering wrinkle free<br />
clothes without any smell and without the<br />
need to use antibacterial additives. The aim<br />
is to sell 1 000 tonnes of this product for this<br />
application in the mid term. Overall sales<br />
of SOLKANE ® 365mfc are expected to grow<br />
to 9 000 - 10 000 tonnes.<br />
> Christoph Meurer; Yoichi Ebe; Ulrich Klinner; Terumi<br />
Koike; Michael Marhold; Wilfried Moritz; Masaki<br />
Shimada; Norman Solheid; Alexis Thoelen.<br />
> SBU FLUOR<br />
New business<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
25
Dossier<br />
105013<br />
26<br />
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
HIGH QUALITY PLASTER FOR EXTERIOR WALL COVERING<br />
A WALL PLASTER THAT PROUDLY<br />
DISPLAYS ITS COLOURS<br />
Solvay AFM develops new products for new<br />
markets. One of these is an innovative PCC<br />
(precipitated calcium carbonate) which comes in the<br />
form of a mineral additive for use in indoor or<br />
outdoor wall plasters. The new Solvay product,<br />
known as ARW 100, is earmarked for plaster for<br />
outdoor use. Its use in wall plasters improves<br />
their impermeability while letting the wall breathe.<br />
The resistance to abrasion and the adhesiveness to<br />
the support are also increased. Application is made<br />
easier, guaranteeing aesthetic results. Finally, the<br />
preparation already contains the pigment and<br />
therefore makes it possible to do without the usual<br />
coat of paint which is costly in raw materials,<br />
in labour and maintenance. The product comes<br />
in a broad spectrum of colours. This new product has<br />
been developed with Italian partners, Macri,<br />
specialized in plaster products. It can look forward to<br />
a promising future, as the biggest Italian<br />
manufacturers of construction products have already<br />
shown an interest. But what about production?<br />
Between 1 000 tonnes and 2 000 tonnes per year<br />
and the action plan already has its sights set on<br />
gaining a foothold on other European markets.<br />
Thanks to these new and innovative product, Solvay<br />
has given all added value to all its customers<br />
downstream of the commercial chain:<br />
• a innovative and profitable application for plasters<br />
producers;<br />
• an alternative for architects to propose an<br />
ecological solution to the final consumer, with a<br />
large choice of colours;<br />
• savings in terms of products, costs and of the time<br />
of the installers, through a higher performance<br />
product;<br />
• a faster and less costly construction of buildings<br />
and houses, through the selection of a precise ink for<br />
the final consumer.<br />
> Thierry Grange; Mike Ball; Sébastien Caspard; Dominique<br />
Debecker; Maik Diederich; Gaetano Francese;Alberto Galasco;<br />
Jean-Paul Guerre; Sandrine Hellinckx; Marc Lacroix; Luc Lebrun;<br />
François Monnet;Alvinio Ravasi; Roberto Rosa; Jean-Paul<br />
Schoebrechts; Nathalie Sibold; Didier Sy.<br />
> SBU AFM<br />
104995<br />
NIDACELL INSIDE: AN OPEN DOOR<br />
TOWARDS NEW OPPORTUNITIES TO PRODUCE<br />
3D STRUCTURES COMPOSITES<br />
THE COMPETITIVENESS<br />
OF “HONEYCOMBS”<br />
N idacellTM is the first procedure to offer the<br />
possibility of both extruding<br />
and assembling honeycombs 3D structures<br />
on a continuous line.<br />
Developed initially for PVC, the Nidacell<br />
technology is now set to be used in the<br />
processing of a very broad range of<br />
thermoplastics ranging from PVC (soft, rigid,<br />
recycled) to the polymers of the most cutting<br />
edge specialties (PPSU, PVDF, TPE…).<br />
It allows industrialists active in the fields<br />
of furniture, aeronautics or the automobile,<br />
to produce light, rigid or supple, insulating,<br />
fire or chemical resistant panels at a<br />
competitive cost and in line with demand.<br />
Solvay intends to exploit the numerous<br />
technical innovations coming out of the<br />
development of this revolutionary procedure<br />
by selling licenses as well as through<br />
the additional sales of polymers, thus paving<br />
the way for new applications and new<br />
markets.<br />
> Philippe-Jacques Leng; Dominique Grandjean;<br />
Marc Gansemans; Claude Dehennau.<br />
> NBD<br />
104704<br />
BUILDING ON PARTNERSHIPS TO MARKET<br />
AND SELL NEW BICAR ® BASED APPLICATIONS<br />
TOWARDS CONSUMERS<br />
SODIUM BICARBONATE:<br />
A SPECIFIC PARTNER<br />
FOR EACH APPLICATION<br />
Our grandmothers were well aware of the<br />
benefits of sodium bicarbonate,<br />
properties that have been somewhat<br />
forgotten today, with the exception of<br />
countries such as Italy or the US. Nevertheless,<br />
we are observing widespread renewed<br />
interest in more “natural”, healthy and safe<br />
products. That is the image that sodium<br />
bicarbonate enjoys in Italy, and over and<br />
beyond its image, bicarbonate is often<br />
positioned as a more natural alternative to<br />
certain components in cosmetics or detergents.<br />
We are therefore anticipating multiple<br />
possibilities for domestic applications<br />
“containing sodium bicarbonate”. However,<br />
our teams do not have all the necessary<br />
competences to quickly develop these new<br />
applications nor to introduce them into<br />
the mass distribution market. An original<br />
approach, whose main aim is to visibly<br />
introduce sodium bicarbonate into a range<br />
of “wellness” products, has therefore been<br />
adopted. Starting with the most promising<br />
applications, one or several partners have<br />
been selected and an adapted cooperation<br />
agreement was defined (patent, brand,<br />
royalties and distribution policy). The first<br />
results are already visible: you can find<br />
B2Clean ® (partnership with ISOPAC) or a<br />
bicarbonate “anti-allergenic” detergent<br />
(partnership with Vandeputte – “Eau<br />
Écarlate ® ”) in your hypermarkets and several<br />
products are also set to hit the shelves<br />
in the near future.<br />
> Nicolas Palangie; Jean-Philippe Pascal; Giordano<br />
Zapelli; Olivier Patat.<br />
> SBU SODA ASH
104683<br />
CAPA FB100 : HOW TO SUPPLY<br />
A NEW PRODUCT INTO A BIG MARKET WHILE<br />
OVERCOMING PRODUCTION LIMITATIONS<br />
EVERYTHING IS REPLACEABLE<br />
Our client manufactures biodegradable<br />
packaging for food products using<br />
polylactic acid and starch. They were looking<br />
for an adhesive sheet to bind together<br />
different materials and fulfil the required<br />
conditions. They initially opted for a Dow<br />
product but were not completely satisfied.<br />
They then contacted Solvay. We proposed<br />
our new CAPA FB 100. A sample was supplied<br />
to the client, whose tests proved to be<br />
conclusive. Several small deliveries allowed<br />
the client to gain experience with the<br />
behaviour of the product. Finally, Solvay<br />
received an order for 15 tonnes. However,<br />
the product was custom-made by Alkor<br />
Draka. Bad luck, this supplier accepted to<br />
produce 10 tonnes but then stopped its<br />
production, which meant that we had to find<br />
a new manufacturer. In February 2006,<br />
Solvay concluded an agreement with<br />
Standridge Color Corp, an American company<br />
that already manufactured the end product<br />
for our client. The transfer of know-how was<br />
carefully controlled to protect Solvay’s<br />
intellectual property. The new partner is<br />
developing a pilot and is meeting the<br />
demands of Solvay and of the client. The<br />
demand is gradually increasing and currently<br />
amounts to 1 000 tonnes per annum. The fact<br />
that the manufacturer is American and<br />
already involved in the process also brings<br />
a whole series of appreciable advantages.<br />
> Jeffrey Neidinger; Stewart Derbyshire; Henri Wautier.<br />
> SBU CAPROLACTONES<br />
104604<br />
ACHIEVE A LEADERSHIP POSITION<br />
AS A GMP MANUFACTURER<br />
OF THERAPEUTIC OLIGONUCLEOTIDES<br />
WINNING THE LEADERSHIP<br />
Girindus is a manufacturer of chemical<br />
and pharmaceutical specialties<br />
and process-developer and has skills in the<br />
production of oligonucleotides, active<br />
compounds being deployed in the treatment<br />
of diseases such as cancer, asthma, AIDS,<br />
allergies, cardio-vascular problems and<br />
in skin applications. The company is present<br />
in Germany and in the United States with<br />
140 employees, including 50 scientists<br />
of doctorate level. These specialists augment<br />
the research skills of Solvay, as Solvay holds<br />
a stake of over 75% in Girindus A.G. The<br />
project consists of developing a process that<br />
avoids wasting time and money during<br />
the synthesis phase of a new product.<br />
A completely new approach has been<br />
developed and registered (protected<br />
by copyright) involving the use of specific<br />
solvents, a complex and reliable activator<br />
for the basic material, the rationalisation<br />
of the reaction process in the synthesis<br />
of the oligonucleotides and simplification<br />
of the purification. A whole range<br />
of improvements have been implemented,<br />
including the use of cheaper raw materials<br />
and the reduction in the consumption of<br />
solvents, to improve the competitive position<br />
on the market. The therapeutic market is<br />
particularly buoyant and Girindus is now<br />
uniquely placed to increase its production<br />
capacity, thus remaining a credible<br />
and competitive supplier.<br />
> Ern Edmonds; Kathy Ackley; Raj Bandaru; Inga Gwose;<br />
Andreas Hohlfeld; Meinolf Lange; Frintz Link; Andreas<br />
Schoenberger.<br />
> SBU MOLECULAR SOLUTIONS<br />
New business<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
27
Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
103515<br />
28<br />
SOLVERA ® : NEW PRODUCTS<br />
FOR GREASE PROOF PAPER<br />
AN END TO TOXIC<br />
ACCUMULATION<br />
Fluorochemicals are used to make paper<br />
greaseproof, mainly in the food packaging<br />
industry. In 2000, 3M withdrew from<br />
this international market following the<br />
discovery of a persistent degradation product<br />
that was also bio-accumulative and toxic.<br />
Suddenly, bright new opportunities arose<br />
for newcomers. Using PFPE (perfluoropolyethers),<br />
the chemists at Solvay Solexis designed<br />
a new molecular structure capable of meeting<br />
the following demands :compatibility with<br />
existing paper chemistry and application<br />
methods, the capacity to homogeneously cover<br />
the porous substrate without any pin holes,<br />
a toxicological profile sound enough to fulfil<br />
the demands of the Food and Drug Administration<br />
and proven safety of the degradation products.<br />
All these properties had to be combined<br />
with impermeability to oil and water, in line<br />
with the needs of the market. Three products<br />
were thus developed under the Solvera PT<br />
range. At the same time, the industry needed<br />
new testing methods that would allow them<br />
to quickly evaluate the real resistance<br />
of the paper during the production process.<br />
Solvay Solexis developed these new test<br />
methods and they have since been adopted<br />
by the main players in the sector.<br />
These innovative products give Solvay Solexis<br />
a decisive competitive edge thanks<br />
to its inimitable technological platform<br />
and the high degree of process integration.<br />
The innovations have allowed this type<br />
of paper to escape the vicious cycle<br />
of toxic bio-accumulation. .<br />
> Piero Gavezotti; Fiorenza Daprile; Antonella Di Meo;<br />
Padigala Mahesh; Claudio Tonelli; Tania Trombetta.<br />
> SBU SPECIALTY POLYMERS<br />
104425<br />
HIGH PURITY BARIUM CARBONATE COATED<br />
WITH TITANIUM DIOXIDE : A NEW APPROACH<br />
TO THE SYNTHESIS OF ELECTRONIC MATERIALS<br />
NEW DEVELOPMENTS<br />
FOR CAPACITORS<br />
The innovation covers a powder known as<br />
BaCO3 HP FC, which includes a core of high<br />
purity barium carbonate and a shell of titan<br />
dioxide, and also its method of production.<br />
This powder is used as a basic ingredient for<br />
the solid state production of high crystalline<br />
barium titanate. The traditional procedure<br />
involves mixing and grinding of mixtures<br />
of barium carbonate and titanium dioxide<br />
followed by an high temperature calcination.<br />
The new procedure strongly improves<br />
the mixing of the reactants, which<br />
subsequently triggers a better and faster<br />
reaction. With the BaCO3 HP FC, the<br />
electronic industry can manufacture better<br />
performing barium titanate and, in turn,<br />
better ceramic capacitors. This approach<br />
permits a more cost effective production<br />
of high end ceramic capacitors, extending<br />
their market share against other types<br />
of capacitors. Finally, this innovation leads<br />
to an increase in the barium titanate market<br />
and broadens the scope of the barium<br />
carbonate. The Institute of Energetics and<br />
Interphases at the Italian National Research<br />
Council participated in the project in 2004 and<br />
2005. The product will be manufactured<br />
in a specially adapted plant. Production is set<br />
to be launched in 2006 and sales in 2007.<br />
> Rocco Alessio; Maria Teresa Buscaglia;Vincenzo Buscaglia;<br />
Arianna Daquino; Sara Trombella.<br />
> SBU BARIUM-STRONTIUM<br />
104530<br />
MULTIPURPOSE PLANT FOR FLUORINATED<br />
CF3 AND CF2-SPECIALTIES<br />
THE SWISS KNIFE<br />
OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL<br />
INDUSTRY<br />
It is a broadly accepted fact that one in every<br />
three new pharmaceutical or agronomic<br />
projects contains a fluorine atom. Solvay has<br />
earned an envied reputation and leadership<br />
position on the fluorinated specialties market<br />
but it is a cost conscious and competitive<br />
market. To increase cost-effective flexibility<br />
and reduce the financial risk associated with<br />
the construction of dedicated new plant, Solvay<br />
had the idea of designing a multipurpose plant<br />
for fluorinated specialties. This called for the<br />
pooling of a broad spectrum of skills. The plant<br />
was built in Bad Wimpfen (Germany),<br />
a wine-growing region that imposes strict<br />
environmental protection rules. All these<br />
regulations were respected and the relationship<br />
with the plant’s neighbours and the local<br />
authorities is constantly nurtured. Built in 2002<br />
the plant sets out to make a contribution<br />
of around MEUR 3.5 to the sales of the SBU<br />
now in 2006. This figure should reach MEUR 20<br />
in 2010 if we take into account the projects<br />
currently under development. Several<br />
compounds have already been delivered from<br />
this multi-purpose installation: intermediate<br />
fluorinated products for Pfizer, Eli Lilly,<br />
Sanofi-Adventis, Esteve, Cenral Glass, Lonza,<br />
Dow and others and more recently, a new<br />
herbicide was developed in cooperation with<br />
Dow Agro.<br />
> Ern Edmonds; Max Braun; Francine Delplanque;<br />
Johannes Eicher; Ralf Herkelmann; Matthias Lipp.<br />
> SBU MOLECULAR SOLUTIONS<br />
New business
Customer<br />
oriented projects<br />
Projects made possible by<br />
close collaboration<br />
\ INNOVATION AT CARL ZEISS \ Page 30<br />
THE APPLYING PROJECTS \ Page 32<br />
\ The power of IT at the service of scientific documentation<br />
\ Keeping our ears open for faults \ The satellite at the service of medicine<br />
\ If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it! \ Speed makes all the difference \ When the dietician<br />
supports the family physician \ Plastics at the service of medicine \ Buy Solvay!<br />
\ A multidimensional matrix to master Cheops \ Viscosity upon customers request<br />
\ The idea is in the bag \ A quadruple winner \ Scientific memory on the Intranet<br />
\ An Asian hub to accelerate deliveries of our products \ High quality in high demand<br />
\ Improving flue gas desulphurization in the glass industry<br />
\ A revolution in automobile construction<br />
\ The client asks, Solvay innovates and responds \ Learning from each new development<br />
\ Clean and sparkling!<br />
> Contact person and team<br />
> Entity submitting the project<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
29<br />
© Anthony Harvie / Getty Images
Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
30<br />
Under its slogan “We make it visible”, Carl Zeiss, known<br />
worldwide for its high quality optical equipment, brings<br />
into sharp focus its corporate objective of making<br />
everything that exists visible to the human eye.<br />
Seeing everything, even the naturally invisible?<br />
An earth-shuddering ambition.<br />
Today Carl Zeiss leads the world in precision optics<br />
and high tech instrumentation. But it has been a<br />
struggle getting there. Created in Jena in 1846 by<br />
Carl Zeiss, who was joined in turn by physicist Ernst<br />
Abbe and chemist Otto Schott, the company started manufacturing<br />
microscopes. It grew rapidly and gained remarkable<br />
fame. But the Second World War dealt it a hard blow. First its<br />
Dresden plant was badly bombed, then the company was cut<br />
in two with the creation of the two Germanies. In the East,<br />
the Zeiss and Schott factories became the state-owned “VEB<br />
Carl Zeiss Iena”. In the West, where 126 scientists were transferred<br />
to the American occupation zone, the “Optische Werke<br />
Oberkochen” continued its activities. Each lived its own life<br />
for 40 years. But with the fall of the Berlin wall and the reunification<br />
of the two Germanies the unimaginable happened: the<br />
separated couple remarried again. The reunification of the two<br />
companies, in fact a forced repurchase of the eastern company<br />
by the western company, required an integration effort<br />
and financial commitment which brought the latter to the verge<br />
of bankruptcy. A few years on, however, Carl Zeiss has<br />
recovered its former lustre. Better than that: with over<br />
Optics focused on the future: mirror system<br />
for the sample of an EUV (Extreme<br />
Ultra Violet) exposure system for upcoming<br />
chip generations.<br />
Innovation<br />
a driver for growth<br />
10 000 employees worldwide and sales topping EUR 2.2 billion,<br />
it is again a world leader in its sector. But this success did not<br />
come about just like that.<br />
Innovation and customer focus<br />
In the late 1990’s, close to bankruptcy and fighting for its corporate<br />
survival, Carl Zeiss undertook a fundamental reorganization.<br />
Management was radically overhauled and three new board<br />
members were appointed. Their first action was to offer a vision,<br />
an enterprise mission in which innovation took pride of place.<br />
“We continue to challenge the limits of man’s imagination”, this<br />
vision states. “We will be regarded as the most innovative company<br />
in our field of business”. Innovation and technical excellence<br />
are one of seven core values at the heart of Carl Zeiss’s mission.<br />
And these are more than fine-sounding words. 10% of company<br />
revenues are earmarked for research and development. True,<br />
this may be less than in some other industry sectors. “But even<br />
so it is considerably more than our competitors invest”, Group<br />
Quality Officer Thomas A. Louis tells us. “Innovation has always<br />
been the bedrock of Carl Zeiss's growth from day one. We are
Seeing everything even the naturally invisible:<br />
optimum vision for plastic and reconstructive<br />
surgery is provided by the OPMI Vario surgical<br />
microscope by Carl Zeiss.<br />
convinced it will remain the driver of our success.”<br />
For Carl Zeiss carefully listening to its customer’s<br />
needs and expectations is a key success factor. This<br />
proactive approach may go as far as actually accompanying<br />
on the spot a medical eye procedure to fully<br />
understand why the accuracy and high definition of<br />
colours are so important for a specific lens in the<br />
medical equipments used during operation. Carl<br />
Zeiss publishes its own customer magazine,<br />
“Innovation”. Each issue contains 60 fascinating<br />
pages of texts, photos and illustrations. The subjects go further<br />
than seeking to sell our products. “We’ve published a whole series<br />
of articles on technologies that could serve to forewarn us of seismic<br />
movements. We’ve included remarkable articles, for example, on<br />
the fabulous progress that optics is making possible in eye and brain<br />
surgery. Our message is clear: innovation lies at the heart of progress<br />
for humanity.” At Carl Zeiss innovation is a state of mind, with<br />
an objective that goes beyond short-term profitability. It is part<br />
of the search for well-being in general. “We want to avoid falling<br />
into the trap of purely profit-motivated creativity”, Thomas A.<br />
Louis says approvingly.<br />
Celebrating innovation<br />
Every year, Carl Zeiss brings together 250 or so employees for<br />
three days in a European capital to celebrate their creativity initiatives.<br />
Innovation is broadly defined to include products, technologies,<br />
management approaches and new commercial ideas.<br />
Hundreds of proposals are submitted through the new business<br />
generation process, additional ones come up through the famous<br />
electronic “ideas box” which the company has recently developed.<br />
“This Internet based form which allows any Group employee<br />
to propose an idea that he or she finds creative and value-creating<br />
– both key criteria! Several individual are working full-time to<br />
manage the innovation pipeline and making sure every idea is<br />
© Digital Vision/John Cumming<br />
Customer oriented projects<br />
Let’s encourage<br />
communication<br />
about failures!<br />
At Carl Zeiss they not only celebrate<br />
successes, but also award sharing<br />
the essence of failures. The company<br />
even has a dedicated ‘most successful<br />
failures’ trophy. These are projects that<br />
seemed to have everything going<br />
for them, but at a certain point in their<br />
development ran up against an<br />
unexpected and irremovable obstacle.<br />
By celebrating project teams who<br />
successfully shared their learnings from<br />
failures and giving them a certain<br />
visibility, the company hopes to avoid<br />
repeating the same mistake<br />
a few years on. In one example,<br />
a new technology did not make it<br />
to the market and failed to generate<br />
the expected added value. But it did<br />
allow the company and its customer<br />
to gain precious know-how.<br />
The company and its partner also<br />
came closer together. Success is not<br />
always where you expect it most.<br />
correctly evaluated and followed up. We really do try to prevent a<br />
good idea being snuffed out through routine processing, simply<br />
because it sounds crazy or because it has never been done before.”<br />
Less than a dozen projects received funding in the first year of<br />
the innovation award. Last year, the number ran significantly<br />
higher. In each of the six innovation award categories two or<br />
three finalists are presented. Many of the award-winning projects<br />
are carried through to the project stage. In fact, the point<br />
in the development process at which the award is given illustrates<br />
the company’s willingness and ability to take calculated<br />
risk. Thomas A. Louis: “Rewarding too early is not being serious.<br />
Rewarding too late is a sign of timidity. We want to reward<br />
ideas before we are really certain that they will make it. To share<br />
in its employees’ efforts, the company also needs to share the risk.<br />
Creativity, ingenuity, commitment and courage are needed to<br />
foster a culture in which good ideas are relentlessly turned into<br />
valuable new products and services.”•<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
31
Dossier<br />
32<br />
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
104409 104510<br />
E-JOURNALS @ YOUR DESK<br />
THE POWER OF IT<br />
AT THE SERVICE OF SCIENTIFIC<br />
DOCUMENTATION<br />
The electronic journals system that<br />
has been set up between 2001 and 2003<br />
replaces the old system that consisted<br />
of the manual circulation of paper copies<br />
of scientific articles required to feed the<br />
pharmaceutical research work.<br />
It combines the integrated content search<br />
platform SWOC (SwetsWise Online Content),<br />
