working around the world -...

THE EMPLOYEE MAGAZINE1 / 2018

WORKING AROUND THE WORLD How Evonik locations worldwide all work together p. 10

Paper: How SIPERNAT enables printing on grass p. 7

DiaryMin-Zae Oh: Building a new plant step by step p.16

VESTAMIDHow professional skiers and snow-boarders glide safely downhill p.6

BiotechnologyNatural beauty from Cosmetic Valley p.8

2 FOLIO 1 / FEBRUARY 2018

S P E C I A L T Y A D D I T I V E S

Acquisition makes new applications possible Evonik has acquired the highly concentrated additives compound-ing business from 3M. This has expanded the Group’s growth op-portunities in the specialty additives business, which is one of its four growth engines. The acquisition will enable the Group to offer solid additives as well as liquid additives in the future to customers from the plastic processing industry. It thus opens up new areas of application in the packaging industry, for example. The acquisition encompasses the 3M site in Obernburg (Germany) as well as the Accurel brand products that are produced there. The facility has 25 employees. The business operations will be integrated into Evonik’s Interface & Performance Business Line of the Nutrition & Care Seg-ment.

FROM THE COMPANY

19

Julia Klankertis one of the 103 em-ployees who produce laurolactam in Marl

10

Michael Rinner benefits from process optimizations in the

global MMA produc-tion network

Jochen Henkels knows that a good

employee is persever-ing, team-minded, and

takes the initiative

17

20

7

Björn Theis and his team look into the future of specialty

chemicals without needing a crystal ball

15

Eliana Fiorese has to shake far more hands in the USA than

in her native Brazil

Veronique Paxton would have gladly

talked with Mahatma Gandhi about how to

learn self-control

FACES IN THIS ISSUE

1/ 1 8

Masthead Folio Publisher: Evonik Industries AG, Christian Schmid Publication Manager: Urs Schnabel Editor in Chief: Christof Endruweit (CHE, responsible for editorial content) Managing Editor (Evonik): Ursula Jäger (UJ) Managing Editor: Inga Borg Editorial Consultant: Tom Rademacher (TR) Text Editor: Stephan Siebenbaum Other authors in this issue: Karolina Anna Föst (KF), Franziska Freudenreich (FF), Christina Höhn (CAH), Bernd Kaltwaßer (BK), Lena Kettenbach (LK), Annette Locher (AL), Julia Rattke (JR) Editorial address: Rellinghauser Straße 1–11, 45128 Essen, Postfach 103262, 45117 Essen, Germany Picture editing and layout: BISSINGER[+] GmbH, Hamburg; Karsten Bootmann (picture editing) Location insert pages: The insert pages are created locally. Editorial responsibility is borne by the respective segments or locations. Contact information is listed on the insert pages. Consulting and concept: BISSING-ER[+] GmbH, Medien und Kommunikation, An der Alster 1, 20099 Hamburg, Germany, e-mail: [email protected] Translation: TransForm GmbH, Cologne Printing: Neef+Stumme premium printing, Wittingen Copyright: © 2018 by Evonik Industries AG, Essen. Reprinting requires citation of the source and submission of a sample copy. The content does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the publisher. Reader service: If you have any questions or suggestions, please call us. You can reach the editorial office at: tel.: +49 201 177-3152, fax: +49 201 177-703152, e-mail: [email protected] Co

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C O O P E R A T I O N

Research for the energy transitionEvonik and Siemens are working together to research green energy alternatives for the chemical industry. In the past, this industry used fossil fuels such as petroleum to produce energy and chemicals. In the Rheticus project, which receives funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Evonik and Siemens are jointly developing a technique that instead uses the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide as well as electricity from wind and solar power. The process consists of two parts, on which the two partners previously worked separately in the BMBF’s Kopernikus project. While Creavis from Evonik was responsible for gas fermentation, Siemens worked on electrolysis. These two parts are being joined in the Rheticus project and scaled up to turn the lab process into a large-scale technology.

150 years ago

186870 years ago

194825 years ago

1993Roessler

On January 1, the Friedrich Roessler Söhne company

began operations in Frankfurt am Main.

Five years later, the company was

renamed Deutsche Gold- und Sil-

ber-Scheideanstalt vormals Roessler. It later became known

as Degussa AG.

ArchiveIn March, Che-

mische Werke Hüls became the first

Evonik predecessor company to create

a corporate archive, which was set up

in Marl. For lack of space, the archivist Erich Büttgenbach initially had to store

documents in his office.

Occupational safety

In late March, acci-dent figures started to drop at the Essen Goldschmidtstraße site, thanks to the

introduction of a bo-nus system for acci-dent-free operation, structural improve-ments, and a new

mascot (a guardian angel named Pico).

Anniversaries

I N N O V A T I O N

In order to have a successful innova-tion culture, the Group has to show

its appreciation for the creative ideas that drive it forward. That’s why Cor-porate Innovation honors the research achievements of dedicated Evonik em-ployees with its annual Innovation Award.

