Luzenac 20-pages - Rio Tinto

Building quality relationships
with our customers
Much of the thinking and resulting action in sustainable
development involves how you build and conduct relationships.
For Luzenac, our most important relationships are with our
customers. Without them we would not exist. They are first among
talc for the world 5
equals. customers
From the outset we examined how our SD concept could
increase business value both for us and for our customers. One
important area is the environmental benefits talc brings in its
end-use applications. We work closely with customers to enhance
these benefits and to develop new ideas. In 2003, for example,
we rolled out three innovations for the wastewater treatment,
wood-plastic composites and agrochemical markets—all of which
contribute to protecting the environment in one way or another
(see page 15).
Another important area for our customers is Life Cycle
Assessment. Life Cycle Assessment is an integrated
cradle-to-grave approach to evaluating the environmental
performance of products and services. We actively assist our
customers in their Life Cycle Assessment processes and provide
them with all the technical data they need on our products.
In logistics, Luzenac has been working with customers to reduce
fuel consumption per tonne of product delivered through better
routing, good fleet maintenance, and maximisation of rail and
waterway opportunities. We have also improved safety for our
customers by integrating safety regulations into our haulage
supplier contracts.
2003 also witnessed the integration of our European customer
service function into our Business Units based in Toulouse,
France. Customers work with a dedicated customer service
assistant who is capable of following the sales process through
from start to finish and who shares their language and culture.
This fully integrated customer service function shortens the
offer-to-delivery chain and facilitates contact between our
Business Units and their customer base.
By making us a more sustainable and reliable supplier, Risk
Management—including improved asset protection, business
interruption control, and crisis management systems—brings
many customer benefits. Indeed, in an era where customers
want “just-in-time” delivery and zero storage at their sites, Risk
Management is becoming increasingly important. Luzenac
invested a great deal of time and effort in these areas last year.
Luzenac contributes to safeguarding
its customers’ reputations. By keeping
our own house in order in HSE and
community relations, and by making
sure our key suppliers do the same, our
customers can rest assured that their
talc supplier will be enhancing rather
than damaging their own good names.
ISO 9001-2000 certification for all Luzenac
operations
In 2003, we continued upgrading our documented Quality
Management System to the current ISO 9001-2000
standard. Whilst all our production sites have had
documented systems in place since the early 1990’s, in
2002-2003, Luzenac’s headquarters and R&D labs in
Europe and the US were included in the scope of the
project. A lot of hard work has been put into this project
and we are now proud to announce that all Luzenac
operations worldwide are ISO 9001-2000 certified.
The desired outcome of this process however is not just
the achievement and recognition of obtaining ISO 9000
certification. The bottom-line is that this paves the way for
our customers worldwide to receive more consistent,
sustainable, higher quality products and service—well into
the twenty first century. ISO 9000 certification also serves
as a reminder to customers, employees and the community
that Luzenac is in the talc business for the long term, and
as such, will make the necessary investments in both
people and resources to ensure a healthy, equitable, and
sustainable future.
2003
targets vs. performance
> We presented our SD approach to key
customers worldwide, and pursued
dialogue with them on HSEC and
product stewardship.
> We incorporated HSE provisions into
many of our outsourcing contracts.