which compiles 19 000 written press titles<br />
and over 500 electronic journals, with the F17<br />
Autodoc distribution system, which channels<br />
the information required to the electronic<br />
desk of the clients, at the latest 24 hours<br />
after the request is entered.<br />
The system gives Solvay Pharmaceuticals<br />
a unique, high-performance, integrated<br />
electronic tool for all the scientific journals<br />
and articles, covering a very broad spectrum.<br />
Not only is the system of a high-quality,<br />
it is also fast and reasonably priced.<br />
It is implemented in Weesp (Netherlands)<br />
and Hanover (Germany), and already<br />
has extensions in Marietta (US) and<br />
Suresnes (France) and soon at Fournier<br />
Pharma (France).<br />
> Natalie Heckemueller; Maria Hennig;<br />
Eric Mecking.<br />
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR<br />
SUBSTITUTION OF HYDROSTATIC PROOF<br />
OF PRESSURE EQUIPMENT BY A PNEUMATICAL<br />
TEST FOLLOWED BY ACOUSTIC EMISSION<br />
KEEPING OUR EARS<br />
OPEN FOR FAULTS<br />
The periodic requalification of “Pressure<br />
Equipment” calls at the very least for an<br />
underwater hydraulic test preceded by an<br />
internal and external visual examination<br />
of the surface.<br />
This method is laborious and costly,<br />
especially in the case of pressure equipment:<br />
• containing products that are corrosive<br />
when in contact with water;<br />
• that are insulated, refrigerated or flame<br />
retardant (need to withdraw the insulation in<br />
order to have access to the external surface).<br />
In partnership with other industrialists,<br />
the CC ECM Materials and Corrosion have<br />
developed a less intrusive method, based<br />
on acoustic emission, and has had it certified<br />
by certain authorities as being equivalent<br />
to hydraulic testing.<br />
Acoustic emission consists of analyzing,<br />
via captors placed on the structure, the elastic<br />
waves spontaneously generated by<br />
a material when it undergoes deformation,<br />
degradation or damage. It is then possible<br />
to locate in real time the precise position<br />
of the fault, even if the latter is situated<br />
in an inaccessible area. The result: increased<br />
security, significant savings in maintenance<br />
costs and a reduction in downtime, which<br />
amount to thousands tonnes of production.<br />
> Étienne Gravy; Michel Beucler; Pascal Labeeuw.<br />
> CC ECM MATERIALS & CORROSION<br />
Life Transition<br />
104598<br />
WORKING TO BUILD A COHESIVE<br />
CYSTIC FIBROSIS GROUP IN SASKATCHEWAN<br />
THE SATELLITE<br />
AT THE SERVICE OF MEDICINE<br />
The two biggest clinics in Saskatchewan<br />
(Canada) treating fibroses were suffering<br />
from a chronic lack of communication.<br />
Similarly, at internal level, that is, within one<br />
and the same establishment, there was<br />
no communication or coherence between<br />
the adult and paediatric departments.<br />
To remedy this problem, a high-level training<br />
programme, earmarked for families whose<br />
members suffered from fibrosis,<br />
was launched in the towns of Regina and<br />
Saskatoon. The originality of the project lies<br />
in the use of the Telehealth satellite<br />
as a support for the conferences organised<br />
for the families and for the healthcare<br />
professionals. At the end of these<br />
conferences, which covered the main clinics<br />
of the province, the reputation of Solvay<br />
Pharmaceuticals and its medicine Creon ® had<br />
been given quite a boost. The partnership<br />
between Solvay Pharmaceuticals<br />
and the clinics treating the fibroses continues<br />
and Solvay Pharmaceuticals has clearly<br />
become to be regarded among healthcare<br />
professionals as a leader in the provision<br />
of educational support to these groups<br />
of patients.<br />
> Dale Upton; Tamara Klassen.<br />
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR
104408<br />
PRODUCING YET PURER “E-GRADE”<br />
HYDROFLUORIC ACID THROUGH ENHANCED<br />
ANALYTICAL CAPABILITIES<br />
IF YOU CAN’T MEASURE IT,<br />
YOU CAN’T IMPROVE IT!<br />
Hydrofluoric acid (HF), a high purity grade<br />
for the electronics produced in Alorton<br />
(USA), was suitable for its applications,<br />
meanwhile due to a lack of sufficiently<br />
precise analytical methods, it was impossible<br />
to characterise it and, above all, to make<br />
further progress. No sooner said than done,<br />
as thanks to this project the experience<br />
of trace analysis acquired in high purity<br />
hydrogen peroxide has been transferred<br />
to HF. The innovation consisted, first of all,<br />
of creating an adapted analytical environment<br />
(“clean room” concept), and installing<br />
the necessary devices with the required<br />
detection power. The teams then<br />
focused their attention on minimising the<br />
preparation of the sample, which was<br />
reduced to a simple dilution: under half an hour<br />
in all. The method has now proven its<br />
robustness and has become the reference for<br />
the semi-conductor industry. It has effectively<br />
made it possible to pinpoint and improve<br />
the quality of our products and to increase<br />
our sales and our market shares on the high<br />
purity market.<br />
> Koen Vermeiren; Doug Boyer;<br />
Jean-Marie Collard.<br />
> CC ANALYTICAL TECHNOLOGIES<br />
105025<br />
PATENT ALERTING SYSTEM<br />
SPEED MAKES<br />
ALL THE DIFFERENCE<br />
Patent Patent<br />
Building on the strengths of the Tech Watch<br />
system, the alert service makes it possible<br />
to draw the attention of a target scientific<br />
community to the existence of certain patents<br />
as soon as they are published, proactively<br />
and at a low cost. For this service, the speed<br />
of communication takes priority over<br />
the exhaustiveness of the monitoring coverage.<br />
In fact, when the patents are published, they<br />
are generally only available in their original<br />
submission language. It can take up to three<br />
months before an English summary of a<br />
sufficient quality becomes available, either<br />
in the commercial databases, or on the sites<br />
of the patent offices. The immediate detection<br />
of a patent as soon as it is published calls, thus,<br />
for a search to be carried out on the basis<br />
of the language in which it is published and/or<br />
on the basis of the minimum classification<br />
granted by the patent offices. This limitation<br />
inevitably diminishes the exhaustiveness of the<br />
monitoring coverage. That is why the alert<br />
service is reserved in practice to the surveillance<br />
of the titles of third parties that could<br />
potentially pose an obstacle to the Solvay<br />
activities in Europe and in the US, and to those<br />
cases in which it is important to be quickly<br />
and proactively informed. Each member<br />
of the target community is alerted directly<br />
and exclusively by electronic mail. They are<br />
therefore in a position to react: make<br />
comments, warn a colleague, etc. The alert<br />
service takes place in various stages:<br />
surveillance of databases specialising in patents<br />
by a robot, extraction of the data corresponding<br />
to the selection criteria, extraction of patents<br />
from free access Internet sites, examination<br />
of the information relevance by specialists,<br />
and if of interest, dispatch of an e-mail alert<br />
to the researchers.<br />
> Thierry Depireux; Antoine Amory; Philippe Jacques;<br />
Christian Thiriaux; Aalt Vandekuilen.<br />
> CC IAM<br />
Customer oriented projects<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
33
Dossier<br />
104917<br />
34<br />
DANCE (DICETEL ® AND NUTRITION<br />
COMBINATION EVENT)<br />
WHEN THE DIETICIAN<br />
SUPPORTS THE FAMILY<br />
PHYSICIAN<br />
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
The treatment of patients suffering from<br />
irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is often<br />
a source of frustration for the family<br />
physician. Because of the very nature<br />
of the problem, patients are reluctant to discuss<br />
their physical or psychological problems<br />
and the chances of being able to control the<br />
symptoms over a long period are limited.<br />
In practice, the patients return to consult their<br />
doctor because they find that the effects<br />
of the Dicetel ® treatment are incomplete or too<br />
slow. Many get impatient, do not assiduously<br />
follow the prescriptions and interrupt the<br />
treatment. The idea is to combine treatment<br />
with Dicetel ® with an appropriate diet,<br />
defined by qualified nutritionists.<br />
Dicetel ® is now prescribed for three months and<br />
at the same time the patients receive a voucher<br />
for a visit to the dietician, reimbursed<br />
by Solvay Pharmaceuticals. This system, which<br />
was set up in 2005, had a positive outcome<br />
with an increase in sales of Dicetel ®<br />
and an improvement in relations between<br />
the physicians and the patients.<br />
> Carolyn Bush.<br />
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR<br />
103564<br />
TOWARDS SAFER MEDICAL<br />
AND BIOLOGICAL PACKAGING<br />
PLASTICS AT THE SERVICE<br />
OF MEDICINE<br />
Adetailed study on the content<br />
of leachable compounds in the plastics<br />
materials has been carried out in order to:<br />
• reinforce their acceptance and therefore<br />
strengthen our market position;<br />
• look into the possibility of their use in cell<br />
culture, a new growing market.<br />
A comprehensive analysis strategy has been<br />
developed, taking into account not only the<br />
characteristics of the containers and contents<br />
but also all the possible crossed<br />
contaminations. This approach combines,<br />
on the one hand, available analytical<br />
techniques, some of which are being used up<br />
to their detection limits, and, on the other it<br />
nurtures a permanent dialogue with internal<br />
clients, in all the study phases.<br />
This methodology may be widely extended,<br />
mainly to the plastic materials used in<br />
medical and food applications.<br />
> Serge Eeckhoudt; Lodewick Berkenbosch;<br />
Wim Devos; Patrizia Dorazio; Robert Elcik;<br />
Peter Karsten; Ingrid Luyten; Jean Morel;<br />
Pascal Pennetreau; Juan Villanueva.<br />
> CC ANALYTICAL TECHNOLOGIES<br />
101364<br />
THE BUY SOLVAY PROJECT LEVERAGE EXISTING<br />
GROUP NETWORKS TO GROW THE BUSINESS<br />
BUY SOLVAY!<br />
The Group is changing from one day to the<br />
next, making it difficult for the mere mortals<br />
at Solvay to keep track of its entire products<br />
portfolio.<br />
This issue applies not only to the Group’s<br />
employees, but also to its clients and suppliers.<br />
And in view of the cost of acquiring<br />
a new client, it quickly becomes clear that<br />
reinforcing existing commercial contacts<br />
is a better promise of new sales.<br />
To do so, the International Purchasing Department<br />
(DIA) has set up a project that exploits our<br />
existing networks by putting the focus on product<br />
knowledge and communication.<br />
This campaign targets:<br />
• the Group’s employees, as they are in touch<br />
with certain prescribers of our products,<br />
physicians for example;<br />
• the Solvay buyers, whether they need to order<br />
products for construction (for example, PVDF<br />
for the chemical reactors in Rosignano/Italy)<br />
or for production (for example sodium silicate<br />
to manufacture percarbonate on the same site);<br />
• the buyers of our clients and of our suppliers,<br />
in order to consolidate our privileged links<br />
(for example Pipelife tubes installed<br />
by Gaz de France).<br />
This initiative is unprecedented in the industry. It<br />
was launched in 2003 for a four year period. And<br />
the results generated are already very promising<br />
(EUR 7, 5 million per year today with an estimated<br />
potential of EUR 18 million per year).<br />
> Jean-François Dehem; Patrick Balletto;<br />
Michel Bokobza; Oscar Corti; Chantal De Brabanter;<br />
Patrick Lacroix; Jean-Pierre Meriaux; Freddy Smit.<br />
> CC DIA
MATRIX RELOADED...<br />
WITH THE SUPPORT OF BILL<br />
A MULTIDIMENSIONAL<br />
MATRIX TO MASTER CHEOPS<br />
Imagine a huge matrix, multidimensional<br />
of course, and that contains billions<br />
of figures: the Group’s entire financial<br />
memory and forecasts.<br />
Every day, managers and controllers analyse<br />
the trends and use them to back up their<br />
operational or strategic decisions. With<br />
a wealth of information on 260 companies,<br />
the matrix contains no fewer than 140 GB<br />
of data, or 22 million entries, accessible<br />
by around 600 users. But its supporting systems<br />
were running out of steam.<br />
And the demands to make it better, faster<br />
and cheaper, were continuously increasing.<br />
That is why it became necessary to redefine<br />
the matrix. First of all, by setting up new<br />
processes, aimed in particular at shortening<br />
the publication times of the annual accounts<br />
and also by migrating the matrix into a SQL<br />
database accessible via the Microsoft tools,<br />
in the best interests of all users. And this is<br />
where Bill comes into it! Thanks to an<br />
original partnership between Solvay<br />
(SIS and DCFi) and Microsoft, the transfer<br />
between the former database and the new<br />
one went smoothly and the cost was kept<br />
down. Long live the “matrix”, also known as,<br />
yes you’ve guessed it, Cheops.<br />
> Stéphane Collignon; Luc Barbeaux;<br />
Harold de Laveleye; Michel Joannes.<br />
> DCFi-SIS<br />
102068<br />
104275 SOLVIN, THE PARTNER IN VINYLS<br />
FOR AUTOMOTIVE MASTIC MANUFACTURERS<br />
VISCOSITY UPON<br />
CUSTOMERS REQUEST<br />
Car makers are putting increasing pressure<br />
on parts manufacturers to obtain high<br />
tech products. For example, the PVC mastics<br />
that they use are so specific, in particular<br />
in terms of viscosity, that the producers are<br />
finding it difficult to come up with<br />
raw materials that are appropriate for<br />
their products. Few qualities are available.<br />
In partnership with Henkel Surface<br />
Technologies, a car parts manufacturer for<br />
the sector SolVin developed, back in 2001,<br />
a new PVC resin for this market. The<br />
collaboration with this client was intense<br />
and a large quantity of information was<br />
exchanged relating to the specifications,<br />
the analytical methods and the results.<br />
What’s more: SolVin supplied Henkel with<br />
several series of samples that the latter was<br />
able to evaluate in depth. The joint research<br />
led to industrial trials in 2003.<br />
Since then, SolVin has integrated the new<br />
resin into its global offer and supplies<br />
different mastic manufacturers generating,<br />
at the end of the day, an increase in this<br />
business. The new resin quality is being<br />
promoted among clients of other segments<br />
that could benefit from the progress it brings<br />
for applications that call for specific<br />
viscosities. Furthermore, it paves the way for<br />
further fruitful cooperation with Henkel<br />
and already gives an additional boost to the<br />
high-tech and privileged partner image<br />
enjoyed by SolVin.<br />
> Séverine Rochard; Hervé Boisson;<br />
Olivier Brulard; Jean-Pierre Steinmetz.<br />
> SBU VINYLS<br />
© PSA<br />
Customer oriented projects<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
35
Dossier<br />
102069<br />
36<br />
PVC PACKING PVC, NO MORE WASTE ISSUE,<br />
EASIER FOR THE CUSTOMER<br />
THE IDEA IS IN THE BAG<br />
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
It all started off with a simple idea: why not<br />
pack PVC in PVC rather than in polyethylene<br />
(PE) bags? The idea gradually grew into an<br />
ambition: to produce a quality that is at least<br />
equivalent to that of PE, sufficiently resistant to<br />
be used in the FFS (Form Fill and Seal) bagging<br />
units while at the same time smartening the<br />
appearance of the transport pallets. To do so,<br />
three obstacles had to be overcome:<br />
• it was necessary to find an industrial partner<br />
with experience in the production<br />
and marketing of plastic bags;<br />
• a product had to be developed to meet<br />
the required technical specifications;<br />
• the PVC bags had to be tested in extreme<br />
climatic conditions.<br />
In partnership with the Italian company Eurosak,<br />
a first formula was developed. It immediately<br />
revealed the qualities of the product: mechanical<br />
resistance, resistance to friction during transport,<br />
good ageing properties and an attractive cost.<br />
Only the extreme cold posed a problem. Then,<br />
within the framework of a research programme,<br />
each of these characteristics was evaluated<br />
and the recipe improved. New tests conducted<br />
in Italy confirmed the high resistance<br />
of the improved formula in a broad range<br />
of temperatures. The project promoters<br />
are therefore confident about its long-term<br />
development, even if a few modifications (made<br />
necessary by everyday use) still need to be<br />
applied. We should add that the PVC bags make<br />
a significant contribution to the realisation<br />
of the Vinyls 2010 recycling objectives.<br />
> Carmelo Ricci; Gérard Bozzi; Roland Keusch;<br />
Stéphane Metzler; Harald Stockmann.<br />
> SBU VINYLS<br />
104777<br />
AN INTERACTIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP<br />
FOR FAMILY PHYSICIANS DESIGNED TO TEACH<br />
INTRA-ARTICULAR INJECTIONS<br />
A QUADRUPLE WINNER<br />
The idea is to hold a one-day interactive<br />
session to teach family physicians how<br />
to correctly perform intra-articular injections.<br />
As this is not part of their general training,<br />
the general physicians send their patients<br />
to be treated by specialists.<br />
The training sessions, run by a specialist,<br />
would begin with a theoretical course<br />
on osteoarthritis and the various available<br />
treatment options, including Pennsaid.<br />
Then, practical injection work on models<br />
would be performed by the doctors<br />
themselves. This kind of training would<br />
be a winning formula in four respects:<br />
• the status of the family doctor would be<br />
enhanced thanks to an additional know-how<br />
that would ultimately benefit his patients;<br />
• the patient is given immediate treatment<br />
and develops an additional relationship<br />
with his family doctor;<br />
• the healthcare system is unburdened<br />
of relatively minor interventions;<br />
• Solvay Pharmaceuticals has, along<br />
with the family doctors, more opportunities<br />
to prescribe Pennsaid, the treatment<br />
of choice for these pathologies.<br />
> Kimberley Colbert.<br />
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR
104125<br />
TECH WATCH - ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY<br />
MONITORING TOOL<br />
SCIENTIFIC MEMORY<br />
ON THE INTRANET<br />
There is no end to technical, scientific and<br />
regulatory information. To such a point<br />
that it is difficult to filter and find what<br />
is really important for a particular field<br />
of activities. And yet, to give a direction<br />
to research, it is essential that we do not<br />
“reinvent the wheel”. To simplify the<br />
overview and make life easier for the Group’s<br />
scientists, Tech Watch posts patent<br />
summaries, a string of scientific publications<br />
as well as legislation that are of interest<br />
for the Group, all of this in English.<br />
This pertinent information is divided into<br />
different categories in a central database,<br />
accessible via the Solia Intranet. Researchers<br />
can access it wherever they are and can<br />
search the base either directly or with the<br />
help of specialists. They can also set up alerts<br />
related to their specific interests and will be<br />
alerted by e-mail of any new information<br />
in their field. A monthly compilation can also<br />
be printed out from the Intranet site.<br />
If a publication is of interest to the researchers,<br />
they can order it on-line (scientific literature)<br />
or access it directly (patents, legislation).<br />
The system will directly allocate them any<br />
associated costs. Today, the database<br />
contains around 680 000 entries, which are<br />
available to users at a low cost and faster<br />
than ever before.<br />
> Antoine Amory; Luc Botte; Catherine Charlot;<br />
Nathalie Decuyper; Alain Delroeux; Thierry<br />
Depireux; Pierre Drijvers; Valérie Dufaye; Sylvie<br />
Duret; Annie Fontaine; Marc Houtekie; Philippe<br />
Jacques; Viviane Lambert; Christian Thiriaux;<br />
Isabelle Thirionet; Martine Vaneenoo; Guy Verdicq.<br />
> CC IAM<br />
105226<br />
SEA REGIONAL HUB-WAREHOUSE<br />
AN ASIAN HUB<br />
TO ACCELERATE DELIVERIES<br />
OF OUR PRODUCTS<br />
Deliveries of the Solvay Solexis products<br />
being exported from Italy to Thailand<br />
or Vietnam were taking too long: 35 days<br />
for sea transport.<br />
It was difficult in these circumstances to gain<br />
the loyalty of clients when competitors<br />
producing in Asia could deliver from their<br />
local stock. For Solvay, air transport, which<br />
is a faster option, or the setting up of a local<br />
stock were too expensive to consider. Today<br />
however, thanks to the use of a central<br />
warehouse for South East Asia (SEA) based<br />
in Singapore, these delivery times have been<br />
reduced to less than 10 days.<br />
This drastic reduction in delivery times was<br />
made possible by an effective cooperation<br />
between the Group’s companies in Thailand<br />
and in Singapore. Solvay Thailand is<br />
responsible for the customer care and<br />
the technical support and submits the orders<br />
of Thai and Vietnamese clients to Solvay<br />
Singapore, which, in turn, takes care<br />
of the delivery and invoicing. This chain<br />
of responsibilities is based on an agency<br />
agreement contract established between<br />
Solvay Singapore and Solvay Thailand.<br />
This new approach has already made it<br />
possible to retain an important client<br />
and to increase the competitiveness of Solvay<br />
Solexis in South East Asia.<br />
> Mangkonkarn Boonchana; Troy Peh.<br />
> BSC ASIA – PACIFIC<br />
Customer oriented projects<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
37
Dossier<br />
103499<br />
38<br />
SIFREN 46: A NEW ENABLING MOLECULE<br />
FOR THE SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY<br />
HIGH QUALITY<br />
IN HIGH DEMAND<br />
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
The semi-conductor market was calling out<br />
for a gas for the extra-fine and precise<br />
etching of the plasmas present in particular<br />
in memories. However, any product<br />
developed had to meet stringent<br />
environmental requirements. Hence the idea<br />
of gaining a foothold on this market with<br />
Sifren, a gas obtained from our Fluorine gas<br />
technology. This is the best solution to meet<br />
the critical demands of plasma etching.<br />
Furthermore, it is an ecological compound<br />
that has a short lifetime in the atmosphere,<br />
a negligible global warming potential and<br />
which is inert with regard to the<br />
stratospheric ozone layer. The difference<br />
in comparison with other gases is, in this<br />
respect, decisive. Sifren has a unique<br />
personality thanks to the ratio between<br />
carbon atoms and fluorine, which gives it the<br />
crucial capacity for optimal etching conduct<br />
while at the same time forming a polymer<br />
protective layer. The photoresistance<br />
efficiency and selectivity is also very high.<br />
The growing demand for Sifren 46,<br />
particularly on the Asian market, will be<br />
satisfied by the doubling of its production<br />
capacity between now and 2010.<br />
> Vito Tortelli; Emanuela Antenucci; Diego Gazzale;<br />
Francesco Morandi; Marcello Riva; Pierluigi Seri.<br />
> SBU SPECIALTY POLYMERS<br />
104682<br />
PARTNERSHIP WITH CUSTOMER, TO DEVELOP<br />
OPTIMIZED FLUE GAS CLEANING AND RESIDUES<br />
TREATMENT FOR GLASS INDUSTRY<br />
IMPROVING FLUE GAS<br />
DESULPHURIZATION<br />
IN THE GLASS INDUSTRY<br />
The regulations in the field of the cleaning<br />
of gaseous effluents in the glass industry<br />
are still relatively lax. But this situation<br />
is changing and the gas desulphurization<br />
in becoming major concern for this industry.<br />
In view of the announced stricter standards,<br />
the NEUTREC ® team initiated collaboration<br />
with a reputed glass manufacturer.<br />
Combining from the start, the knowledge<br />
of the glass producer specificities, our<br />
competencies in gas cleaning and the<br />
possibilities Solvay products offer, should<br />
allow the development of an original and<br />
fully optimized desulphurization solution.<br />
In line with the philosophy of previous<br />
NEUTREC ® developments, the solution should<br />
also include the treatment of the depuration<br />
residues. Essentially technical, the project<br />
was launched in February 2006 and it should<br />
be possible to draw the first conclusions<br />
at the end of the year.<br />
A good positioning in this potential market<br />
of industrial gas desulphurization ought to<br />
lead to a significant growth of the NEUTREC ®<br />
present applications.<br />
> Michel Decuyper; Perluigi Cassagli;<br />
Giuseppe Crippa; David Petitjean.<br />
> SBU SODA ASH
105141<br />
TPO SUBSTRATES FOR PAINT-FILM COATING IN<br />
THICK-SHEET THERMOFORMED BUMPER FASCIAS<br />
A REVOLUTION<br />
IN AUTOMOBILE<br />
CONSTRUCTION<br />
This innovation got off the ground with<br />
a challenge set by General Motors<br />
to its supplier community. The carmaker had<br />
the intention of replacing its painting<br />
technologies by opting for a paint-film<br />
coating of the thermoformed accessories<br />
of its models (panels, running boards and even<br />
bumpers). This on the condition that no<br />
concessions were made in terms of the<br />
appearance of the vehicles and that there was<br />
a certainty that the environmental ambitions<br />
were respected. The SBU Specialty Polymers<br />
took up the challenge and developed<br />
a thermoplastic polyolefin capable of meeting<br />
the strict demands for rigidity, stability,<br />
resistance to harsh climatic conditions as well<br />
as the aesthetic demand for a sufficiently<br />
regular surface (after extrusion, lamination<br />
and thermoforming) so as not to reduce the<br />
brilliance and clarity of the end product.<br />
To achieve this, the team engaged the services<br />
of a consultant specialising in thermoforming<br />
and joined forces with four partners: Meridian,<br />
Profile Plastics, Soliant and Southtech Plastics.<br />
The outcome is a success: the product was<br />
granted the classification “A”, the best for dry<br />
colour films and the development of other<br />
applications is underway. The SBU, which has<br />
seen a leap in its profit margin, has thus<br />
positioned itself as a first choice supplier,<br />
an exclusive source of supply for GM who,<br />
thanks to this product, was able to respect<br />
its development program.<br />
> Eric Short; Craig Abernethy; Bruce Denison;<br />
Chris Doan; Charlie Gonzalez; Andy Johnston;<br />
Greg Smith; Kip Swain.<br />
> SBU SPECIALTY POLYMERS<br />
105193<br />
DEVELOP A PCC WITH ENFORCED RHEOLOGY<br />
CONTROL AT LOW AND HIGH SHEAR RATES<br />
IN AUTOMOTIVE PLASTISOL FORMULATIONS<br />
(UNDER BODY COATINGS)<br />
THE CLIENT ASKS, SOLVAY<br />
INNOVATES AND RESPONDS<br />
It all started back in 2002 when one of our<br />
American clients asked us whether it was<br />
possible to come up with a PCC (precipitated<br />
calcium carbonate) with greater thixotropic<br />
behaviour for its PVC plastisols (capacity<br />
of being very liquid under pressure for the<br />
application and to congeal on the surface so<br />
as not to “drip”). The client provided us with<br />
information about the competitive products<br />
(benchmarks): the Solvay portfolio did not<br />
contain a satisfactory product. The SBU AFM<br />
therefore developed a new family of products<br />
tested in the laboratory. This family is based<br />
on an innovative use of coating technology<br />
and represents a significant progress in<br />
thixotropic control. Furthermore, these<br />
products and the related technologies are the<br />
subject of a patent application. Our client was<br />
able to confirm the remarkable properties<br />
of these PCC for its application and the final<br />
candidate was selected and validated.<br />
A detailed study proved that an investment in<br />
a pilot production line with a capacity of 1 000<br />
tonnes/year would pay for itself. This line has<br />
already entered production. The construction<br />
of a production line at industrial scale is<br />
currently being studied. It is expected to be up<br />
and running in 2007. The SBU AFM hopes to<br />
launch sales in 2006 and these sales should<br />
reach levels of over 4000 tonnes/year<br />
in 2007-2008.<br />
> Mark-Magnus Schulz; Mike Ball; Lucile Branche;<br />
Sébastien Caspard; Karine Cavalier; Dominique Debecker;<br />
Maik Diederich; Wolfgang Dilla; Marie-Laure Dubois;<br />
Gaetano Francese; Jean-Paul Guerre; Christophe Guiton;<br />
Christophe Lemasson; Stéphane Lepercq; François Monnet;<br />
Cédric Raboteau; Rasik Raythatha; Roberto Rosa;<br />
Jean-Paul Schoebrechts; Didier Sy.<br />
> SBU AFM<br />
Customer oriented projects<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
39
Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
104698<br />
40<br />
CAPA 2403D6 FOR DUPONT<br />
PERFORMANCE ELASTOMERS<br />
LEARNING FROM EACH<br />
NEW DEVELOPMENT<br />
The product demanded by this client<br />
implied new specifications for the SBU<br />
Caprolactones. The product demanded is a<br />
polyol (polyhydric alcohol) in a granulated<br />
form which was indispensable for the client<br />
for a technology that it had itself patented.<br />
At the time the project was being put<br />
together, the client had entered into a joint<br />
venture with a partner who was a<br />
competitor of the Solvay SBU Caprolactones.<br />
This partner was refusing to supply<br />
the product in question to the client, which<br />
is why the client turned to Solvay. As the<br />
product is earmarked for use in food<br />
applications, stringent rules had to be<br />
respected. The laboratory put in a lot of hard<br />
work to provide the American authorities<br />
(Food and Drug Administration) and the<br />
European authorities with all the required<br />
information. The team worked overtime<br />
and gained invaluable experience in the course<br />
of this administrative process. The first<br />
orders started to come in back in 2002. While<br />
awaiting the go-ahead from the authorities,<br />
the time was put to good use by developing<br />
the production process with an external<br />
partner, a company that was subsequently<br />
bought by Solvay Solexis. An effort was also<br />
made to gradually improve the packaging.<br />
We therefore succeeded in producing a new<br />
physical and chemical variant of the polyol<br />
CAPA. We exceeded the 100 tonnes mark<br />
in 2005 and have set our sights on<br />
150 tonnes in 2007.<br />
> Jeffrey Neidinger; Graham Carr; Charles Lynch;<br />
Steve Woods.<br />
> SBU CAPROLACTONES<br />
105253<br />
DEVELOPMENT OF A EURECO ® GRADE<br />
FOR A BREAKTHROUGH IN AUTOMATIC DISHWASHING<br />
LAUNCHED BY RECKITT BENCKISER (QUANTUM ® )<br />
CLEAN AND SPARKLING!<br />
Reckitt Benckiser, the world-wide leader<br />
in automatic dishwasher detergents,<br />
is continually searching for new formulations to<br />
offer the consumer a more effective and more<br />
ecological range of detergents. This time their<br />
focus was on the development and launch<br />
of a revolutionary new generation of automatic<br />
dishwash tablets containing the Solvay peracid<br />
P.A.P. (tradename EURECO ® ) as the active<br />
bleaching ingredient. The SBU Detergent had<br />
to race against the clock, as they only had eight<br />
months to come up with a new EURECO ®<br />
formulation for this new dishwash product.<br />
The SBU Detergent had two major targets in this<br />
project. The first aim was to develop a grinding<br />
technology in order to satisfy the customer<br />
request for a very fine powdered EURECO ®<br />
grade. The second target was more difficult, as<br />
one formulation component had to be replaced<br />
with other additives that would be compatible<br />
with the peracid and acceptable for the<br />
consumer under existing and pending European<br />
Union legislation. A reformulated grade<br />
of EURECO ® was successfully developed which<br />
was accepted by Reckitt Benckiser, as its key<br />
stain removal agent offering a new level of<br />
cleaning performance in Quantum ® . The new<br />
dishwasher product was launched in the United<br />
Kingdom in October 2005 under the<br />
Finish/Calgonit Quantum ® Powerball brand.<br />
This Quantum ® product represents the first use<br />
of Eureco ® in a consumer application, launched<br />
with the global market leader for automatic<br />
dish-washing. This project has resulted in the<br />
development of a new generation of EURECO ®<br />
granules, offering superior dissolution<br />
characteristics, which will pave the way<br />
for other uses for EURECO ® .<br />
> Elena Negri; Ugo Bianchi; Roberto Garaffa; Alain<br />
Jeanmart; Umberto Leone; Piera Verrocchio.<br />
> SBU DETERGENT<br />
Customer oriented projects
© Mike Powell / Getty Images<br />
Performance<br />
improvement<br />
In terms of existing products,<br />
services, solutions and processes<br />
\ INNOVATION AT TOYOTA \ Page 42<br />
THE APPLYING PROJECTS \ Page 44<br />
\ A virtual server for tangible gains \ Produce TAB cheaper and without residues \ The user-friendliness of<br />
paper, the power of electronics \ From theory to practice \ Optimised perception for increased efficiency<br />
\ New technological combinations for the high-debit packaging of the influenza vaccine \ Know-how<br />
keeping the competition at bay \ Purity and performance increased \ Ozone to the membranes rescue<br />
\ On-line sharing and cooperation\ Sustainable control over electric energy costs<br />
\ The right dose straight off \ Greater purity without solvents \ Thinking outside the box leads to<br />
conclusive results! \ A breath of fresh air \ Faster, legally conform and paperless!<br />
\ A mine of good ideas at Okorusu \ One innovation after the other \ That’s just how it is… but does it<br />
have to stay that way… \ A tanker inspection within view of the camera<br />
> Contact person and team<br />
> Entity submitting the project<br />
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Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
42<br />
Long unknown outside the company, the Toyota way<br />
is a set of management principles that drive the company<br />
– and its people – to meet challenges and deliver growth.<br />
Toyota is a believer in training and development and<br />
everybody – bar none – is given training in ‘the Toyota<br />
way’, however long it takes.<br />
THE The TOYOT<br />
way<br />
Toyota is a company that has come a long way. In the<br />
early 50s, it was producing about 13 000 cars a year,<br />
almost equalling what General Motors were producing<br />
in a day. But times have changed, and this year, with a<br />
production of more than 600 000 cars in Europe, Toyota is<br />
hard on their heels. In 2003, they overtook Ford to become<br />
one of the top two car manufacturers in the world. Toyota in<br />
Europe has been given free reign to produce the cars that are<br />
required for the European market. Some can still be seen as<br />
‘world cars’ – the Corolla for example, but more and more, Reflect like the tortoise, act like the hare<br />
the development and design for the European market is done<br />
in Europe, by Europeans.<br />
Designed in Europe<br />
A technical R&D centre is situated near Zaventem airport<br />
(Brussels/Belgium), with the aim of producing one totally new car<br />
every two years. The centre – getting bigger and better all the<br />
time (two new buildings have recently been opened at the cost of<br />
EUR 75 million), is already the proud father of the Avensis and<br />
the Yaris. Everything above the platform is developed here – exterior<br />
design, electronics etc - while the chassis and the motor are<br />
developed in Japan. For Colin Hensley, General Manager, R&D<br />
External Affairs & Communication at Toyota Europe, “it is a<br />
remarkable system. A project manager – the chief engineer - is given<br />
the task of bringing a team together, to deliver the new car on time,<br />
and within budget. The specifications of the car have been<br />
pre-defined by the marketing depar tment, and the vision<br />
of the general management. For example, when the Prius<br />
was first being thought about, the inspiration came from<br />
the President at the time (1993). He wanted a car that would use<br />
half as much fuel as any current car that Toyota produced. This was<br />
a major challenge that demanded a radical rethink of how cars were<br />
powered, and as the saying goes ‘you can’t take incremental steps,<br />
and expect exponential results’. So the resulting car, with a hybrid<br />
motor, was a project developed from the bottom upwards – bringing<br />
together parts in a new way, and the whole concept had to be created<br />
in function of the challenge”.<br />
Many hours are spent discussing new projects so that everyone is<br />
on board, and singing to the same hymn sheet. Each decision is<br />
thought about and discussed and all alternatives – and their consequences<br />
- are considered. But once decisions are made, the onus<br />
is to get the work done quickly. There is constant development in<br />
all aspects of car production, so the pro-ject manager can pick and<br />
choose from ideas from a shelf system. These ideas have been<br />
worked on through a system of continuous improvement (kaizen)<br />
– a process whereby engineers have looked at a problem, and<br />
thought of a better way. This too, is part of the Toyota way of<br />
doing things.<br />
Five steps to problem solving<br />
Toyota personnel don’t wait for something to go wrong. Instead<br />
they fix it before it becomes a problem. They have a straightforward<br />
process to improve products, production or safety.<br />
• Identify and clarify the problem<br />
• Look clearly at the current situation – what are the facts?<br />
• How will we measure success? What is the target?<br />
• Ask why – five times? What is the root cause of the problem?<br />
• What counter measures can be considered to solve the problem?<br />
This is followed by a structured plan of execution, checking and<br />
standardisation. This methodology has the added advantage of<br />
being the same throughout the organisation – whether in Japan, the<br />
USA or Europe. On top of that, there is a requirement to be brief
A<br />
and succinct: everything relating to the problem and the solution<br />
should be able to be described on one A3 size of paper!<br />
Respect and egalitarianism is just another example of how Toyota<br />
works. There are no ‘corner’ offices for managers, and everybody<br />
is invited to have their say. Each and every opinion is valued, and<br />
appreciated. Listening – a trait that anybody who has worked with<br />
Japanese will know well – is encouraged and rewarded.<br />
“Toyota is a way of life, and not a 9-to-5 type of company”, Colin<br />
Hensley explains. “The people who work here love their jobs. It is not<br />
unusual to find the engineers working on cars and engines during<br />
the weekend: it is their passion, and their hobby. And Toyota respects<br />
this. ‘Genchi genbutsu’ means ‘go and see for yourself to thoroughly<br />
understand the situation’ – it is clear we trust and respect the talents<br />
of our people to deliver better solutions when confronted with<br />
the reality on the ground.”<br />
Working with suppliers<br />
Toyota believes in success. And they know that they can help<br />
their supplier be successful by working with them, rather than<br />
against them. Again, honest principles apply to the way they<br />
work with their suppliers: trust, understanding and respect.<br />
Absolutely, cost is an issue, but together with the supplier’s<br />
team, all efforts are made to work towards a common goal,<br />
rather than working at cross purposes. Toyota knows that<br />
if a supplier does well, they’ll both do well. And that goes<br />
for customers too – as Toyota constantly leads the reliability<br />
and longevity charts in Europe. No mean feat. No mean<br />
company. •<br />
Performance improvement<br />
The Toyota Principles (*)<br />
14 key points are grouped<br />
under four main principles:<br />
Long term philosophy<br />
1. Base your management decisions on a long-term<br />
philosophy, even at the expense of short-term goals.<br />
The right process will produce the right results<br />
2. Create a continuous process flow<br />
to bring problems to the surface.<br />
3. Use “pull” systems to avoid overproduction.<br />
4. Level out the workload (heijunka). (Work like<br />
the tortoise, not the hare)<br />
5. Build a culture of stopping to fix problems,<br />
to get quality right the first time.<br />
6. Standardised tasks are the foundation for continuous<br />
improvement and employee empowerment.<br />
7. Use visual control so that no problems<br />
are hidden.<br />
8. Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that<br />
serves your people and processes. .<br />
Add value to the Organisation<br />
by developing your people<br />
9. Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work,<br />
live the philosophy and teach it to others.<br />
10. Develop exceptional people and teams who follow<br />
your company’s philosophies.<br />
11. Respect your extended network of partners<br />
and suppliers by challenging them and helping<br />
them to improve.<br />
Continuously solving root problems drives<br />
organizational learning<br />
12. Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand<br />
the situation (genchi genbutsu).<br />
13. Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly<br />
considering all options; implement decisions<br />
rapidly (nemawashi).<br />
14. Become a learning organization through<br />
relentless reflection (hansei) and continuous<br />
improvement (kaizen).<br />
(*) Source: “The Toyota way - 14 Management Principles<br />
from the world's greatest manufacturer” - Jeffrey K. Liker<br />
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43
Dossier<br />
105061<br />
44<br />
VIRTUAL SERVER PROJECT SAVES TIME<br />
AND MONEY FOR INTERNAL CUSTOMERS<br />
AT SOLVAY PHARMACEUTICALS<br />
A VIRTUAL SERVER<br />
FOR TANGIBLE GAINS<br />
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
As a general rule, the development<br />
of a new IT application implies the<br />
acquisition and configuration of new servers<br />
(up to three in fact: development, test,<br />
production) in order to guarantee the total<br />
isolation of the existing application so<br />
as not to threaten its integrity. The<br />
innovation consists of “virtualising” part of<br />
an existing server, that is, isolating one part<br />
and endowing it with all the functions of a<br />
completely autonomous server, for the<br />
applications or development. This operation<br />
has been applied at Marietta (US),<br />
with runaway success. The virtualisation<br />
of servers allows the creation of an IT<br />
environment for a new application within<br />
hours, rather than weeks, for a fraction<br />
of the cost of real servers.<br />
At Marietta alone, 91 virtual servers are<br />
in operation on only 8 real machines, which<br />
amounts to a reduction factor of 11.<br />
The setting up of virtual servers is now in<br />
progress in other Solvay Pharmaceuticals<br />
sites, Weesp (Netherlands), Hanover<br />
(Germany) and for the 3S project.<br />
> Scott Fouche; Ron Criswell; Mike Gerety;<br />
Earl Hartsell; Bruce Mc Millan; Fabian Gonzalez;<br />
Ruben Gabbarrini.<br />
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR<br />
105043<br />
IMPROVED PROCESS TO TAB<br />
USING “GREEN CHEMISTRY”<br />
PRODUCE TAB CHEAPER<br />
AND WITHOUT RESIDUES<br />
TAB (tert-amylbenzene) is the basic raw<br />
material that goes into the production<br />
of amylantraquinone (AQ), itself an<br />
intermediary material for the production<br />
of Hydrogen Peroxyde (H202). Solvay, the<br />
world-wide leader in the production of TAB,<br />
AQ and H202, produces the TAB and AQ<br />
in its Linne Herten plant in the Netherlands.<br />
The demand for TAB is growing, in fact, it<br />
will double in five years’ time following the<br />
construction of new H202 production units,<br />
but the capacity at Linne Herten is saturated.<br />
The current TAB process suffers from several<br />
weaknesses: the use of hazardous<br />
substances, complexity and a large quantity<br />
of waste. The aim of the Solvay team, with<br />
the help of the KUL university of Louvain,<br />
was to develop a new organic synthesis<br />
of TAB without using nor benzene<br />
(carcinogenic) nor BF3 (highly toxic) but<br />
instead using ordinary raw materials, with<br />
a minimum of waste, a simplified reactor<br />
and more effective catalyst. The results are<br />
excellent: the new process uses green<br />
chemistry and is much more economical.<br />
The innovation is based on a new organic<br />
synthesis method and a “super basic<br />
“catalyser. It will reinforce Solvay’s cost<br />
leadership position with regard to its Chinese<br />
competitors. The installation will be up and<br />
running in September 2006 in Jemeppe<br />
(Belgium). In the meantime, a major contract<br />
for the sale of TAB has already been<br />
concluded with a Japanese company that will<br />
buy 100% of its needs from Solvay during<br />
a five years period.<br />
> Armin Liebens; Cyril Ausloos; Stephenhamer<br />
Bloomfield; Gilles Darago; Paul Deschrijver; Bernard<br />
Douillet; Jean-Pierre Ganhy; Bart Vercruysse.<br />
> SBU H 2 O 2<br />
105132<br />
HELLAS – ELECTRONIC LABORATORY NOTEBOOK<br />
THE USER-FRIENDLINESS<br />
OF PAPER, THE POWER<br />
OF ELECTRONICS<br />
The traditional paper laboratory notebooks<br />
are reaching to their limits: the difficulty<br />
of finding detailed information again,<br />
of rereading it, loss of information as a result<br />
of staff rotation, wasted duplication<br />
of experiments, etc.<br />
The “Chemical Development” departments<br />
in Weesp (Netherlands) have found an ideal<br />
solution, an electronic management system<br />
for chemical experiments in laboratories.<br />
By recording everything electronically in the<br />
same format, HELLAS (Human-friendly<br />
Electronic Laboratory Application System)<br />
pools all the information, all the knowledge<br />
on the projects underway, from the basic<br />
organic data, the analytical data,<br />
the molecular structures, to the experimental<br />
details, thus creating a “chemical memory”,<br />
accessible to all researchers. HELLAS is an<br />
internal development, based on software<br />
designed for the field of chemistry<br />
and that puts the emphasis on user-friendliness,<br />
both for data capture and for the<br />
information search via multiple keys. HELLAS<br />
contributes not only to the quality<br />
and reliability of data, but also to the improved<br />
management of all the projects, with,<br />
for example, the automatic generation of the<br />
experiment numbers, experiment reviews,<br />
project reviews... HELLAS has even brought<br />
about an improvement in multifunctional<br />
teamwork. The setting up of HELLAS has<br />
proved to be easy and fast. Four weeks was<br />
all it took. This system is already attracting<br />
interest from other departments, which have<br />
taken steps in this same direction.<br />
> Marcel Vanaar; Kees Bakker; Niek Buizer;<br />
Dick Doesburg; Jan Hoogendoorn; Hans Troost;<br />
Jacques Vanmelis.<br />
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR
104961<br />
OPTIMIZATION OF AGITATION FOR PVC<br />
MICRO-SUSPENSION POLYMERIZATION<br />
FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE<br />
The optimisation of micro-suspension<br />
polymerisation depends on the quality of<br />
the latex (polymer dispersed in water) whose<br />
mechanical stability and concentration needs<br />
to be increased.<br />
As the agitation of the reactor is critical<br />
for these characteristics, a study was carried<br />
out in several stages:<br />
• theoretical modelling (Computational Fluid<br />
Dynamics) and experimental study on a small<br />
pilot reactor (Jemeppe/Belgium);<br />
• validation of the model and prediction<br />
of behaviour on a full-scale installation;<br />
• industrial extrapolation to Map Ta Phut<br />
(Thailand) and Santo André (Brazil);<br />
• definition of the optimal industrial<br />
operating conditions, taking into account<br />
the constraints of these sites.<br />
This project is characterised by the correct<br />
prediction of the behaviours at industrial<br />
scale through theoretical models developed<br />
on the basis of pilot trials.<br />
Its effective implementation was fast and<br />
the expected gains have been achieved: few<br />
material losses, response times shortened<br />
by 10%, electric consumption reduced by 27%.<br />
> Anne-France Berger; François Biral; Daniel<br />
Borremans; Thierry Cartage; Severine Rochard.<br />
> CC ECM – PROCESS ENGINEERING<br />
101765<br />
COLOUR-IN. IMPROVE YOUR BUSINESS<br />
BY MANAGING THE COLOURS!<br />
OPTIMISED PERCEPTION<br />
FOR INCREASED EFFICIENCY<br />
There are thousands of varieties of colours,<br />
yet we only use a few hundred of them.<br />
How can we better manage their use in the<br />
production of compounds? The answer<br />
can be found in Colour-in. This is an<br />
algorithm developed to ensure the<br />
compatibility of the data commonly used<br />
by the spectrocolorimeters and the RGB used<br />
for screens, printers and other IT tools.<br />
It means that all parties involved - from<br />
the laboratory to the production unit,<br />
from the sales teams to the clients – can see<br />
exactly the same colours. The colours shown<br />
are perfectly representative of the actual<br />
colours. Colour-in thus makes it possible to<br />
avoid tentative manipulations in the<br />
preproduction phase. It can be integrated<br />
into different software – including our ERP –<br />
and can be used to draw up documents such<br />
as manufacturing sheets, product catalogues,<br />
specification tables, etc.<br />
It also has other significant advantages:<br />
• optimisation of colour management<br />
in the manufacturing planning;<br />
• a reduction in the costs incurred by<br />
production errors;<br />
• an added value for the client whose colour<br />
selection procedures are simplified;<br />
• possible use in various sectors;<br />
• long-term competitiveness compared<br />
with those who do not have the technology.<br />
The project will be entered into the<br />
Intellectual Property Register of Catalonia<br />
and thus be protected by copyright.<br />
> Xavier Catalan; Jordi Font; Juan Gonzalez;<br />
Marta Periz; Francisco Torres.<br />
> SBU VINYLS<br />
Performance improvement<br />
104638<br />
NEW FILLING AND PACKAGING LINES<br />
FOR INFLUVAC ® SYRINGES IN OLST<br />
NEW TECHNOLOGICAL<br />
COMBINATIONS FOR<br />
THE HIGH-DEBIT PACKAGING<br />
OF THE INFLUENZA VACCINE<br />
Solvay, one of the world-wide leaders<br />
in the production of influenza vaccines has<br />
seen its sales quadruple in the course of the<br />
past 10 years. To keep pace with this growth,<br />
and to be in a position to package new,<br />
conservative-free vaccines, the production<br />
capacity of the Olst site in the Netherlands<br />
has been doubled. The new lines have<br />
introduced new concepts such as the use<br />
of robots for transfers in the sterile areas, with<br />
certain concepts having even been inspired<br />
by the food industry. Solvay is the first<br />
company in the world to use<br />
these technological combinations to fill<br />
and package syringes. In addition to the<br />
increase in packaging capacity, the new lines<br />
also offers:<br />
• an improvement in the quality<br />
of the sterility of the syringes, allowing<br />
the packaging of conservative-free vaccines;<br />
• a reduction in costs;<br />
• greater respect for deadlines.<br />
And, at the end of the day, a better service<br />
and improved comfort for the patients.<br />
> Eggie Lamping; Sieneke Bult-Muntinga;<br />
Freddy De Vogel; Margreet Henstra; Joost Hillebrand;<br />
Gert-Jan Horsthuis; Sonja Jansen;<br />
Arend-Jan Maatkamp; Eddy Meussen; Pythia Segers;<br />
Co Stempher; Herbert Vanderstrate;<br />
Jan-Eric Zandbergen.<br />
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
45
Dossier<br />
102496<br />
46<br />
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
SILANE: A COMPETITIVE ALTERNATIVE TO HIGH-<br />
PRESSURE STEAM CROSSLINKING TECHNOLOGY<br />
KNOW-HOW KEEPING<br />
THE COMPETITION AT BAY<br />
The cable market demands high levels<br />
of productivity yet low energy and<br />
investment costs. This project sets out to<br />
study and produce new families of material<br />
based on composite polymers to be used as<br />
insulator and sheathing for electrical cables<br />
(certain grades of which must resist fire,<br />
without recourse to halogens, nitrogen<br />
or phosphorus). But the main objective was<br />
to achieve performances only made possible<br />
by high-pressure steam drying reticulation<br />
(vulcanization) technology: softness and<br />
flexibility, elastic recover, resistance to fluids<br />
and to temperature.<br />
By studying the new polymer systems and<br />
production technologies using the Sioplassilane<br />
crosslinking technology, these<br />
properties are now available for products<br />
obtained from the classical thermoplastic<br />
extrusion lines, with a string of side benefits :<br />
low cost energy and maintenance, low<br />
investment cost for the extrusion,<br />
productivity multiplied by four, high degree<br />
of flexibility of production and waste<br />
reduction. The project, which got off the<br />
ground in 2004, has already spawned a new<br />
generation of products that are used in a<br />
number of special applications and that are<br />
quickly developing in terms of sales volumes.<br />
For the time being, no other manufacturer<br />
is selling these compounds, as our<br />
technological know-how is the best barrier<br />
to competition and an excellent way to gain<br />
customers’ loyalty.<br />
> Antonello Casale; Caterina Bocchia.<br />
> SBU SPECIALTY POLYMERS<br />
104040<br />
DYDROGESTERONE NEW PROCESS<br />
PURITY AND PERFORMANCE<br />
INCREASED<br />
Dydrogesterone is produced using<br />
“proketal”, with “retroketal”<br />
as an intermediary product. The new process,<br />
which follows the same sequence,<br />
has introduced additional “retroketal”<br />
crystallisation stages, making it much more<br />
pure. The yield of the last stage, during<br />
which the “retroketal” is transformed<br />
into dydrogesterone, has been substantially<br />
improved. Designed by Solvay<br />
Pharmaceuticals, the new unit, built<br />
in cooperation with Jacobs Engineering,<br />
was started up in two successive phases,<br />
during the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2004.<br />
It offers the following advantages:<br />
• reduction in the costs of the materials<br />
• the pooling on single line of the hygiene<br />
and environmental aspects and compliance<br />
with the GMP regulations.<br />
To sum up, Solvay Pharmaceuticals is very<br />
proud to present this new installation,<br />
internally, but also to external clients, such<br />
as pharmacists.<br />
> Ron Henneman; Fons Jacobs;<br />
Evert-Jan Jansen Schoonhoven.<br />
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR<br />
104293<br />
CHECKING THE LOW IODINE DIET<br />
OF THE ELECTROLYSIS MEMBRANES<br />
OZONE TO THE<br />
MEMBRANES RESCUE<br />
The Group’s electrolytic plants<br />
are switching from mercury technology<br />
to membrane technology. In some cases,<br />
the brine that is electrolysed contains iodine<br />
as an impurity, which accumulates on the<br />
membranes and affects their efficiency.<br />
This iodine needs to be eliminated in an<br />
intermediary stage. The challenge consisted<br />
of internally developing a method for<br />
analysing the residual iodine, on the line,<br />
as no commercial solution existed. The new<br />
process that has been developed uses ozone<br />
to quantitatively transform the iodine into<br />
iodate, which is in turn analysed by<br />
spectrophotometer: a continuous analyser<br />
was developed for this method.<br />
After validation, the new system will, first of<br />
all, be installed in Rosignano (Italy). It may<br />
then be transposed to the electrolytic plants<br />
of the Group that run on salt containing<br />
iodine as an impurity.<br />
> Koen Vermeiren; Neil Breton;<br />
Davide Mantione; Alessandra Pastacaldi.<br />
> CC ANALYTICAL TECHNOLOGIES
104940<br />
ELECTRONIC SUBMISSIONS<br />
OF ADVERSE EVENT REPORTS<br />
ON-LINE SHARING<br />
AND COOPERATION<br />
The new governmental regulations<br />
that require the electronic submission<br />
of adverse event reports have forced<br />
the pharmaceutical industry to adapt<br />
to new technologies.<br />
While the FDA (Food and Drug<br />
Administration - US) only recommends<br />
the use of electronic systems, Europe, via<br />
the EMEA (European Medicines Agency) has<br />
made it compulsory. A multidisciplinary team<br />
got down to work and, after 18 months<br />
of intense development, implemented,<br />
in the autumn of 2004, a system that meets<br />
all the requirements, the E2B system.<br />
Thanks to this work, Solvay is still today one<br />
of the rare pharmaceutical companies<br />
capable of complying with these regulations<br />
world-wide. The E2B system extracts<br />
the parts relating to adverse events from<br />
the safety database formats them and<br />
submits them to the competent authorities.<br />
It makes it possible to collect these events<br />
from 40 national Solvay Pharmaceuticals<br />
sites and those of 80 licensing partners<br />
and to share them. It also facilitates<br />
the cooperation with partners using<br />
this same standard.<br />
> Raha Alavi; Joyce Allen; Martin Becker;<br />
Robert Buchberger; Geneviève Dorris;<br />
Gisela Kelbe; Erna Koelman; Susan Kuebler;<br />
Klaus Roethemeyer; Eiko Soehlke; Stella Spyrou;<br />
Erick Valero; Fernando Venegas; Wolfgang Wagner;<br />
Beatrix Windolph-Leicht; Laura Wolf.<br />
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR<br />
105128<br />
PARTICIPATION TO EXELTIUM (INDUSTRIAL<br />
CONSORTIUM OF INTENSIVE ELECTRICITY<br />
CONSUMERS IN FRANCE)<br />
SUSTAINABLE CONTROL<br />
OVER ELECTRIC<br />
ENERGY COSTS<br />
To prepare for the very probable significant<br />
increases in electricity prices, seven<br />
intensive electricity consumer companies,<br />
including Solvay, have come together in the<br />
form of a consortium, which was later joined<br />
by 50 other companies.<br />
The goal of this consortium (Exeltium)<br />
is to set up an electricity supply mechanism<br />
that is stable and that offers much more<br />
competitive costs in the long term<br />
(a minimum of 15 years). This is the first<br />
initiative of its kind world-wide.<br />
For Solvay, one of the seven founder<br />
members, Exeltium, will guarantee our<br />
French sites of Tavaux, Dombasle, Feyzin and<br />
Giraud, a reliable and sustainable supply<br />
amounting to over 1 500 GWh per year.<br />
> Philippe Warny; Xavier Clerget;<br />
Claude Conrard; Luc Lebrun; Jean Maillard;<br />
François Voiseux.<br />
> CC ENERGY<br />
Performance improvement<br />
105003<br />
HUMAN DOSE RANGE PREDICTION<br />
THE RIGHT DOSE<br />
STRAIGHT OFF<br />
Research is being conducted to find ways<br />
of reducing drug development time<br />
within the framework of a global project,<br />
currently underway, the “Breakthrough”<br />
project. Formulations for humans are<br />
generally based on a range of doses that can<br />
go from 1 to 100. Developing a 100 mg<br />
formulation instead of a 1 mg formulation<br />
incurs very different costs and calls for<br />
different development times, which can be<br />
significantly reduced by a targeted prediction<br />
of the dose range. A model based on<br />
non-clinical pharmacological data has been<br />
developed. It makes use of already familiar<br />
dose ranges for different animal species<br />
and for each component studied. In practice,<br />
as much pharmacokinetic data as possible,<br />
on a maximum of different species, is gathered<br />
as input for the model which then goes<br />
on to calculate the dose to be prescribed<br />
to humans. The model, validated on<br />
10 molecules currently being developed,<br />
has proved to be reliable in over 80%<br />
of cases, for ranges of between 1 and 25.<br />
The development time required<br />
to determine doses will thus be reduced<br />
by 9 to 12 months.<br />
> Ruben De Kanter; Tanja Bernier;<br />
Barbara Hedeman Joosten; Han Op’t Lan;<br />
Mireille Vossen.<br />
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
47
Dossier<br />
104188<br />
48<br />
USING MELTCRYSTALLIZATION INSTEAD<br />
OF ACETONE CRYSTALLIZATION<br />
FOR PURIFICATION OF CHOLESTEROL<br />
GREATER PURITY<br />
WITHOUT SOLVENTS<br />
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
Crystallisation is a classic chemical process<br />
that is used to isolate and purify the<br />
end-products. The traditional processes,<br />
which use solvents, are heavy users of<br />
energy, which is required for the evaporation<br />
of the solvents. The subsequent<br />
indispensable stages involving the filtration<br />
and washing of the crystals obtained are also<br />
difficult to control. The innovation consists<br />
on directly doing the crystallization from the<br />
melted product, therefore without using<br />
solvents. The crystals separate naturally from<br />
the impurities. By repeating the operation<br />
several times, we can obtain a product<br />
of a very high purity. This process has been<br />
developed with an external partner<br />
(Sulzer/Switzerland) and has proved to be<br />
effective for the purification of cholesterol.<br />
When applied to other products under study<br />
in the Group, for an equivalent level<br />
of production, compared with acetone<br />
crystallisation, meltcrystallization:<br />
• consumes less energy;<br />
• costs less in terms of equipment;<br />
• is safer (no solvent);<br />
• is less labour-intensive;<br />
• is more productive.<br />
> Hans Hoogendijk; Jeffrey Felix.<br />
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR<br />
101924<br />
OPTIMIZATION OF SOLVAY SOLOX PLANT<br />
THINKING OUTSIDE<br />
THE BOX LEADS<br />
TO CONCLUSIVE RESULTS!<br />
The production of epichlorhydrine in<br />
Rheinberg (Germany) uses large<br />
quantities of water, approximately 350 m3 per hour. The water is treated in the Solox<br />
plant to significantly reduce the CSB and<br />
AOX emissions. An improved method was<br />
developed to dramatically reduce the<br />
consumption of chlorine and bisulphate.<br />
This only required modifications to be made<br />
to the existing process. No major investment<br />
was needed. The original method also used<br />
a great deal of energy to heat the water up to<br />
130°C before mixing in the additives<br />
to destroy the organic compounds. Then<br />
the water has to be cooled down again.<br />
The new process is as simple as it is efficient.<br />
Simply changing the sequence in which the<br />
reactants are added reduces the time<br />
required to treat the organic AOX. This<br />
minimizes the consumption of chlorine<br />
and bisulphate. The emissions in the water are<br />
well below the statutory limits. The resulting<br />
savings of approximately EUR 390 000 per<br />
year have a significant effect on<br />
the profitability of the process. Finding<br />
the solution considerably benefited from<br />
the open-minded approach; a working group<br />
was able to positively question the existing<br />
experience and opinions and thus the<br />
successful solution to optimize the process.<br />
> Franz-Jozef Krekeler; Klaus Huecklekemkes;<br />
Frank Steffens.<br />
> SBU EDS<br />
104407<br />
AIR SHOWER FOR RAW MATERIALS,<br />
FINISHED PRODUCTS AND PERSONNEL<br />
A BREATH OF FRESH AIR<br />
Air showers, designed by the Engineering<br />
Department, have been installed for<br />
both personnel and products. It has been<br />
found that this is the best solution to meet<br />
the requirements of the production<br />
standards related to the access of personnel,<br />
their equipment and the materials into<br />
regulated production zones. The personnel<br />
walk into an airlock in which the filtered air<br />
is forced upwards at a high speed,<br />
eliminating the dust and other fibre residues.<br />
For the materials, the speed of the air is<br />
increased and the ionised air is even more<br />
efficient. Not only is the investment minimal,<br />
this system is also user-friendly,<br />
straightforward, completely safe,<br />
environmentally-friendly and can be installed<br />
in only six to eight weeks. Furthermore,<br />
the original design of the system facilitates<br />
compliance with the GMP manufacturing<br />
standards. It also makes it possible to cut<br />
down on the number of persons working in<br />
the production zones, as, without this kind<br />
of system, the standards require one person<br />
per product, with a specific type<br />
of equipment, for each working zone.<br />
> Aurea Xumetra; Juan Carlos Correa; Oscar Roig;<br />
Jesús Manuel Vega.<br />
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR
100638<br />
E-BILLING TO SIMPLIFY AND SPEED THE MANUAL<br />
INVOICE HANDLING PROCESS,<br />
IN PERFECT COMPLIANCE WITH THE EC LAW<br />
FASTER, LEGALLY CONFORM<br />
AND PAPERLESS!<br />
Reducing the time spent on invoice<br />
handling, avoiding errors and integrating<br />
the electronic processes: that is what the<br />
introduction of electronic billing sets out to<br />
achieve. And it will save around 600 000 sheets<br />
of paper into the bargain. This project<br />
coincides with the entry into force of the<br />
European directive on electronic billing and<br />
the transposal of this regulation into national<br />
law. Based on an estimated 200 000 annual<br />
invoices, the project claims to generate a<br />
cost-saving of EUR 300 000. Taking into<br />
account both the cost of the programmes<br />
and the setting up of the new system, the<br />
investment pays for itself in only three<br />
months! The electronic invoice, a “pdf”<br />
document is completed by the certified<br />
electronic signature, according to the legal<br />
requirements. Both are sent to the client by<br />
e-mail. The software of Authentidate AG,<br />
was selected in September 2005 and the<br />
server and the software were set up during<br />
the first quarter of 2006. The project is being<br />
tested in Spain with the Solvay Chemicals<br />
and SolVin clients. It will then be rolled out<br />
in all for all the European customers and for<br />
the 3S entity for the ‘self-billing’ to suppliers.<br />
Solvay is thus joining the select circle of the<br />
five chemical companies in the world to offer<br />
such a service to its clients.<br />
> Haimo Zekoll; Bernadette Hislaire; Chantal Liesse;<br />
Christophe Pariset; Montserrat Paulos;<br />
Richard Verlaque.<br />
> CHEMICALS SECTOR<br />
105231<br />
MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH IN THE EXTRACTION<br />
AND OPTIMIZATION OF FLUORSPAR<br />
RECOVERY AT THE SOLVAY OKORUSU<br />
FLUORSPAR MINE - NAMIBIA<br />
A MINE OF GOOD<br />
IDEAS AT OKORUSU<br />
Since the acquisition of the Okorusu<br />
mine (Namibia) by Solvay in 1997,<br />
constant efforts have been made to improve<br />
the production of fluorspar concentrates<br />
(CaF2). The ore contains between 30 and<br />
40% of CaF2. The mine, which carries out the<br />
flotation of the ore on site to extract sterile<br />
gangue, supplies its concentrates to the<br />
Solvay plants of Bad Wimpfen (Germany)<br />
and Porto Marghera (Italy). Production<br />
increased gradually from 23 000 tonnes<br />
in 1997 to 80 000 tonnes in 2003. The main<br />
difficulties lied in producing a 97%<br />
concentrate of CaF2 while maintaining the<br />
presence of the other elements in line<br />
with the required specifications. A first<br />
breakthrough was achieved through the use<br />
of a new reagent, which saw production<br />
spiral to 104 000 tonnes in 2004. However,<br />
the process developed called for specific ores<br />
with a very low carbonate content and<br />
consequently, thousands of tonnes of ore<br />
with an excessive carbonate content were<br />
building up as they were unsuitable<br />
for production. On the initiative of Dr<br />
Gerstenberg, the research concentrated on<br />
treating the concentrates with an acid. Under<br />
the supervision of Roy Verburgt, the team<br />
made further progress by using NH4FHF<br />
(ammonia bifluoride), which made it possible<br />
to improve the safety and management of<br />
the leaching process. The technology was<br />
immediately rolled out at industrial level<br />
in August of 2005. These improvements<br />
restored the profitability of the mine, which<br />
had been endangered by the appreciation<br />
of the local currency. The possibility of<br />
exploiting a poorer ore and obtaining a<br />
richer concentrate considerably increased the<br />
mine’s lifetime. It has set itself a production<br />
goal of 127 000 tonnes in 2007.<br />
> Rolf Gerstenberg; Mark Dawe; Willem Nependa;<br />
Roy Verburgt.<br />
> SBU FLUOR<br />
Performance improvement<br />
101361<br />
A REVOLUTION IN HEAT TRANSFER AT HIGH<br />
PRESSURE: THIN WALL REACTOR<br />
ONE INNOVATION<br />
AFTER THE OTHER<br />
In chemical processes that require the use<br />
of pressurized, heated or refrigerated reactors,<br />
the heat is transferred via a double jacket<br />
through the wall of the reactor. Generally,<br />
the thickness of the reactor is increased<br />
in line with the pressure and the diameter,<br />
which, at the same time, reduces the transfer<br />
of heat. Several technological attempts have<br />
therefore been made to reduce the thickness<br />
of the wall, in particular through a special,<br />
complicated and thus costly design.<br />
The SolVin teams thought along other lines<br />
to break the dependency between the<br />
internal pressure and the thickness of the<br />
wall involved in the heat transfer. They<br />
worked on the idea of a very thin laser<br />
welded internal wall, formed through<br />
hydrodeformation at high pressure. To<br />
achieve this result, it was necessary to tackle<br />
the process itself, by balancing the pressures<br />
of the reactor and of the cooling water. The<br />
thickness of the internal wall could thus be<br />
drastically reduced (from 27 to 1.5 mm) and<br />
the heat transfer was doubled. A first<br />
application of the process has proven<br />
successful in Jemeppe (Belgium) on a reactor<br />
of 100 litres. Various modelling<br />
and engineering studies have demonstrated<br />
the industrial feasibility of the process.<br />
The development prospects are quite broad,<br />
as the process can be applied to all high<br />
pressure heat transfer procedures.<br />
> Jean-Paul Bindelle; Jean-Marie Blairon;<br />
Daniel Borremans; Olivier Brulard;Thierry Cartage;<br />
Manuel de Francisco; Stéphane Ghislain;<br />
Maryse Granville; Philippe Guiche; Claude Laugel;<br />
Dominique Martinez.<br />
> SBU VINYLS<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
49
Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
105134<br />
50<br />
HIGH CLARITY POLYSULFONES<br />
THAT’S JUST HOW IT IS…<br />
BUT DOES IT HAVE<br />
TO STAY THAT WAY…<br />
The UDEL ® Polysulfone is a transparent,<br />
high-performance material, which is used<br />
as an alternative solution for polycarbonate<br />
in a large number of applications.<br />
However, one hiccup has always prevented<br />
its widespread deployment : its characteristic<br />
yellow colouring. However, clients such as<br />
Johnson & Johnson were demanding a<br />
moulded injection solution to be used within<br />
the framework of the production of optic<br />
lenses. The innovation resided in the fact<br />
that a pluridisciplinary team approached the<br />
problem from a new angle, by asking the<br />
revolutionary question, does a polysulfone<br />
have to be yellow? After three years of<br />
intense work carried out jointly by the R&D<br />
department and the plant, the team<br />
managed to reduce the colouring factor from<br />
a degree of 60-80 to a degree of 20 and was<br />
able to develop a colourless polysuflone<br />
known as “water-white”, a true technological<br />
breakthrough. This discovery has made it<br />
possible to increase the range by half a<br />
dozen new high clarity products, giving<br />
Solvay a significant competitive advantage<br />
on this market and making it possible to<br />
meet the expectations of the clientele who<br />
had been unsatisfied until then. For two<br />
years, the new technology has proven its<br />
stability and the sales of polysulfones have<br />
followed suit, ensuring the vitality and<br />
growth of this activity which is strategic<br />
for the SBU.<br />
> Jamal el-Hibri; Atul Bhatnagar; Edward Buckwald;<br />
Ron Lupardus; Thomas Schwab; Skip Slatton; Jeff<br />
Straw.<br />
> SBU SPECIALTY POLYMERS<br />
105037<br />
Performance improvement<br />
IMPROVED PERCARBONATE TANKER LOADING FACILITY<br />
ON WARRINGTON SITE USING A WEBCAM SYSTEM<br />
A TANKER INSPECTION<br />
WITHIN VIEW<br />
OF THE CAMERA<br />
Traditionally, Warrington site (UK) has used a<br />
dedicated tanker fleet for the bulk transport<br />
of percarbonate (PCS). Tankers would return<br />
empty to the plant from the UK customer,<br />
resulting in poor utilisation of the vehicles.<br />
A new transporter proposed a new business<br />
model involving the use of the tanker to carry<br />
plastic granules on the return journey, with a<br />
cleaning phase prior to reloading with PCS.<br />
Contamination of the PCS, either with material<br />
from a previous load or with water from the<br />
cleaning process could lead to product<br />
decomposition, either during transport or on the<br />
customer’s premises. In order to control the<br />
cleanliness of the tanker prior to loading a<br />
tanker inspection must be carried out to ensure<br />
that the tanker is clean and dry. This inspection is<br />
documented in order to be able to demonstrate<br />
to the client that the safety procedures which<br />
help guarantee product stability have been<br />
followed. A camera system has been installed,<br />
as part of a new PCS loading bay system in<br />
Warrington, to oversee the tanker inspection.<br />
The recording of the inspection is kept for<br />
30 days. Other changes were introduced to<br />
simplify, improve and facilitate the PCS loading<br />
operation including the introduction of a single<br />
PCS loading point on site (simpler maintenance<br />
and control), electronically controlled barriers<br />
to prevent the tanker being moved during<br />
inspection and electric winches for the loading<br />
spout to reduce the risk of driver injuries.<br />
> Wayne Allen; Mark Carters; Bob Minson;<br />
Brian Wilkinson; Brian Woodward.<br />
> SBU DETERGENT
© Zak Kendal / Getty Images<br />
Management<br />
improvement<br />
In terms of leaddership,<br />
human resources management,<br />
organization and partnerships<br />
\ INNOVATION AT INTEL \ Page 52<br />
THE APPLYING PROJECTS \ Page 54<br />
\ The “chewing gum” solution\ Training and sharing of best practices<br />
\ An atypical first for the Group \ Skill development for all and for life<br />
\ All the advantages on-line \ Standardisation, coherence and synergies through IT<br />
\ The University for which everyone is responsible \ Innovation Café: Creating a culture of innovation<br />
\ A new way of working together \ The chase is on for Chinese talents \ An original initiative becomes a<br />
success story \ Safety also concerns partners!<br />
> Contact person and team<br />
> Entity submitting the project<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
51
Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
52<br />
Since 2000, Intel has been practising a radically new<br />
approach to exploratory research. Realizing<br />
that collaboration with universities is essential<br />
for exploration and that the issue of intellectual<br />
property rights was introducing tension into universitybusiness<br />
company relations, Intel had<br />
to come up with something new. Intel’s solution<br />
is to collaborate as peers by creating a small lab<br />
on or close to campus and allowing research freedom<br />
under a broad Intel-Research vision and agenda.<br />
A daring piece of folly? Whilst admitting an occasional<br />
hick-up inherent to the nature of the labs, Intel<br />
is continuing with this approach which creates a<br />
fantastic working atmosphere and generates much<br />
more interesting results.<br />
Intel is known across the world as the number one producer<br />
of integrated circuits and semiconductors. The little “Intel<br />
inside” sticker on your laptop tells you that it is fitted with an<br />
Intel processor - Pentium, Celeron, Xeon, Core or Dual Core.<br />
This is a very fast-moving market, in which manufacturers<br />
maintain leadership only by remaining at the sharp edge<br />
of technology.<br />
Intel was born in California in 1968, and grew rapidly under the<br />
leadership of Andrew S. Grove, Gordon E. Moore and Robert W.<br />
Noyce. In 1991, with the advent of personal computers (PCs)<br />
based on x86 processors, Intel climbed to first place among electronic<br />
chip manufacturers. It is still there, employing 100 000<br />
people worldwide, with 11 production units and six dedicated<br />
assembly and testing facilities. The one European production<br />
unit is at Dublin, in Ireland.<br />
Innovation at the heart of the corporate mission<br />
Innovation is a central concept in Intel’s mission. Intel employs<br />
around 7 000 people in R&D. Technology Director Justin Rattler<br />
directs the R&D strategy. In inter-networked laboratories across<br />
the world, his teams are working hard on short and medium-term<br />
operational development projects in close liaison with the various<br />
parts of the business. Intel also has a technology marketing<br />
centre. Finally, six years ago Intel launched an exploratory research<br />
department with a radically new angle. Intel has developed its<br />
OCR (Open and Collaborative Research) model to reduce<br />
Intel laboratory at Cambridge University (England).<br />
Intel: researching in a<br />
of openness and coo<br />
conflicts around intellectual property, a legal concept that acts as<br />
a brake on cooperation between industries and universities. “We<br />
want our researchers not to be worrying about intellectual rights”,<br />
explains Intel Research Associate Director Hans Mulder. “This<br />
approach has enabled us to attract the most brilliant brains and to<br />
allow them to really develop their ideas. In our university laboratories<br />
you won’t see a researcher whispering to another scientist in a<br />
corridor and then shutting up when a student passes within earshot!”<br />
Intel has set up four university-linked laboratories: three in the<br />
United States (Berkeley, Pittsburgh and Seattle) and one in Europe<br />
(Cambridge). The reason is clear: world-class universities, very<br />
smart people, collaborative in nature, and because of their excellence,<br />
places where good ideas from other universities pass through<br />
by means of visitors, new faculty, presentations, etc. Located in the<br />
immediate proximity of university campuses, these small laboratories<br />
are staffed by 12-18 researchers, but have space for 40 to<br />
50. This allows them to take in university students and interns<br />
who provide key brainpower for particular projects. These laboratories<br />
are directed (except at Cambridge) by a university professor<br />
employed by Intel to develop a specific project. Intel offers this<br />
professor a laboratory, a team and space for students. The result<br />
is an effective research tool, with both equipment and brainpower.<br />
The quality of the professor and his or her commitment to<br />
successfully carrying through the project are obviously decisive
spirit<br />
peration<br />
success factors. But if the project succeeds, the professor knows the<br />
entire clout of the Intel group is there to bring the idea to<br />
concrete realization.<br />
From research to production<br />
These laboratories operate on the principle of cooperation, rather<br />
than competition. Property rights are not exclusive, and most<br />
research results are published and widely disseminated. “It is this<br />
encouragement to share their research results which pushes researchers<br />
to work better and obtain better results”, Hans Mulder continues.<br />
Each project is closely followed by an Intel manager. It is the relationship<br />
with the researchers that the company is trying to prioritize.<br />
“We don’t want to manage a project’s details, nor can we<br />
impose it on the market. Neither can we control researchers and prevent<br />
them from deciding to change life style or to take another path,<br />
or even to move to the competition. We try therefore to maintain good<br />
relations, and even to extend these outside our structures to make sure<br />
good ideas are carried through… We believe it is better to influence<br />
the entire ecosystem to bring projects to fruition than for these to fall<br />
by the wayside”.<br />
Has Intel discovered the new path of innovation? “It’s far from<br />
simple, and to be honest I don’t have the miracle recipe”, Hans Mulder<br />
admits. “Investing in the implementation phase of a<br />
© Chris Northeast<br />
Management improvement<br />
Intel helps detect<br />
eye disease in India<br />
Under the direction of Eric Brewer,<br />
the former founder of Inktomi<br />
(search engines), the Intel laboratory<br />
at Berkeley (USA) is developing a<br />
project to make a quality infrastructure<br />
available to the poorest countries.<br />
By selecting the most standardized<br />
technologies used in the west<br />
and combining them as effectively<br />
as possible to reduce costs, the team<br />
is developing DTN (delay tolerant<br />
networking) aimed at overcoming<br />
the connectivity difficulties<br />
experienced in disadvantaged regions.<br />
This project is used for example<br />
in India to undertake eye examinations<br />
across an entire rural region.<br />
In this way people no longer travel<br />
in from their village to be examined<br />
at city hospitals. Instead a computer<br />
is installed in each village, linked<br />
to an eye analysis system.<br />
A new generation network, less<br />
demanding in terms of connectivity<br />
than the TCP/IP protocol, allows<br />
this computer to be connected up<br />
with the hospital computer.<br />
project is still the most difficult decision to take.” With their<br />
concern for cost control and their focus on today’s products –<br />
and Intel is no exception here – companies are enormously resistant<br />
to risk taking.<br />
Intel founder Andy Grove knows a thing or two about this. Forty<br />
years ago he himself quit the company he was working for. Why?<br />
Because no one at Fairchild wanted to listen to his ideas… Which<br />
is why he founded Intel! ●<br />
© Sonesh Surana<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
53
Dossier<br />
54<br />
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
101339 104142<br />
EXTENDING MERCURY CELLS PLATES’ LIFE<br />
WITH A METHOD SO SIMPLE THAT IT WAS<br />
SUPPOSED TO BE IMPOSSIBLE<br />
THE “CHEWING GUM”<br />
SOLUTION<br />
The plates of the mercury electrolysis<br />
cells suffer degradations as a result<br />
of corrosion and erosion caused by<br />
the brine and the mercury.<br />
Repairs via welding or brazing are not<br />
possible and the only option is to replace<br />
them. However, in the mid term, the mercury<br />
cells will be withdrawn to make way<br />
for another technology: membrane cells.<br />
An original solution has been found and<br />
successfully implemented in Tavaux (France).<br />
The lifetime of these plates is extended<br />
by filling the degraded areas with<br />
thermosetting resins. This solution, which<br />
was first deemed to be unthinkable,<br />
developed with a company specialising<br />
in coatings, makes it possible to extend the<br />
lifetime of the mercury cells at a low cost.<br />
Referred to as the “chewing gum” solution,<br />
this development once again proves that<br />
the best ideas are often the simplest ones.<br />
> Pascal Vandewattyne; Dominique Chaudot;<br />
François Gras; Christophe Page; Richard Poirault;<br />
Konrad Roumieux.<br />
> CC ECM – MATERIALS & CORROSION<br />
SOLVAY ACADEMY FOR PHARMACEUTICALS<br />
TRAINING AND SHARING<br />
OF BEST PRACTICES<br />
In view of the rapid growth of Solvay<br />
Pharmaceuticals, the idea is to create<br />
a training department, focusing specially<br />
on the sale and marketing of pharmaceutical<br />
products. This Solvay Academy would<br />
appoint its trainers from among the best<br />
recognised talents in these professions. With<br />
its own Intranet site, the Solvay Academy<br />
would offer a programme to all the sales<br />
and marketing staff, it would put the best<br />
practices identified throughout the<br />
organisation at the disposal of all.<br />
Workshops could be organised quarterly<br />
and the Intranet communication updated<br />
every week. This academy should help to<br />
permanently improve the performance levels<br />
in the field of the sale and marketing<br />
of pharmaceutical products and make Solvay<br />
Pharmaceuticals a world-class company,<br />
capable of taking the changes brought about<br />
by acquisitions and partnerships in its stride.<br />
> Suresh Ramadasan.<br />
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR<br />
104600<br />
CREATE AN INNOVATIVE ATMOSPHERE<br />
INTRODUCING ART AT THE PLANT<br />
AN ATYPICAL FIRST<br />
FOR THE GROUP<br />
Building on the suggestion of one of its<br />
employees, the Solvic Lillo plant (close<br />
to Antwerp, Belgium) took the daring step<br />
of promoting a very innovative artistic event.<br />
In collaboration with the Royal Academy<br />
of Fine Arts of Antwerp, it invited six students<br />
from the In Situ 3 workshop to come up with<br />
a work of art for its site. The only condition<br />
imposed was the choice of background<br />
for the works: roofs, unused infrastructures,<br />
tanks, administrative areas. After a tough<br />
competition, seven works were selected<br />
by a jury made up of employees from the<br />
plant and professors from the Academy.<br />
The idea was not only to support the artistic<br />
promotion of young talents, but to stimulate<br />
the personnel to think differently, with<br />
creativity, by making it possible to create<br />
a pleasant and innovative atmosphere arising<br />
both from contact with the works and with<br />
the students. The aim being to trigger<br />
innovative projects internally. The works,<br />
which were presented to the general public<br />
during the Open Days of the Belgian chemical<br />
industry, proved to be very beneficial:<br />
• they have inspired the plant’s personnel,<br />
who have themselves decorated an<br />
administrative building on the theme<br />
of the cinema;<br />
• they have nurtured closer links between<br />
the outside world and the plant;<br />
• they give the plant a well-kept, attractive<br />
and innovative image;<br />
• they have given the Antwerp Academy<br />
an unusual stage, which has included them<br />
in a book dedicated to the work of In Situ 3.<br />
> Norbert Deckers; Guido Derycke;<br />
Marina Goeyvaerts; Christiane Malcorps;<br />
Kris Van’t Hof.<br />
> SBU VINYLS
104806<br />
COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT IN DISCOVERY:<br />
“HIT – HANDLUNGSKOMPETENZ IM TEAM”<br />
SKILL DEVELOPMENT<br />
FOR ALL AND FOR LIFE<br />
Originally intended, back in 2002,<br />
to accompany an internal reorganisation,<br />
a new continuous process of systematic skills<br />
development has proven to be essential<br />
to help the “Discovery” department<br />
of Pharma Hanover in its contribution<br />
to the creation of the “New Solvay<br />
Pharmaceuticals”.<br />
This process combines the professional<br />
knowledge and methodical know-how<br />
with the personal and social skills of the<br />
employees and takes place in three stages:<br />
• definition of the skills profiles required<br />
for the various functions, in pharmaceutical<br />
discoveries;<br />
• implementation and use of self-evaluation<br />
tools, feedbacks, evaluation by others and<br />
summaries during an individual interview;<br />
• proposal and setting up of a development<br />
programme after validation.<br />
The emphasis was put above all on in-the-<br />
field learning, experience having shown that<br />
this approach is the most profitable. One of<br />
the major results of this project is the<br />
realisation of the need for permanent career-<br />
long training, both for the employees and<br />
the managers. Furthermore, a significant<br />
increase in reflection skills has been<br />
observed, translated by a huge impact<br />
on the capacity to innovate.<br />
The improvements in working culture and<br />
learning in the department make it a subject<br />
of a scientific study and have been measured<br />
by a concrete indicator.<br />
> Janine Artelt; Tanja Bernier; Christoph Hemme;<br />
Manuela Martin; Werner Packmor; Hubert Thole;<br />
Susanne Thun-Battersby; Heiko Vogel-Lahrmann.<br />
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR<br />
105083<br />
SOLVAYREWARDS ONLINE<br />
ALL THE ADVANTAGES<br />
ON-LINE<br />
In the United States, recruiting and retaining<br />
valued employees is a critical business<br />
objective. Solvay offers its US-based employees<br />
a competitive and comprehensive benefits<br />
package in addition to their base salary and<br />
incentive compensation. Yet, often people tend<br />
to look only at the figure at the bottom<br />
of their pay check when they evaluate their total<br />
remuneration. Hence the decision to develop<br />
SolvayRewards Online: the interactive employee<br />
self-service web tool that ensures employees<br />
see the total remuneration picture. Developed<br />
in early 2005 in collaboration with ACS, a<br />
world-leader in e-solutions and business process<br />
outsourcing, this on-line information system<br />
makes it possible to review, in real time, the<br />
actual value of direct and indirect compensation,<br />
whether immediate or deferred: base salary,<br />
bonus, health and welfare insurance benefits,<br />
pension benefits, government-mandated<br />
benefits, and other elements of remuneration.<br />
Furthermore, this system, which is accessible via<br />
both the Internet and Solia, the Solvay intranet,<br />
is linked to the Solvay FutureChoice website,<br />
where employees can keep track of and manage<br />
their retirement benefits (pension and savings).<br />
It is also linked to the SolvayChoice/Interactive<br />
Workforce web site, on which employees can<br />
manage their health and welfare insurance<br />
benefits. Additionally, with the click of a mouse<br />
employees can print out current and historic<br />
annual records of their total remuneration.<br />
The automation of these tools offers a two-fold<br />
advantage. Not only does it facilitate efficiency<br />
within human resources by allowing Solvay HR<br />
staff to focus on more added value activities,<br />
but it also reveals to employees that Solvay is an<br />
employer of choice through the easy visibility<br />
of all aspects of remuneration.<br />
> Scott Allen; Anne Allex; Tara Johnson;<br />
Michelle Zent.<br />
> BSC NAFTA<br />
Management improvement<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
55
Dossier<br />
105011<br />
56<br />
CONSOLIDATION AT EUROPEAN LEVEL OF 3 HR<br />
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
PROCESSES IN ORDER TO SUPPORT THE HANZINELLE I<br />
ORGANIZATION MODEL<br />
STANDARDISATION,<br />
COHERENCE<br />
AND SYNERGIES THROUGH IT<br />
Managing the businesses, world-wide,<br />
while complying with the organisation<br />
model defined by Hanzinelle I, calls for a certain<br />
degree of standardisation of policies, processes,<br />
systems and tools. The aim is to make the most<br />
of the synergies and avoid the creation of silos<br />
per business or per country/region.<br />
This kind of standardisation is only possible<br />
with the intelligent use of one and the same IT<br />
system. And that is precisely what has been<br />
achieved with this project.<br />
The coherence between the three processes and<br />
the new synergies created are now taking<br />
tangible form for the internal clients:<br />
1. in line with the Hanzinelle I model, a new<br />
electronic organisation chart has been<br />
developed showing the functional<br />
and administrative views of the organisation:<br />
• the functional view describes the Group<br />
independently of the geographic sites;<br />
• the administrative view allows regroupings at<br />
four levels : site, country, region and Group.<br />
2. the functional dimension of this organisation<br />
chart steers the Managing Performances<br />
process, which is also computerised, the e-PDA ;<br />
3. in the compensation revue process<br />
for the Senior Managers, in Europe, the<br />
electronic system gathers the data directly from<br />
the e-PDA and proposes the corresponding<br />
budgets, to each Direction.<br />
The first two processes and the e-PDA are now<br />
directly accessible to managers and employees<br />
via the new integrated SOLIA IT system.<br />
> Thierry Lefevre; Monique Anciaux; Bernard Becoulet;<br />
Nicole Dewaele; Christine Gilis; Wolfgang<br />
Hackelboerger; Murielle Larzille; Sabine Mueller;<br />
Marita Notzke-Pollakowski; Liliane Penelle; Alain<br />
Steinier; Michael Thylmann; Marie-Christine Vervier.<br />
> DCRH<br />
104991<br />
THE INERGY UNIVERSITY: A NEW WAY<br />
OF LEARNING IN A GLOBAL ORGANIZATION<br />
THE UNIVERSITY<br />
FOR WHICH EVERYONE<br />
IS RESPONSIBLE<br />
How to create a strong feeling<br />
of belonging, retain talents and effectively<br />
share knowledge in a medium-sized<br />
company scattered over 18 countries<br />
and active on 31 sites world wide? How, at the<br />
same time, to better adapt to the evolution of<br />
an increasingly competitive sector, where the<br />
involvement of the personnel and its know-<br />
how are key factors? In 2002, Inergy came up<br />
with the answer to these questions with its<br />
Inergy University project,<br />
a true managerial system for internal global<br />
training intended to meet the transversal<br />
needs both in R&D (alignment of the<br />
technological and commercial objectives)<br />
and in HR (participative culture and personal<br />
development). Today, the University<br />
proposes 42 training programmes, all<br />
designed internally, given by 120 trainers,<br />
with an international perspective. The<br />
programmes are supported by a dedicated<br />
Web site which is managed locally and<br />
coordinated globally. In 2005, 1 570 partners<br />
in product or process development were also<br />
trained there which undoubtedly helped<br />
to foster closer links. In three years, it has<br />
become a strategic tool and a showcase<br />
for the Inergy values, which are respect<br />
of people, sense of the common good, and<br />
commitment towards the excellence of the<br />
service. It thus helps to make the company<br />
more competitive and more attractive.<br />
> Sylvie Le Bourhis; François de Font-Réaulx;<br />
Sophie Naimi.<br />
> SBU INERGY
105028<br />
STIMULATING INNOVATION AT SOLVAY ADVANCED<br />
POLYMERS – THE INNOVATION CAFÉ<br />
INNOVATION CAFÉ:<br />
CREATING A CULTURE<br />
OF INNOVATION<br />
Innovation is widely recognized as the key<br />
to long-term survival in today’s business climate.<br />
Harnessing the power and realizing the business<br />
benefits of innovation prompted the Leadership<br />
Team of Solvay Advanced Polymers to formalise<br />
the innovative process. This began with<br />
the creation of a multifunctional, global<br />
Innovation Team. Their goal – develop and<br />
encourage the processes and tools that enable and<br />
facilitate innovation across the entire organization.<br />
The Team followed a model known as Open<br />
Innovation to gather best practices, which it<br />
combined with the results of its own research<br />
to develop a context for innovation known as the<br />
Innovation Cafe. This distinctive framework<br />
has inspired a culture change, unleashing and<br />
stimulating the innovation potential in all<br />
900+ employees. Introduced in 2005, it focuses<br />
innovation efforts on strategic challenges facing<br />
the business, a practice proven to yield high-quality<br />
and even breakthrough ideas. Moreover<br />
it provided a framework and tool box to help<br />
innovators generate ideas. Twenty-two employees<br />
from the main worldwide sites were trained as<br />
facilitators. Their mission is to carry out idea<br />
generation sessions to support the Challenges.<br />
Finally, an idea management process was<br />
introduced to manage ideas as they move<br />
from creativity to implementation. More than<br />
30 Challenges have been carried out using<br />
this process, with participation by over half of all<br />
employees. Thousands of raw ideas have been<br />
generated, many of which have led to new<br />
projects in various areas of the business. Several<br />
ideas have led to a significant increase<br />
in revenues. The process is now considered<br />
to be vital by Solvay Advanced Polymers.<br />
> Thomas Balsano; Brian Alexander; William Bailey;<br />
Maria Bertucci; Allison Crupi; Ian Kowalski;<br />
Kermit Kwan; Stuart Mitchell; Vincent Nedeff;<br />
Shawn Shorrock; Ray Summey; Grover Wallace;<br />
Gregory Warkoski.<br />
> SBU SPECIALTY POLYMERS<br />
104639<br />
SOLIA: A SOLVAY WIDE PERSONALIZED<br />
ENVIRONMENT FOR MANAGING KNOWLEDGE<br />
AND INFORMATION AND A PRIVILEGED VECTOR<br />
FOR COLLABORATION AND COMMUNICATION<br />
A NEW WAY<br />
OF WORKING TOGETHER<br />
From its outset in 2003, this project pursued<br />
a clear ambition: much more<br />
than an IT tool, its aim was to give a kick-start<br />
to a far-reaching cultural change at Group<br />
level, to promote the sharing of knowledge,<br />
to give each employee a working autonomy<br />
and to provide each entity with international<br />
communication possibilities.<br />
Defined with two university partners (ULB<br />
and Vlerick Business School) and several<br />
internal partners, the IT platform integrates,<br />
in transparent way for the user, a document<br />
management and collaboration tool,<br />
a Web-based communication tool, a powerful<br />
search engine and an “information cockpit”<br />
that is personalised for each employee, adapted<br />
to his/her function, in his/her own language.<br />
The robustness of the system and the quality<br />
of its governance process, having been<br />
confirmed by pilot tests, SOLIA is now<br />
rearing to go. It currently stocks over<br />
645 000 documents and receives over<br />
362 000 visits per month. The increase of<br />
knowledge sharing within the Group can<br />
already be felt.<br />
> Jean-Louis Lieutenant; Kay Brunner; José Cervera;<br />
Marco De Donno: Massimo Devecchi; Francesco Dilillo;<br />
Pierre Drijvers; François Garang; Juergen Greilich;<br />
Bernadette Hislaire; Robin Jenkins; Muriel Larzille;<br />
Urbano Llamas; Gisèle Maréchal; Thierry Masson;<br />
Eckart Nerge; Johan Parisse; Brian Scott; Luis Serrano;<br />
Annick Stelandre; Sander Vanhulsenbeek;<br />
Haimo Zekoll.<br />
> OFFICE OF THE COMEX<br />
Management improvement<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
57
Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
104897<br />
58<br />
CHINESE HIREES PROJECT<br />
THE CHASE IS ON<br />
FOR CHINESE TALENTS<br />
Pinpointing and attracting the managers<br />
that will head up the growth<br />
of the Group’s units in China is the aim<br />
of this project. To achieve it, the Plastics<br />
and Chemicals Sectors launched a<br />
recruitment drive within several Chinese<br />
universities. The purpose was to select<br />
nine young Chinese who could show significant<br />
potential, four for the Plastics Sector and<br />
five for the Chemicals Sector. They would be<br />
offered a two year training scheme to allow<br />
them to adapt to the corporate culture,<br />
both with regard to the Group’s technical<br />
know-how and to its working methods.<br />
2 650 candidates attended the information<br />
session. An arduous selection process led<br />
to a shortlist of twelve, nine of whom accepted<br />
the Solvay offer. Eight of them have Masters<br />
and one holds a PhD. The average age is 24.<br />
To take on the Chinese market in the long<br />
term, Solvay wants to put the values<br />
of respect for the environment and social<br />
conditions at the heart of its Asian culture.<br />
That is why both the technical and human<br />
qualities of the successful candidates are a<br />
precondition for the Group’s success in China.<br />
They will be the promoters of the company’s<br />
sustainable development in Asia.<br />
> Jose Martinez-Adam; Alessandro Bazzarini;<br />
Michel Bokobza; Anna Calderini; Marco Colatarci;<br />
Philippe Descamps; Marc Lahalle; Lana Lim;<br />
Ariane Nemery; Fabrizio Ponte; Michael Thylmann;<br />
Alain Vandenbussche; Joelle Verheyen; Gabriella Zafferri.<br />
> CHEMICALS SECTOR<br />
104514<br />
MATERIAL SCIENCE COMMUNITY<br />
AN ORIGINAL<br />
INITIATIVE BECOMES<br />
A SUCCESS STORY<br />
This project set out to create an<br />
international network of Solvay experts,<br />
to promote and stimulate innovation<br />
and the sharing of knowledge. This<br />
community, recognised by the Executive<br />
Committee, focuses on Material Science<br />
and is the organiser of the “Solvay Science<br />
for Innovation” conference. Organised<br />
in concentric circles, around a core team<br />
of around fifteen persons, its mission<br />
is to provide and share throughout the entire<br />
Group the most advanced and most<br />
comprehensive knowledge in the field<br />
of material sciences. In 2005, the Material<br />
Science Community organised<br />
the ”Molecules and Materials, go beyond<br />
the limits” conference, devoted to<br />
nanotechnologies and advanced materials.<br />
140 of the Group’s researchers, from all<br />
disciplines, as well as external experts from<br />
universities, industry and politics were given<br />
a platform, over two days, to exchange their<br />
expertise and, via workshops, to generate<br />
175 new ideas and over 30 development<br />
projects. An unprecedented success story.<br />
> Richard Thommeret; Vincenzo Arcella; Thierry Baert;<br />
George Corbin; Francine Delplanque; Pierre Dewitte;<br />
Celene DiFrancia; Serge Dupont; Johannes Eicher; Antoine<br />
Ghanem;Anne Goldberg;Valerj Kapeliouchko; Karl Koehler ;<br />
Marc Lacroix; Brigitte Laurent; Vito Leo; Xavier Lepot; Hans<br />
Meyer; Ardechir Momtaz; François Monnet;<br />
Ulf Preuschoff; Sunit Shah; Claude Thibaut de Maisières;<br />
Vincent Thulliez; Les Turski; Eric Vandevijver; Pierre Winant.<br />
> OFFICE OF THE COMEX<br />
Management improvement<br />
104710<br />
SAFETY MANAGEMENT LEADED<br />
BY SUBCONTRATORS<br />
SAFETY ALSO<br />
CONCERNS PARTNERS!<br />
Safety is a permanent concern in a<br />
production unit and that is certainly<br />
true in Dombasle, France. An accident that<br />
takes place on the site, whether the its<br />
responsibility is of the Solvay personnel<br />
or of a subcontractor, always appears in the<br />
press as an “accident at Solvay”. Therefore,<br />
to further drastically reduce the number<br />
of accidents, Dombasle had the idea<br />
to involve the subcontractors to a greater<br />
degree. Putting the emphasis on the concept<br />
of cooperation, Solvay has, fist of all,<br />
involved the subcontracting companies<br />
in the safety audit and set up a mixed team<br />
in charge of safety. The participation of the<br />
subcontractors in the safety team reduces<br />
the time devoted to the control of suppliers<br />
and generates an atmosphere of mutual<br />
trust, to such an extent that now<br />
subcontractors are those managing this<br />
team, a cultural change that sent shock<br />
waves across the local Solvay team.<br />
Since then, a different external company<br />
takes over the management of the safety<br />
team on a rotating basis. Every quarter,<br />
the team develops a theme, which is widely<br />
communicated within the plant. Outcome:<br />
a fourfold reduction in accidents leading<br />
to sick leave.<br />
>Olivier Houzelle; Isa Akbiyik; Atrick Bemsteiner;<br />
Raphael Bouchy; Christophe Galindo; Joel Kob;<br />
Jean-Jacques Merkel; Gilles Mikolajczak; Daniel Pularz;<br />
Lionel Semin; Jean-Paul Viry.<br />
> SBU SODA ASH
Sustainable development<br />
& citizenship<br />
Innovation which balances<br />
economic, social<br />
and environmental responsibilities<br />
\ INNOVATION AT LAFARGE \ Page 60<br />
THE APPLYING PROJECTS \ Page 62<br />
\ Using a sub-product of bio-diesel \ Solvay consolidates its leadership position, both in the USA and<br />
world-wide \ Transversal and vertical information management \ Adapt our plants to respect the European<br />
\ requirements \ Sheltering refugees \ Giving start-ups a kick start on the Belgium-NOH R&T site<br />
\ One first after another \ A double economy \ Chemistry and Nature \ The drive for green diesel<br />
\ From monitoring to immediate response \ The value is in the tube \ Aretusa: more water for the region<br />
\ High gloss polyolefins \ Turning an expense into a profit \ Conciliate professional and private life<br />
> Contact person and team<br />
> Entity submitting the project<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
59
Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
60<br />
Ordinarily, tradition and innovation confront each<br />
other like sworn enemies.<br />
At Lafarge, the world’s number one construction<br />
materials group, they’ll freely admit that the sector<br />
used to be somewhat conservative, but they’re<br />
determined to move beyond this with a genuine<br />
strategy for progress. By thinking about people<br />
and their environment.<br />
Apriori, many powerful forces act as a brake on innovation.<br />
To mention just the two largest: force of habit<br />
amongst professional builders and the low turnover of<br />
customers, which do little to encourage suppliers to adopt<br />
new ways of working. Despite all this, the Lafarge group has decided<br />
to press ahead, against the current, and to provide customers<br />
with greater value. And its research budget, whilst low compared<br />
with other sectors, is above that of its competitors. A major component,<br />
moreover, is a change of mindset, which in principle costs<br />
nothing. Like when, faced with a problem of foaming during plaster<br />
production, Lafarge people went to Danone to see how it stabilizes<br />
its chocolate mousse.<br />
Progress by breaking with the past<br />
This proactive approach is enabling Lafarge to bring to market<br />
resolutely new products, which break with existing solutions.<br />
Corporate policy is to move beyond the incremental progress<br />
often linked to process research, with innovative products deriving<br />
directly from pure research.<br />
This policy is producing really amazing results. For example,<br />
Lafarge is right now testing concretes which remain very fluid<br />
for two hours and then set so fast that the formwork can be<br />
removed after four hours. It also produces 400 m 2 slabs without<br />
joints or cracks, which reduces maintenance costs 16-fold.<br />
It has also succeeded in producing plasterboards with four<br />
rounded edges, permitting for the first time the perfect finishing<br />
of plasterboard walls.<br />
It is important to state that Lafarge’s good technical and commercial<br />
results are the outcome of the group’s desire to speed up<br />
progress, expressed in a series of very concrete programmes.<br />
This is a complex process embracing both sales and research.<br />
Product application:<br />
the Spinnaker Tower (U.K.).<br />
Far beyond legal oblig<br />
As Lafarge people are quick to remind you, the success of an innovation<br />
lies not in the product itself, but the ability to deploy it<br />
and make it a success (1) .<br />
Sustainable citizenship<br />
Although this is not easy, Lafarge tries to have as strong an environmental<br />
and citizenship policy as possible. At times this lies in the<br />
novelty of its products. For example in a range of self-placing concretes,<br />
which do not need to be “vibrated” into place, and which<br />
offer the cumulative benefits of better filling quality, better productivity<br />
and reduced noise nuisance. Or again dust-free cements<br />
which provide workers with healthier working conditions. In most<br />
cases this policy is the fruit of the house philosophy - far from new<br />
- which takes a pro-active stance in an industry that, by definition,<br />
leaves a real imprint on our world. Like on landscapes: extracting<br />
450 million tonnes a year from more than 1 000 quarries necessarily<br />
leaves traces. Quarries are rehabilitated under plans which go<br />
much further than legal requirements. Better still, Lafarge has<br />
turned an obligation into a strategic direction: its soil remediation<br />
programme at its own sites serves as an example to others. When<br />
new operating permits are requested, decision-making authorities<br />
and pressure groups are invited to an already rehabilitated site,<br />
which becomes a visiting card. “If you’re not at the top, you’re<br />
nowhere”, they say at Lafarge. This logic has been pushed as far as<br />
producing meticulous biodiversity indexes (in conjunction with<br />
WWF International), with a commitment to replicate these on quitting<br />
the site. And last, but far from least, Lafarge applies its ethics
ations<br />
without distinction, whatever the country, wherever in the world.<br />
Another delicate issue it has faced head-on is the carbon gas emissions<br />
from heating limestone kilns with fossil fuels to produce<br />
cement. Here too Lafarge has taken a proactive stance. In 2000,<br />
working in partnership with WWF, it made a worldwide commitment<br />
to reduce emissions by 20% per tonne of cement between<br />
now and 2010 (2) , with Price Waterhouse called in to provide objective<br />
audits. Getting this right is very pertinent to its Lafarge’s activity.<br />
Indeed, a large part of its research budget is devoted to optimizing<br />
combustion processes.<br />
Innovation prize<br />
Every three years or so, Lafarge organizes its “Innovation Awards”<br />
ceremony concurrently with a meeting of 600 top managers. A village<br />
is set up for the occasions with stands for prize-winners to present their<br />
innovations. An award in the “marketing” category went to recently a<br />
transfer of practice. The group’s Indian entity had created a Customer<br />
University to invigorate its service to clients. The Kenyans became<br />
interested, went to see for themselves, and have since transposed the<br />
principle to their own country, with local adaptations. This horizontal<br />
passing of know-how within the group also falls under the heading of<br />
citizenship innovation.<br />
It also proves that, at Lafarge, innovation is not simple a matter of<br />
Awards, but is anchored in employees’ everyday reflexes. •<br />
(1) The invention transformation rate at Lafarge is a remarkably high nearly 90%.<br />
(2) The commitment covers the period 1990-2010. So far, Lafarge has achieved<br />
a reduction of 13%.<br />
Sustainable Development & citizenship<br />
© DR médiathèque Lafarge.<br />
© DR médiathèque Lafarge.<br />
Wind farm at Tetouan (Morocco).<br />
Global and local<br />
Agilia self-placing concrete<br />
being poured on site.<br />
With 2 100 operating sites in<br />
76 countries, Lafarge has annual<br />
sales of EUR 16 billion. This originally<br />
family-owned French company has<br />
gradually expanded geographically and<br />
climbed to the top of its markets by<br />
basing its activity on four naturally linked<br />
pillars: cement, granulates (stone, gravel<br />
and sand) and concrete, plasterboard<br />
and roofing materials. These are not per<br />
se highly innovative products, which<br />
explains why the R&D budget<br />
is of the order of just 1% of turnover.<br />
Even so, research is seen as highly<br />
important in terms of technological<br />
development. Research work is shared<br />
between a global centre (developing new<br />
compounds, providing ideas<br />
and information on possible fields<br />
of development) and local or regional<br />
technical centres which develop<br />
and perfect processes and provide<br />
technical assistance. This structure reflects<br />
the constraints of largely locally based<br />
operations: each quarry is different,<br />
extracted products do not travel far,<br />
and every new development has<br />
to be adapted to individual sites.<br />
Lafarge reconciles global leadership<br />
and local multiplicity by prioritizing<br />
employee motivation. Nearly<br />
50% of eligible employees hold shares<br />
in the company, producing a sense<br />
of involvement and loyalty.<br />
This is accompanied by a clearly affirmed<br />
policy of giving sites the greatest possible<br />
autonomy: a logical approach, given<br />
the high degree of local specificity<br />
in the group’s activities.<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
© DR médiathèque Lafarge.<br />
61
Dossier<br />
Epicerol<br />
101301<br />
62<br />
EPICEROL: SOLVAY SPEEDS UP<br />
THANKS TO GREEN BIOFUEL!<br />
USING A SUB-PRODUCT<br />
OF BIO-DIESEL<br />
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
Solvay has developed a new process<br />
that has been named Epicerol, which<br />
is based on the transformation of glycerine,<br />
a by-product of the bio-diesel industry.<br />
Epichlorhydrine was used to produce glycerine.<br />
The innovation consists of inversing<br />
the reaction and use the glycerine to produce<br />
epichlorhydrine. The development of the<br />
glycerine based process for the production<br />
of epichlorhydrine has been the subject of 17<br />
patent applications by Solvay. The ever growing<br />
demand for epichlorhydrine, whose main<br />
applications are the production of epoxy resins,<br />
the reinforcement of paper and the purification<br />
of water, are set to exceed the world-wide<br />
production capacities between now and 2010.<br />
Within the framework of the Epicerol process,<br />
the glycerine – a renewable product – takes<br />
the place of propylene, a hydrocarbon. Among<br />
its environmental benefits we can name the<br />
reduction in chlorine by-products, as well as a<br />
significant reduction in water consumption.<br />
The first Epicerol production unit will be<br />
started up in Tavaux (France) in 2007. A second<br />
unit is on the cards for Rheinberg (Germany)<br />
in 2008. Finally, as bio-diesel is an alternative<br />
to fuel, even larger units are being studied<br />
for Asia, Europe and the United States.<br />
The creation of a trademark seals the reputation<br />
of this process, and should shore up its<br />
communication.<br />
> Bruno Jestin; Patrick Gilbeau; Philippe Jacques;<br />
Philippe Krafft.<br />
> SBU EDS<br />
104594 102216<br />
USD 298 MILLION CONTRACT FOR CELL-BASED<br />
PANDEMIC INFLUENZA VACCINE<br />
SOLVAY CONSOLIDATES<br />
ITS LEADERSHIP POSITION,<br />
BOTH IN THE USA<br />
AND WORLD-WIDE<br />
On the 21st of June 2005, after only eight<br />
weeks of intense preparation by a multifunctional<br />
team, Solvay submitted a 700 page<br />
tender to the United States Department of Health<br />
and Human Services (DHHS) in response to its call<br />
for the development and registration of<br />
a cell-based influenza vaccine as well as for the<br />
construction of a production plant in the United<br />
States, capable of producing 150 millions doses<br />
within six months, in the case of a pandemic.<br />
After going through the first selection phase,<br />
Solvay was still in the running with three other<br />
pharmaceutical groups. On the 4 th of May 2006,<br />
Solvay Pharmaceuticals announced the conclusion<br />
of a five year contract with the DHHS for a total<br />
amount of USD 298 million, the biggest share<br />
of the one billion US dollars allocated for this<br />
project, and shared out among the four<br />
short-listed companies. This success is a reflection<br />
of the know-how that we have accumulated over<br />
the past 50 years in influenza vaccines and<br />
of the quality of our new cell culture technology<br />
in the field. It is also the result of the first-rate<br />
involvement of the Solvay staff working in this<br />
Sector who were able to draw lessons from<br />
previous tenders, put together an excellent team<br />
effort and demonstrate flexibility and creativity<br />
in face of the DHHS demands and thus protect<br />
the human race against influenza pandemics.<br />
> Andrew Stevenson; Darya Aberback; Sandra Allen;<br />
Wil Cramer; Curtis Dale; Iris Debruijn;<br />
Mike Dornhecker; Laurie Downey; Michael Emery;<br />
Ed Geuns; Michael Hare; Neil Hirsch; Joanne Kearney;<br />
John Keeshen;Alex Kersten; Sjirk Kok; Patroski Lawson;<br />
Dorine Leyssius; Jeroen Medema; Gerard Rigter;<br />
Pieter Rouwette; Maryellen Schnell; Harold Shlevin;<br />
Jennifer Thurber; Herbert Vanderstrate; Herman<br />
Van Heemstra; Friso Vanvoorthuizen;Thomas Wijnands.<br />
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR<br />
I-CARE INTEGRATES PRODUCT SAFETY,<br />
PEOPLE SAFETY AND OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH<br />
TRANSVERSAL AND<br />
VERTICAL INFORMATION<br />
MANAGEMENT<br />
In this age that is witnessing the globalisation<br />
of business and the widespread circulation<br />
of products, the information relating to health and<br />
environmental risks and to risk prevention must<br />
be reliable, available at any times and in any place<br />
and in forms - often defined by law - that are<br />
adapted to a wide range of publics: clients,<br />
authorities, users and producers, experts, etc.<br />
Within the Group, safely managing a given<br />
product is always the combined responsibility of a<br />
string of experts. To consolidate their know-how<br />
and the information on regulatory obligations,<br />
both for the chemicals used and manufactured in<br />
our plants, the information systems need to be<br />
highly integrated. I-Care makes it possible to<br />
transversally manage – between experts from<br />
several disciplines – and vertically manage –<br />
throughout the Group’s entities – all this<br />
information, whether toxicological,<br />
environmental, technical or relating<br />
to the maze of laws and regulations to be<br />
respected. It also integrates the information on<br />
each type of technical equipment. Finally,<br />
combining this information on the products and<br />
the health monitoring of the personnel, I-Care<br />
makes it possible to manage the data about the<br />
exposure of workers at their workstation and<br />
consolidated medical data such as the bio-<br />
monitoring of possible effects on health. I-Care is<br />
widening its focus to combine data from all these<br />
sources, making it today a model for the entire<br />
chemical industry.<br />
> Pierre Coërs; Willy Asnong; Christiane Baleux;<br />
Luc Barbeaux; Christine Defourny; Laurence Fievet;<br />
Andreas Georg; Eric Moens; Gerhard Neuenfeldt;<br />
Thomas Paschek; Jack Smit; Jacques Vanalsenoy;<br />
Paul Vanhemelryck.<br />
> CC HSE
104981<br />
DEEP REDUCTION OF MAGNETIC FIELDS<br />
IN THE ELECTROLYZE HALLS.<br />
ADAPT OUR PLANTS<br />
TO RESPECT THE EUROPEAN<br />
REQUIREMENTS<br />
Anew European Directive relating to the<br />
protection of the health of operators<br />
exposed to magnetic fields in industrial<br />
environments lays down draconian maximum<br />
limits not be exceed from April 30 2008 on.<br />
Many of our old electrolysis plants, and if we<br />
are not careful the newly designed plants,<br />
exceed or will exceed these limits.<br />
This has led to a quest for solutions, such as:<br />
• the compensation of the fields generated by<br />
new geometries for the electric power bars<br />
• a reduction at the source of the magnetic<br />
fields generated through rectifiers<br />
(transformation of the alternative current<br />
into a continuous current).<br />
Moreover, the measurement method<br />
suggested by the Directive, and proposed<br />
by CENELEC as standard, is very general.<br />
A detailed measurement protocol has been<br />
drawn up by Solvay and also proposed<br />
as standard by CENELEC.<br />
The development of this kind of project was<br />
indispensable to ensure the compliance<br />
of our electrolysis installations with<br />
European legislation.<br />
Thanks to this project, Solvay has acquired<br />
a real leadership in this field.<br />
> Pierre Ligot; Joachim Lange.<br />
> CC ENERGY<br />
103541<br />
Sustainable Development & citizenship<br />
SHELT’EASY, OPEN UP SPACE FOR SOLIDARITY:<br />
A RANGE OF INNOVATIVE PVC<br />
SHELTERS FOR HUMANITARIAN AID<br />
SHELTERING REFUGEES<br />
The seemingly endless string of catastrophes,<br />
natural and otherwise, is giving rise<br />
to a population of permanent refugees that<br />
is estimated at 20 million persons.<br />
The physical and sanitary properties of PVC are<br />
undeniable. These two observations inspired the<br />
innovation known as Shelt’easy. Why not use PVC<br />
to come up with short and mid-term shelters and<br />
basic sanitary infrastructure? The team developed<br />
three light shelters meeting complementary<br />
needs: housing for family units of four persons,<br />
toilets and showers and storage. Another two<br />
versions were also developed suitable for harsh<br />
climatic conditions and long-term use. All of these<br />
shelters have been designed to be light enough<br />
to transport, easy to assemble and dismantle<br />
(they can be put up without specific tools, thanks<br />
to ingenious and exclusive assembly solutions)<br />
and practical due to their self-supporting<br />
structure. The project was the result of the pooled<br />
efforts of various internal entities (Chemicals and<br />
Plastics) and external partners, with a great deal<br />
of input from NGOs. Today, industrial production<br />
has been launched and the first shelters are being<br />
tested on site by a few NGO. This is a passionate<br />
project, at the crossroads between the possibility<br />
of meeting both basic human needs and market<br />
demands and one that offers promising potential<br />
for applications in other fields of activity: industry,<br />
events, tourism, army, etc. And the cherry<br />
on the cake, it ties in with the three pillars<br />
of our sustainable development policy.<br />
> Alain Rémy; Sara Boudailliez; Philippe Bourgain; Manuel<br />
Cardenas; Édith Chardon;Thierry Collard; Étienne<br />
Collignon; Marie-Claude Couturier; Lionel Debeauffort;<br />
Renaat Demeulemeester; Carine Demeyer; Pauline Ferrier;<br />
Jean-Philippe Février; Marc Gansemans; Benoît Gaudriot;<br />
Claude Geneslay; François Groussard; Bernadette Hislaire;<br />
Didier Hisquin; Philippe Huart;Véronique Lamarche;<br />
Michel Leblanc; Xavier Lepot; Paul Marie; Olivier Monfort;<br />
Jean-Marie Oreins; Jacques Roblot;Alain Roggeman;<br />
Richard Thommeret; Robert Vangeyts;<br />
Xavier Vankesteren; Sylvain Vanlaerhoven.<br />
> SBU VINYLS<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
63
Dossier<br />
105021<br />
64<br />
SOLVAY IS OPENING THE GROUP’S<br />
LARGEST R&T CENTER TO START-UPS<br />
GIVING START-UPS<br />
A KICK START ON THE<br />
BELGIUM-NOH R&T SITE<br />
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
Start-ups have to find their way in a very<br />
competitive world that is calling out both<br />
for the rapid emergence of new and high<br />
performance technologies and for drastic cuts<br />
in research costs. These start-ups, which grow<br />
around an initial idea, often find it difficult<br />
to cope with the scientific, technical, legal and<br />
administrative demands placed upon them.<br />
In line with its tradition of offering support<br />
to science, Solvay Research & Technology wants<br />
to encourage the spirit of innovation of the<br />
start-ups and welcomes them into its rich universe<br />
of research laboratories, resources and skills<br />
without it costing the earth for them. The young<br />
companies can thus focus their efforts on their<br />
core business in a stimulating environment that<br />
encourages the cross fertilisation of several<br />
disciplines, such as chemicals, engineering,<br />
materials research, etc. With this initiative, Solvay<br />
R&T is becoming an incubator for start-ups<br />
whose fields of activity are close or<br />
complementary to those of the Group.<br />
It is also for Solvay a means of making<br />
its contribution to the construction<br />
of the knowledge society. A first company,<br />
Artelis, active in the field of biotechnology, set up<br />
on the site in December 2005 and has decided<br />
to continue to grow under the protective wing<br />
of Solvay R&T (20 persons are set to be taken<br />
on in 2007). Applications from other start-ups are<br />
currently being examined.<br />
> Carine Demeyer; Paul Baekelmans; Michel Driesen;<br />
Geneviève Fauville; Alfred Hoffait; Bernard Poulin.<br />
> BSC BELGIUM<br />
105191<br />
LUVOX ® /FLUVOXAMINE IN JAPAN<br />
ONE FIRST AFTER ANOTHER<br />
Before the launch of the LUVOX<br />
(fluvoxamine) in 1999, only traditional antidepressants<br />
were commonly used<br />
in Japan, leading to the following situation:<br />
• too many adverse side effects;<br />
• uncertainty as to the possibilities<br />
of developing and finding a potential market<br />
for the SSRI (“Selective Serotonin Reuptake<br />
Inhibitors“);<br />
• a shortage of drugs to treat Obsessive<br />
Compulsive Disorders and SAD (Social<br />
Anxiety Disorders);<br />
• difficulty in finding the appropriate treatment<br />
for children.<br />
Solvay Seiyaku (Japan) therefore came up with<br />
innovative solutions to all of these issues,<br />
by being the first in Japan:<br />
• to successfully launch fluvoxamine in 1999 to<br />
treat depression and obsessive compulsive<br />
disorders, quadrupling this market between<br />
1999 and 2005 warding off reputed<br />
competitors;<br />
• to obtain approval for this drug to treat SAD<br />
and to successfully launch the drug in 2005;<br />
• to launch the paediatric clinical study at the<br />
beginning of 2006.<br />
The sheer quality of the approach, from the<br />
clinical studies to the market entry, including<br />
the risk taking, the rapid decision-making, the<br />
creation of a standardised diagnosis scale,<br />
recognised and used by the entire profession,<br />
attracted partners to these projects (Meiji<br />
Seika) and was applauded by the authorities.<br />
The result, yet again a first in Japan<br />
in the pharmaceutical industry, was the<br />
awarding of a maximum extension<br />
of marketing exclusivity for these drugs.<br />
This, of course, to the benefit of the patients<br />
who, thanks to fluvoxamine, can look forward<br />
to an improvement in their quality of life.<br />
> Toshiki Tsuji; Guenter Krause; Koji Ohiwa.<br />
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR<br />
101500<br />
USE OF PURIFIED BRINE INSTEAD OF SOLID<br />
SALT TO FEED ELECTROLYSIS PLANT WITH NaCI<br />
A DOUBLE ECONOMY<br />
The salt used to feed the membranes of the<br />
electrolysis plant needs to be purified. This<br />
is traditionally carried out via drying<br />
operations through the evaporation of the<br />
brine transported by pipe in its liquid form.<br />
However, the evaporation operations are high<br />
consumers of energy.<br />
The aim of this project is twofold:<br />
• to reduce the total quantity of salt purified<br />
by evaporation, leading to energy savings;<br />
• to feed the Antwerp (Belgium) electrolysis<br />
plant with our salt instead of buying it from<br />
external suppliers, at times of strong demand,<br />
leading to purchasing savings.<br />
To do so, in Jemeppe (Belgium)) we directly<br />
feed the electrolysis plant with saturated<br />
brine without going through the<br />
crystallisation stage. However, it is still<br />
necessary to purify this brine via a new<br />
nanofiltration technology.<br />
The capacity of purification by crystallisation<br />
that is thus freed up in Jemeppe, allows us to<br />
purify the salt for the Antwerp electrolysis.<br />
The budgetary impact can be directly felt,<br />
both in Jemeppe and Antwerp.<br />
> Pol Henry; Fabrizio Aversa; Vittorio Benso;<br />
Alain Hanneuse; Pierre Mauroy; Stéphane Pestiaux.<br />
> SBU VINYLS
104758<br />
THE « CHEMISTRY AND NATURE » PROJECT<br />
CHEMISTRY AND NATURE<br />
Launching a project is good. Broadening<br />
its base and scope of action to give vigour<br />
and life to the ideas that underpin it is much<br />
better. Although we are constantly being<br />
warned about the deterioration of our<br />
environment and about the state of the<br />
Planet, we feel that we lack the necessary<br />
resources and hesitate to take concrete action.<br />
However, each local initiative in the field<br />
of environmental protection raises the<br />
awareness of the populations and goes some<br />
way towards improving the situation. That<br />
is the philosophy behind the environmental<br />
information and training programme launched<br />
by a Solvay team in 1997 in the poor villages<br />
neighbouring the Elclor factory. Presented<br />
in a very accessible manner, this information<br />
often triggers projects that are run by the<br />
local communities themselves (e.g. community<br />
kitchen gardens, selective waste collection,<br />
tree planting programmes). The idea has since<br />
gained ground and today the project has been<br />
restructured into a more direct appeal for<br />
action. With the help of NGOs or schools, it is<br />
gradually spreading to other towns around<br />
São Paulo. 30 000 persons have already seen<br />
their efforts supported by the Chemãstry<br />
and Nature project and associate the image<br />
of the Solvay group with that of sustainable<br />
development.<br />
> Edvam Fonseca; Lisandre Assis; Edison Carlos.<br />
> BSC MERCOSUR<br />
104721<br />
GREEN DIESEL: SOLUTIONS REDUCING THE EXHAUST<br />
EMISSIONS OF DIESEL ENGINES<br />
THE DRIVE FOR GREEN DIESEL<br />
The diesel engine is the big favorite among<br />
drivers and allows a reduction of the CO2<br />
emissions. The diesel market, United States<br />
included, is booming and is forcing industrialists<br />
to find short-term solutions to drastically cut<br />
down on its environmental nuisances: diesel is a<br />
big generator of particulates and of nitrogen<br />
oxides (NOx). SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction)<br />
is the solution recently selected to reduce this NOx<br />
and the particulates filter, acting with an additive<br />
mixed to the diesel, is one of the solutions in<br />
competition to allow an efficient combustion of<br />
the soot. The demand is such that SCR systems<br />
should enter production in 2008 that is two years<br />
earlier than initially planned. To meet<br />
this challenge, Inergy Automotive System<br />
has adopted a totally innovative approach:<br />
it has considered the market broadly, going<br />
outside its perimeter but appealing to its base<br />
competencies, anticipating and working in<br />
partnership with recognized players, both inside<br />
and outside the automotive sector. This resulted in<br />
the development of two systems: DINOX and<br />
INSAS. DINOX is the equivalent of a fuel system<br />
but that allows the stocking of the urea aboard<br />
and its spray injection, which reduces the NOx;<br />
INSAS is a system that allows the automatic<br />
incorporation of an additive each time the tank is<br />
filled, leading to the regeneration at low<br />
temperatures of the particulates filters. The real<br />
prowess is that Inergy has come up with a life-<br />
long system based on a concentrated additive<br />
combined with a high pressure pump which doses<br />
at an extremely low level (less than<br />
one ml per litre of fuel). Moreover, Inergy<br />
has developed new petrol tanks components<br />
with integrated functions.<br />
> Joël Op de Beeck; Mickaël Charrier; Jean-François Midon;<br />
Anne-Claire Chevalier-Cagnol; Éric Destate; Laurent Dexet;<br />
François Dougnier; Philippe Martin;Volodia Naydenov;<br />
Vincent Potier; Jean-Philippe Rolinat;Thierry Rouxel;<br />
Russ Sarquis; Jim Thompson; Jules-Joseph Van Schaftingen;<br />
Cedric Verheyen; Guillaume Zeller; Stéphane Léonard;<br />
Bertrand Thisselin; Jan Vasek; Nadja Walling.<br />
> SBU INERGY<br />
Sustainable Development & citizenship<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
65
Dossier<br />
104820<br />
66<br />
SHIVA – REAL-TIME REMOTE MONITORING<br />
AND ALERT OF A SITE’S EMISSIONS<br />
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
FROM MONITORING<br />
TO IMMEDIATE RESPONSE<br />
In the natural protection area of Santo Andre<br />
(Brazil), controlling the liquid or gaseous<br />
effluents of an industrial site becomes a key<br />
concernThe aim is to react immediately<br />
to any abnormal emission. That is why a real<br />
time monitoring and alert system, unique<br />
in its kind throughout the Group, has been<br />
designed at the Elclor plant. It keeps an eye<br />
over around 300 parametersThe data collected<br />
by the captors (e.g. pH, temperature)<br />
or supplied by the analysers (e.g. presence<br />
of metallic contaminants), are available in real<br />
time in the control rooms, thus making it<br />
possible to quickly detect a potential problem.<br />
Stored in databases, they also make it possible<br />
to generate the reports required by the<br />
authorities. The setting up of SHIVA, which is<br />
up and running since 2001, was made possible<br />
by transposing the IT processes used<br />
to control production (sensors, transmission<br />
and acquisition of remote data) to the control<br />
of effluents. Combined with aerial photos<br />
of the plant, this user-friendly system makes<br />
it possible to immediately detect any anomaly<br />
in the complex network of effluents<br />
and to take an immediate decision on any<br />
corrective action.<br />
> Edilberto Bannwart; Leda Ferreira; Wanderley Bazani;<br />
François Carette; Bruno Cornet; Serge Joris;<br />
Roberta Manzini; Vinicius Zappala.<br />
> CC HSE<br />
104590<br />
PIPELIFE ECO SYSTEMS<br />
THE VALUE IS IN THE TUBE<br />
Apipe transports water. But is there more<br />
to it than that? Yes, says Pipelife,<br />
by developing the ends or the intermediary<br />
points to provide protection. The idea<br />
of Pipelife ECO systems grew from there, after<br />
the acquisition of Propipe, a pipe-maker with<br />
a firm foothold in “ecological“ products<br />
sector. Pipelife is developing a broad range<br />
of products including sand, oil and grease<br />
separators that are incorporated in the sewer<br />
networks. The advantage for the client<br />
is obvious: the possibility of dealing with<br />
one single supplier for different high quality<br />
products that are designed to be compatible.<br />
For Solvay, this is a market that will develop<br />
in line with the growing environmental<br />
awareness and the related legislative<br />
decisions. However, to make the idea<br />
a success, the pipe-laying sector must<br />
be convinced of its utility, by highlighting<br />
mainly the cost-saving aspect, with third party<br />
players. Pipelife intends to adopt a strategy<br />
to meet this objective by developing its R&D,<br />
by encouraging the emergence of local<br />
production companies, by working on<br />
a quality that lives up to European standard,<br />
which is essential if we consider the potential<br />
generated by the countries who recently<br />
joined the Community. Pipelife should quickly<br />
position itself as a company that is more<br />
environmentally friendly than its competitors<br />
and capable of coming up with<br />
the best solutions.<br />
> Hielke Hoekstra; Bojan Cendak; Eddy Keesmekers;<br />
Mika Rajakangas.<br />
> SBU PIPELIFE
105219<br />
ARETUSA PROJECT: WASTER WATER RECYCLING<br />
ARETUSA: MORE WATER<br />
FOR THE REGION<br />
The Rosignano (Italy) plant is a big water<br />
consumer, either to extract the salt or to<br />
produce steam and demineralised water.<br />
This represents 90 million m 3 , 82% of which<br />
is seawater and the remaining comes from<br />
ground water. However, the Rosignano region<br />
suffers from drought, particularly so in the<br />
summer, a season during which the demand<br />
for water increases due to the tourism. It was<br />
important to find a solution to avoid the use<br />
of drinking water for the plant. Solvay<br />
developed the idea of using, as a complement<br />
to seawater, the water coming from the local<br />
purification stations for its industrial needs.<br />
This project required solving several technical<br />
challenges in order to ensure a permanent<br />
supply to the plant and avoid the corrosion<br />
or the installations dirtying. A new water<br />
system was then built which resulted in<br />
significant quality improvements of the<br />
coastal water close to Rosignano and Cecina.<br />
The EUR 9 million project, 60% of which<br />
was subsidised by the European Union,<br />
involved Solvay, the Environmental Services<br />
Agency and the Termomeccanica company.<br />
This project has been rolled out on industrial<br />
scale since February 2006.<br />
> Paolo Ciuffetelli; Pascal Balestin;<br />
Raffaele Calabresedefeo; Gerard Parissis.<br />
> SBU SODA ASH<br />
105082<br />
Sustainable Development & citizenship<br />
PAINT ELIMINATION WITH HIGH-GLOSS INDURE ®<br />
ENGINEERED POLYOLEFIN MATERIALS<br />
HIGH GLOSS POLYOLEFINS<br />
Automotive body and accessory parts has<br />
long been the domain of metal fabricators<br />
and commercial auto paint operations.<br />
The downside to this approach is the cost<br />
associated with painting parts, both<br />
operational and environmental. Solvay<br />
Engineered Plastics’ Indure ® product delivers<br />
colour-matched high-performance plastic,<br />
eliminating paint. In addition to the<br />
substantial economic benefits realized by<br />
eliminating costly paint operations, Indure ®<br />
delivers significant environmental rewards<br />
via reduced use of caustic paints and lower<br />
energy consumption. The key obstacle in<br />
getting automakers to adopt this change was<br />
delivering a product that performed not only<br />
as well, but lasted as long as painted parts.<br />
The range of Indure products fulfilled all<br />
requirements and is now specified for use in<br />
various applications instead of paint. Notable<br />
among these, a rear tire well for the Ford F-<br />
250 pick-up which delivered the struggling<br />
automaker a saving of 10 dollars per vehicle.<br />
This product line has a significant profit<br />
margin in a new, relatively uncompetitive<br />
environment. Thanks to the work of cross-<br />
functional teams made up of the SBU staff<br />
(sales, marketing, technical support) as well<br />
as our partners’ representatives (from the<br />
automotive and spare parts industry),<br />
we have developed a new, growing business<br />
segment within the highly competitive<br />
auto market.<br />
> Mitesh Shah; Sudhir Bafna; David Edge; Gary Gapa;<br />
David Smith; Matt Binkinz.<br />
> SBU SPECIALTY POLYMERS<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
67
Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
105017<br />
68<br />
FROM FLUORINATED BY-PRODUCTS THERMAL<br />
TREATMENT TO ANHYDROUS HF RECOVERY:<br />
THE WAY TO SWITCH FROM DISPOSAL COST TO PROFIT<br />
TURNING AN EXPENSE<br />
INTO A PROFIT<br />
Traditionally, manufacturing units that<br />
produce fluorinated specialties are equipped<br />
for the thermal treatment of by-products.<br />
This operation is generally followed by water<br />
washing of the off-gases. The solution<br />
that emerges from this process is then<br />
neutralised, precipitated and the solid<br />
substratum is buried. The demand for increased<br />
capacity of the Spinetta plant (Italy),<br />
and greater cost cutting called for the design<br />
of a new thermal treatment section.<br />
This new treatment hinged on two<br />
technologies: high temperature burning<br />
reactors and recovering AHF (anhydrous<br />
hydrofluoric acid). The solution is a thermal<br />
treatment reactor producing gaseous HF<br />
followed by a sector allowing the recovery<br />
of hydrofluoric acid, on anyhydrous form.<br />
This new process generates significant profits<br />
as it recovers the spent AHF directly in the<br />
process, eliminating the costly process of<br />
neutralizing and land-filling the waste. Full<br />
capacity production was tested with good<br />
results, but the full benefit will only be felt<br />
when Spinetta (Italy) achieves the planned<br />
increase in capacity. The operational costs<br />
are offset by the savings made on the<br />
neutralisation operations. Moreover, important<br />
savings are made on the HF recovered during<br />
the process as well as on the treatment and<br />
maintenance operations. More importantly,<br />
the reduction in solid waste by landfill usage<br />
delivers significant environmental<br />
improvements.<br />
> Antonio Bertani; Paolo Ricci; Federica Rusconi.<br />
> SBU SPECIALTY POLYMERS<br />
101885<br />
DAY-CARE CENTER ”SOLKIDS” IN HANOVER<br />
CONCILIATE PROFESSIONAL<br />
AND PRIVATE LIFE<br />
More than 500 women are employed<br />
on Solvay’s Hanover site, i.e. over<br />
50% of the total number of employees, a<br />
proportion that is higher than the average of the<br />
other Solvay sites. Among these women are a<br />
large number of highly qualified scientists or<br />
marketing managers. More often than not,<br />
German women take a career break to devote<br />
three to six years to raising their family, even<br />
though this means that it is difficult to maintain<br />
their skills at the required level. One of the<br />
reasons for this is the lack of government<br />
subsidies for nurseries and day-care facilities for<br />
children under the age of six. According to a<br />
survey conducted in 2003, there is a strong<br />
demand among mothers of young children for<br />
nursery and day-care facilities. Management<br />
decided to meet the demands of these women<br />
and one of the buildings on the Hanover site has<br />
been completely rebuilt and equipped to house<br />
childcare facilities that comply fully with health<br />
and safety standards. The day-care center opened<br />
its doors in December 2004 with opening hours<br />
from 7.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. and it has grown with<br />
the children, as in 2006 a floor opened reserved<br />
to “big kids” from the ages of three to six years.<br />
At the end of the first business year the balance<br />
sheet proved that the financial investment<br />
was rewarded: to fill a position with a new<br />
employee costs about EUR 25 000. During<br />
the first year seven employees could return<br />
to their job after only some months of maternity<br />
leave and five employees returned from<br />
home-office employment, i.e. cost saving due<br />
to no need for new employment was higher<br />
than the yearly operation cost of Solkids<br />
which are EUR 170 000 per year.<br />
Thus Solkids became a win-win institution for both:<br />
• mothers, who want to continue to work.<br />
They are very satisfied and motivated;<br />
• Solvay, who is no longer losing its home-grown skills.<br />
> Brigitte Borchers; Detley Hofmann; Cornelia Kuester;<br />
Manuela Martin; Herbert Roehrle; Ulrike Sander;<br />
Petra Schmidt-Graubner; Axel Tegge; Martin Varchmin;<br />
Sven Zymelka.<br />
> BSC GERMANY<br />
Sustainable Development & citizenship
Replicated<br />
Innovations<br />
Initiatives inspired by successfull<br />
innovations from other entities of the<br />
Group or from elsewhere<br />
\ INNOVATION AT AIR LIQUIDE \ Page 70<br />
THE APPLYING PROJECTS \ Page 72<br />
\ Factoring makes North America its first export market \ Chemicals at the heart of our life<br />
\ A new look at an old problem \ 100% added value for the client<br />
\ Mobile revolution: High Tech maintenance in the plant \ Long live the rail!<br />
\ The benefits of open relations with our partners \ Global warehouse management<br />
\ Coming up with a solution for its client \ Open Sesame: the RFID electronic key<br />
> Contact person and team<br />
> Entity submitting the project<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
69
Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
70<br />
Like many other companies, Air Liquide has undertaken<br />
a systematic cost reduction exercise. It now wants<br />
to move beyond this with an efficiency and growth<br />
system which draws its strength from human resources<br />
and from knowledge-sharing. Its name is OPAL, short<br />
for Operating Practices at Air Liquide.<br />
Air Liquide<br />
shares good practices<br />
OPAL didn’t happen just like that. First of all it was felt<br />
that successive competitiveness plans had gone as<br />
far as they could. Second, Air Liquide’s geographic<br />
expansion was placing it – despite its world leadership<br />
in its market – in a challenger position in new<br />
and highly competitive territories. All at once this was creating a<br />
huge demand for transfer of knowledge. But whilst new countries<br />
were hungry for knowledge, mature countries poorly understood<br />
the need to share theirs. Finally, and logically enough, customers<br />
were calling for more standardized procedures to guarantee identical<br />
products across the world. Two years ago Air Liquide drew the<br />
conclusion that it had to do things differently, and better. The<br />
response was to initiate a discussion of good – and generally innovative<br />
– practices and how best to transfer them.<br />
From good practices to best practices<br />
The OPAL philosophy can be summarized in four words: gather,<br />
structure, share, implement.<br />
This does not bridle innovation on the ground, which is vital<br />
for creating and maintaining dynamism, but it standardizes<br />
the way it is put into practice and makes it more accessible within<br />
the group’s strongly decentralized culture. A five-stage approach<br />
was introduced:<br />
• international benchmarking to identify good practices;<br />
• structuring practices so they can be communicated and<br />
exchanged horizontally, between entities and between product<br />
lines;<br />
• implementation;<br />
• measuring, consolidating and analysing the results;<br />
• permanent appropriation by entities in a natural and autonomous<br />
fashion.<br />
The project’s success is due to the top management attention<br />
focused on it. A specific investment budget was earmarked for the<br />
purpose. A dedicated 5-person team travels to provide effective<br />
on-site support. Two-monthly reports are submitted to a delegation<br />
of the Executive Committee (Comex). Each country appoints<br />
its own OPAL leader and horizontal ‘communities of practice’<br />
segment the approach into topics: procurement, human resources,<br />
legal, sales etc. In addition, good local practices and recommendations<br />
can become best practices by Comex validating them as<br />
mandatory procedures for the entire group.<br />
“Airliquidized” innovation<br />
Nothing particularly new in all that? Don’t be so sure of it. The<br />
progress lies in the process of collecting, formatting and converting<br />
the various stimuli and impetuses from the grass roots into continuous<br />
improvement of results. This is a never-ending process,<br />
with the underlying system designed to be self-maintaining. A series<br />
of tools – free-of-charge as are the services of the dedicated project
World leader in industrial and medical gases,<br />
Air Liquide is present today in 70 countries<br />
team – are available to those involved, starting with a very concrete<br />
OPAL Intranet site of good and best practices, supported by a<br />
resolutely practical and easy-to-read monthly newsletter.<br />
An initial questionnaire allows employees to effectively self-assess<br />
their needs and identify weaknesses. A summary of existing<br />
solutions is then available. Control and variance tools, real<br />
indicators of good practices, are also standardized. The message has<br />
hit home: the importance of formalizing knowledge lies in having<br />
it permanently available, even when people change jobs.<br />
Finally, and more than anything else, OPAL initiates a continuous<br />
process, included in daily practices and updated annually. The<br />
objective is that in the long term each employee will personally<br />
commit to this process. It is not a question of working more, but<br />
of working differently. Whilst clearly figured objectives are set, the<br />
long-term ambition is to introduce a state of mind, which should<br />
have a snowball effect in terms of good practices. “Airliquidized”<br />
innovation is not an individual matter: it involves all employees. In<br />
today’s global environment, strong innovation policies are vital<br />
for western companies to remain in business. At Air Liquide, this<br />
need has given rise to a project management culture, including<br />
the definition of good practices, standardized in order to be<br />
shared better. •<br />
Replicated Innovations<br />
A very similar partner<br />
Alocal anchoring, an international<br />
development that includes<br />
taking positions in emerging<br />
countries with high development<br />
potential, internal growth, but also<br />
external growth as a function of<br />
targeted and profitable opportunities,<br />
a presence in pharmaceuticals and in<br />
specialty chemicals.<br />
Add to this a lot of human respect,<br />
expressed by a strong commitment<br />
to sustainable development and<br />
environmental conservation, a culture<br />
of responsibility towards both<br />
employees and shareholders,<br />
long-term customer care, and all<br />
that for more than 100 years...<br />
Solvay? No, Air Liquide. This company<br />
was created in 1902 at the initiative<br />
of an entrepreneur and a young<br />
engineer who had developed a process<br />
for liquefying air and producing<br />
oxygen far more effectively than<br />
the technologies of the time. Since<br />
then, Air Liquide has expanded and<br />
developed its expertise across the<br />
whole range of industrial and medical<br />
gases, a field in which it is now the<br />
world leader. Air Liquide is present<br />
today in 70 countries, has<br />
36 000 employees and operates eight<br />
R&D centres. For the future it is<br />
betting on its strong innovation<br />
capacity, considered no more nor less<br />
than a focal point of development.<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
71
Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
NAFTA FACTORING<br />
FACTORING MAKES<br />
NORTH AMERICA<br />
ITS FIRST EXPORT MARKET<br />
When a formula works, why not apply it<br />
elsewhere?<br />
This logic is partly what triggered CICC, the<br />
internal bank and centraliser of the Group’s<br />
commercial flows, to set up factoring<br />
management in the USA (NAFTA region)<br />
now that it has proven its value for the Group’s<br />
European subsidiaries.<br />
Factoring consists of centralising all the financial<br />
movements linked to the commercial activity:<br />
follow through of invoices, cashing of<br />
payments, risk management. Up to date, each<br />
American, Canadian or Mexican company of the<br />
Group managed these aspects of the customer<br />
relationships separately. The project sets out to<br />
centralise this activity in Houston (USA) for all<br />
the subsidiaries of the NAFTA region.<br />
At the service of the SBUs, which thus gain a<br />
competitive edge, centralised factoring will<br />
make it possible to get to know the customers<br />
better, to manage the consolidated positions,<br />
to reduce the commercial risk, to optimise the<br />
working capital, while reducing the processing<br />
costs and ensuring a simpler and therefore less<br />
expensive maintenance of the systems. The<br />
amounts in circulation are quite considerable:<br />
two billion dollars of turnover on which we can<br />
reduce the late payments and accelerate<br />
the financial flows: it is a winning solution that<br />
the CICC is soon set to export to Asia as well.<br />
> Jean-François Caillol; Anne-Marie Bruylants;<br />
Edgar Case; Heather Haidik.<br />
> BSC CICC<br />
72<br />
104985<br />
105235<br />
ESSENTIALITY OF CHEMICALS<br />
CHEMICALS AT THE HEART<br />
OF OUR LIFE<br />
The “Essentiality of Chemicals” project<br />
is a new way of promoting the social<br />
and economic value of our “essential products”<br />
portfolio. This is pursuit through the<br />
organisation of « all in one » events: scientific<br />
debates, events underlining the advantages but<br />
also the limits of the progress of technology via<br />
original initiatives around a long-term dialogue<br />
with representatives of the academic, scientific<br />
and public world, NGO, consumer associations<br />
or the press. This new method of dialogue,<br />
which sets out to be authentic and constructive,<br />
has already taken the form of a symposium,<br />
bringing together in Milan (Italy)<br />
representatives of the authorities, the university<br />
and the press, or visits of the innovative<br />
activities developed in our sites, or even<br />
training workshops for non specialists about<br />
the basic notions of toxicology.<br />
Although essential for our quality of life, our<br />
health, our food, as well as for the role it plays<br />
at the heart of a significant socio-economic<br />
activity, chemistry is nevertheless mistrusted, as<br />
it is misunderstood. A considerable challenge<br />
consists on facilitating the access to the<br />
scientific data necessary for the accurate<br />
understanding of the subject. Certain people<br />
and entities we contacted have accepted to<br />
take up the challenge by contributing, together<br />
with Solvay, to the creation of the independent<br />
NGO GreenFacts (www.greenfacts.org).<br />
The latter publishes, in several languages<br />
and, above all, in a layman’s language, the<br />
summaries of the most recognised international<br />
reports in the field of health and environment<br />
which often involve chemistry related issues.<br />
> Giuseppe Malinverno; Jacques de Gerlache;<br />
Fabio Novelli.<br />
> CC COM & PA<br />
101509<br />
EROSION FREE DISTRIBUTION FOR<br />
OXYCHLORINATION REACTORS<br />
A NEW LOOK<br />
AT AN OLD PROBLEM<br />
The oxychlorination reactors used in the<br />
VCM production process are traditionally<br />
equipped with metallic nozzles that operate<br />
in extreme conditions and suffer<br />
considerably from the effects of erosion.<br />
They are given a lifetime of two years,<br />
during which they undergo a degradation<br />
process that leads to a reduction in efficiency.<br />
Rheinberg (Germany) wanted to put a stop<br />
to this situation and launched a creative<br />
project with an external company and the<br />
local University. Together, they designed new<br />
nozzles. In practice, problems arose with the<br />
fixing of these nozzles onto the reactor grid,<br />
which had to be solved. As the results were<br />
excellent (2003), Tavaux/France, then<br />
Jemeppe/Belgium (2005) adopted the new<br />
design, after making a few modifications.<br />
The nozzles perfectly play their role in the<br />
continuous distribution of the reagents<br />
at the heart of the process and have thus<br />
increased the yield of the VCM units. Their<br />
development has continued on the new<br />
oxychlorination lines in Santo Andre (Brazil)<br />
and Zandvliet (Belgium). This innovation,<br />
whose advantages are very tangible in terms<br />
of maintenance and process optimization, is<br />
today considered as a Solvay standard.<br />
> Frank Vanrompuy; Anne-France Berger; Paul Degraeve;<br />
Bernhard Hogenkamp; Patrick Joubert; Daniel Kinet;<br />
Luigi Mestrone; Jean-Bernard Savoye; Norbert Schmitz;<br />
Heinz-Theo Temath; Wolfgang Ziebarth.<br />
> SBU VINYLS
104553<br />
INERGY PRODUCTION SYSTEM (IPS): REPLICATION<br />
OF THE TOYOTA PRODUCTION SYSTEM FOR WASTE<br />
ELIMINATION AND CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT<br />
100% ADDED VALUE<br />
FOR THE CLIENT<br />
The goal of a car parts manufacturer such as<br />
Inergy is to supply the right parts, with the<br />
right quality, at the right time, to the right<br />
client, along with the maximum dose of added<br />
value. This goal has taken concrete shape with<br />
the IPS (Inergy Production System). The<br />
ambition that underpins this approach is that<br />
of increasing the company’s competitiveness,<br />
making it an unbeatable supplier at<br />
international level.<br />
It is therefore no coincidence that the IPS<br />
promoters have taken as their inspiration a car<br />
maker that has outstripped the accumulated<br />
profits of Ford, Chrysler and GM, that claims not<br />
to have aged at all in 50 years and that is well<br />
on its way to becoming the number one<br />
worldwide : Toyota.<br />
Like the car maker, Inergy assumed that it<br />
would only achieve its aim if it brought about a<br />
critical change to the way it manages the<br />
material and immaterial flows in order to create<br />
an uninterrupted movement of added value for<br />
its products, day after day. IPS is a standardised<br />
and replicable way of creating added value<br />
currents on all the sites, from the project launch<br />
phase to all the stages of its logistical chain.<br />
This complex and comprehensive process needs:<br />
• the full backing of the employees, regardless<br />
of where they are based;<br />
• the promotion of a culture that values<br />
short-term change;<br />
• a permanent critical overview of the entire<br />
value chain;<br />
• the emergence of a future-looking global<br />
vision;<br />
• stabilisation before moving on to<br />
standardisation and sharing.<br />
> Walter Ceglia; Fortunato Antolin; Thierry Debruille;<br />
Philip Vanderstraeten; Greg Pothoff;<br />
Patrick Tordeur.<br />
> SBU INERGY<br />
104717<br />
INTEGRATED PLANT MAINTENANCE<br />
AND INSPECTIONS WITH MOBILE INFORMATION<br />
TECHNOLOGY AND RADIOFREQUENCY<br />
IDENTIFICATION<br />
MOBILE REVOLUTION:<br />
HIGH TECH MAINTENANCE<br />
IN THE PLANT<br />
Maintaining a plant in good working order<br />
often means setting off on a long trek<br />
to control the thousands of installations on the<br />
site, laden down with a mountain of documents<br />
and plans to ensure compliance. Imagine all the<br />
handwritten notes that must then be typed out<br />
into a file and consolidated with other<br />
information during the days of inspection.<br />
A source of multiple errors that can prove<br />
expensive for the company. Hence the idea of<br />
inventing a mobile industrial system integrated<br />
into the PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) to<br />
provide all the maintenance data throughout<br />
the plant and not only in the offices. The results<br />
of the regular inspections are therefore entered<br />
by the agent into his industrial PDA, which<br />
communicates with the integrated SAP system<br />
where all the maintenance processes are<br />
registered and updated in real time. A High Tech<br />
solution that is already up and running in three<br />
industrial sites: in Tavaux (France) for the<br />
inspection of 1 500 luminous safety installations<br />
immediately detected thanks to the radio<br />
frequencies identification technology (RFID),<br />
in Devnya (Bulgary) for all of the maintenance<br />
operations in the plant, detected during the<br />
inspections, and in Rheinberg (Germany) for the<br />
automation of the maintenance of 5 000 engine<br />
equipment. Many other projects are queuing<br />
up, demonstrating the benefits of this<br />
approach: better reliability of data, permanent<br />
availability, reduction in the risks of error, direct<br />
electronic input…<br />
> Frank Mueller; Michel Adant; Jacques André;<br />
Dominique Boireau; Jean-Noël Daloz; Norbert<br />
Hussmann; Dragomir Iliev; Miroslav Lorinkov;<br />
Daniel Paul; Yves Plagny; Martin Radev;<br />
Thierry Renault; Thomas Wortmann.<br />
> CC SIS<br />
Replicated Innovations<br />
104950<br />
SANDS – SODA ASH NEW DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM<br />
LONG LIVE THE RAIL!<br />
How to avoid the damaging impact of the<br />
increase in transport costs and avoid<br />
losing faraway clients who are placed at a<br />
disadvantage because of the distance<br />
between you? By combining rail and roads,<br />
of course! In fact, the idea is to put the heavy<br />
goods vehicles on the train, just like<br />
passengers put their cars on the train to cross<br />
the Channel. The project also sets out to<br />
keep products in bulk containers close to<br />
isolated or remote clients. A logistics study<br />
has been carried out with an external<br />
consultant and a carrier in Italy. The mission<br />
of the consultant was to develop the<br />
necessary links between the various partners<br />
in the different regions. The carrier, Treni<br />
Italia, is entrusted with the traction of the<br />
carriages. Jointly, the two partners put<br />
together the links in the chain in certain well<br />
defined regions. This new organization is an<br />
excellent response to the challenges facing<br />
Solvay: the taxes on heavy goods vehicles in<br />
Austria and in Germany, which entered into<br />
force in January 2005, the restriction of<br />
driver’s time on the road to 40 hours a week<br />
and the increase in the fuel price. The project<br />
is up and running since January 2005 in Pisa,<br />
Bari and Cuneo (Italy). SANDS is a replicated<br />
innovation originally developed by SolVin.<br />
> Giorgio Barsacchi; Giuseppe Crippa; Bernadette<br />
François; Patrick Balletto.<br />
> SBU SODA ASH<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
73
Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006<br />
101300<br />
74<br />
A NANO PARTICLE SEED LATEX<br />
AT THE SERVICE OF PVDC<br />
THE BENEFITS OF OPEN<br />
RELATIONS<br />
WITH OUR PARTNERS<br />
Meeting the strong demand for stepped<br />
up production on the pharmaceutical<br />
blister market and on the food packaging<br />
markets is a priority of the SBU. The chosen<br />
solution must clearly be backed up by a<br />
guarantee of innocuousness, as the PVDC is<br />
in direct contact with the medicines and with<br />
food. However, our production was suffering<br />
stability and conservation problems that<br />
meant that they did not meet the<br />
requirements of the Asian and American<br />
markets. The originality of this project lies in<br />
having found, thanks to our partner BASF,<br />
a technology successfully used in the<br />
production of acrylics and then discussing<br />
and transposing this technology to the PVDC<br />
dispersions production. The solution was the<br />
fruit of our cooperation with the BASF<br />
researchers, who helped to develop a nano<br />
particle seed latex, based on an acrylic<br />
monomer and approved for contact with the<br />
food and medicines.<br />
The product immediately demonstrated a<br />
higher stability. Increased productivity is<br />
to be expected as well as improved control<br />
capacity, which is one of the keys<br />
to obtaining satisfactory results on the<br />
high-speed coating lines, on which our<br />
development depends.<br />
> Yves Vanderveken; Peter Claassen; Benoît Faye;<br />
Diego Lancksweert; Roland Offner; Gilbert Pauly.<br />
> SBU SPECIALTY POLYMERS<br />
104100<br />
FORK LIFT CONTROL SYSTEM WITH WIRELESS<br />
TECHNOLOGY FOR REAL TIME ACCESS TO SAP<br />
GLOBAL WAREHOUSE<br />
MANAGEMENT<br />
Avoiding time wasting in stock<br />
management, ensuring that the client<br />
receives what he asked for without error<br />
and, should an error arise, having all<br />
the necessary information at hand to remedy<br />
the problem as quickly as possible. Those<br />
were the aims that the Solvay Barium team<br />
in Bad Hönningen (Germany) set out to<br />
achieve with the implementation<br />
of the wireless warehouse management<br />
control system. It was finally made possible<br />
thanks to a barcode affixed on each pallet.<br />
However, it also called for a sound<br />
coordination in order to perfectly control the<br />
parallel movement of the materials and of<br />
the information. Today, the Bad Hönningen<br />
warehouse is saving EUR 120 000 per annum<br />
with its new system (an investment<br />
of EUR 200 000)! The elevators are now<br />
operating automatically without human<br />
intervention and their activity is completely<br />
controlled by its own programme, integrated<br />
into SAP: goodbye the manual and tedious<br />
management of long lists of references<br />
on paper. All the information is permanently<br />
available in real time: what is in stock<br />
(and where exactly), what has been ordered,<br />
what has been dispatched, what has been<br />
invoiced, what has been paid! With the new<br />
system, there are fewer elevators, fewer<br />
staff in the warehouse, less paper wasted<br />
and less time wasted. The system is already<br />
available in several languages and with some<br />
slight adjustments, nothing prevents it being<br />
applied to other activities.<br />
> Albert Kruft; Klaus Steinbruecker; Norbert Weber.<br />
> SBU BARIUM-STRONTIUM
104592<br />
MODIFIED HYDROFLUORIC ACID (MHF):<br />
A CUSTOMER ORIENTED PROJECT WITH FOCUS ON<br />
FUTUR REPLICATION POTENTIAL<br />
COMING UP WITH<br />
A SOLUTION FOR ITS CLIENT<br />
Valero is the leading refiner of petroleum<br />
products in North America. Based in San<br />
Antonio, Texas, the company has 22.000<br />
employees. The environmental authorities<br />
have required that its Wilmington, California<br />
refinery change its process in order to reduce<br />
the impact of an accidental hydrogen<br />
fluoride release. Valero expects this<br />
requirement to be extended to its other<br />
refineries in the near future, due to a recent<br />
incident at a BP refinery in Deer Park, Texas.<br />
Valero is eager to take a proactive stance<br />
and is advocating the use of the ReVap<br />
process (a process developed by Conoco<br />
Phillips, which utilizes a Modified<br />
Hydrofluoric Acid (MHF). An additive in the<br />
MHF significantly lowers the risks associated<br />
with handling anhydrous hydrogen fluoride<br />
by reducing its vapour pressure and the<br />
formation of aerosols. Solvay agreed to<br />
design and build a plant that would make it<br />
possible to produce and deliver the MHF<br />
mixture from its Juarez, Mexico facility.<br />
Valero is providing the necessary capital, but<br />
Solvay Fluor Mexico will own, manage and<br />
maintain the site. Solvay Fluorides has been<br />
a long-time partner of Valero and this<br />
proposal was absolutely necessary to nurture<br />
this important relationship. In the five year<br />
contract that binds Solvay and Valero,<br />
provisions have been made for Solvay to also<br />
be allowed to supply MHF to other clients, in<br />
return for a payment to Valero. This increases<br />
the potential profitability of the project.<br />
Also, the strong probability that Valero will<br />
continue to adapt its other refineries puts<br />
Solvay in an ideal position to continue<br />
this partnership.<br />
> Mark Looney; Tom Clark; Steve Dimino; Patricia Hill;<br />
Alexis Thoelen.<br />
> SBU FLUOR<br />
105282<br />
KEYS ELECTRONIC SHOWCASE<br />
OPEN SESAME:<br />
THE RFID ELECTRONIC KEY<br />
Go on, admit it, you have already found<br />
yourself at home frantically looking<br />
for your keys. You’re never sure that you’ll find<br />
them but can always count on a good deal<br />
of frustration and time wasting. Imagine the<br />
proportions this kind of search takes on in a<br />
plant, where hundreds of persons use shared<br />
keys every day on different installations.<br />
The time had come to bring “Open Sesame” into<br />
the electronic age, using the latest technologies,<br />
adapted to an industrial site: the RFID (Radio<br />
Frequency Identification) electronic key. The<br />
concept is simple: each key is associated with a<br />
“RFID” ring (transponder) that is inserted into an<br />
electronic showcase. When a key is required, the<br />
person in question identifies him/herself via<br />
his/her badge, thus opens the electronic<br />
showcase, can take the key and return it in the<br />
same way. This information is automatically<br />
registered in the system, becoming available so<br />
it can be consulted in a network using several<br />
software (Intranet, ERP, Simba etc), according<br />
to the targeted field of application.<br />
The applications are varied and make it possible<br />
to save tens of thousands of Euros on each<br />
industrial site, whether for the management of<br />
a plant’s car fleet, of the meeting rooms or even<br />
the secure loading of trucks on the silos stocking<br />
critical materials, etc. Success is on the cards: the<br />
innovation has already been applied in Italy in<br />
Rosignano for the company cars and the general<br />
warehouse, in Poteginori for the work engines<br />
and it is currently being evaluated in Jemeppe<br />
(Belgium) for the activation of the keys allowing<br />
the loading of the PVC silos. To be continued...<br />
> Domenico Serafino; Riccardo Donati;<br />
Angelo Esposito; Antonio-Michele Giustino;<br />
Riccardo Sacchi; Roberto Tamberi.<br />
> CC SIS<br />
Replicated Innovations<br />
J U L Y 2 0 0 6<br />
75
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