In 2017, the team that created the GUTCARE probiotic won the award in the New Products/System Solutions category. In the New Processes catego-ry, a research team from Performance Intermediates won the award for de-veloping a technique that uses special material flows for C4 chemistry. The awards were presented to the winners of the innovation competition by Har-ald Schwager, Deputy Chairman of the Evonik Executive Board, who is re-sponsible for chemicals and innova-tion, and by Chief Innovation Officer

Ulrich Küsthardt. “The products and processes that were presented at this event demonstrate that we are on the right track when we use innovations to boost the Group’s profitable growth,” said Schwager, who had high praise for the research results of all the partici-pants.

GUTCARE improves the intestinal health of poultry and increases the productivity of chicken farms. At the same time, this probiotic, which was developed by the winning team from the Nutrition & Care Segment, reduces the use of antibiotics. The award-win-ning researchers from Performance Intermediates cleverly combined clas-sic scale-up experiments with state-of-the-art modeling approaches to dispense with the construction of an expensive pilot plant. The finished fa-cility, which turns FCC-C4 into a

broad range of high-quality products, went into operation in Marl in 2015.

In addition to the awards in the cat-egories mentioned above, Evonik pre-sented its Chief Innovation Award. It was won by Frank Stenger from the Application Technology Business Line in honor of his efforts to get Evonik in-volved in publicly funded projects. (LK)

CREATIVE MINDSIdeas for a probiotic that improves health at chicken farms and for a process that uses

FCC-C4 enabled their developers to win this year’s Innovation Award

How important are the innova-tion awards for strengthening Evonik’s innova-tive spirit? They are very im-portant. Our aim is to become the best specialty chemicals company in the world. To do that, we need not only creative research but also managers who appreciate this kind of research and integrate it into our business oper-ations.

How have the projects that are submitted for the award changed in recent years? For one thing, we’ve noticed that their quality is steadily improving. We’re also seeing an increase in the number of submit-ted projects that expand our existing business.

Are the award winners “one-day wonders” or do the awards also have a long-term impact on the win-ning employees? The awards demon-strate that a large audience honors the good work that’s been done, and they give a big motivational boost to future projects.

What do you wish for in the future?I hope we’ll also re-ceive submissions in the New Business Models category this year. (CHE)

Ulrich Küsthardt, Chief Innovation Officer

at Evonik

“Quality is steadily

improving”

The winners of the Inno-vation Award 2017, with Deputy Executive Board

Chairman Harald Schwager (second from right) and

Chief Innovation Officer Ul-rich Küsthardt (left)

senior executives from the Group voted for the winning teams in the two categories during the Christmas Collo-quium at the Colosseum in Essen

Questions

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NEWS

GutCare® is a registered trademark of Evonik Industries AG or its subsidiaries. It is indicated in capital letters throughout the text.

3FOLIO 1 / FEBRUARY 2018

A PICTURE AND ITS STORY

Lichens are fascinating. There are an estimated 25,000 species of lichen throughout the world, including the ones pictured here in the Lago Todos los Santos in southern Chile near the border with Argentina. Lichens are symbiotic plant communities consisting of fungi and algae or bacteria. The interaction of these di-verse species generates the various forms that are typical of lichens. The result is a spectacle of nature that shimmers in ev-ery imaginable color and sometimes even glows. Evonik too aims to continue fos-tering the power that can unfold through diversity—by means of its initiative “Di-versity created by Evonik.” That’s because only companies that can perceive and accommodate different perspectives have a broad view of potential opportunities. In the years ahead, Evonik aims to expand its diversity management and thus break down barriers between units and regions, as well as between nationalities, genders, and generations. The Diversity Council, including members of the Executive Board and representatives of the segments, cor-porate units, and regions, has set clear and verifiable targets for itself. One of these targets is to increase the share of manag-ers from outside Germany by 25 percent by 2020. That will help us to more clearly understand the varied needs of our world-wide customers. Diversity brings us closer to our customers—and makes the world of Evonik even more colorful. (CHE)

Our world is colorful

D I V E R S I T Y A T E V O N I K


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A PICTURE AND ITS STORY

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P IPRODUCTS + INNOVATIONS

PRODUCTS + INNOVATIONS

Snowboard races are spectacular and ex-tremely fast. They put great demands on the

athletes and their equipment. “The strain that’s put on boots during snowboarding is several times greater than during skiing, especially in professional sports,” says Wolfgang Aigner, Managing Director of AITEC GmbH, an Austrian company that produces ski and snowboard boots under the professional sports brand UPZ. The company once asked Evonik to provide a solution for the following problem: The tongue of a new boot had broken because the material was unable to cope with the high pressures and freezing temperatures. “We can make a better material,” thought Kathrin Salwiczek from the Consumer Goods Market Segment and success-fully took up the challenge. Experts at Evonik

developed VESTAMID CW1401, a polyamide 12 that was modified to make it more shock-resis-tant. The plastic can handle repeated shocks without becoming brittle or breaking. More-over, VESTAMID is very elastic and stable at temperatures as low as -40 degrees Celsius. It moves along with the snowboarders and skiers and also supports and protects their feet and an-kles. The tongue of the latest UPZ shoe, the RC11, is made of VESTAMID, as are the two reinforcing elements along the sides. But for Kathrin Sal-wiczek, this is only the beginning. “We are working on a shoe made solely from Evonik products,” she says. Her goal: “At the 2022 Olympic Games, we want the athletes on the winner’s rostrum for the Alpine races to wear our shoes.” (KF)

PERFORMANCE AT THE LIMITVESTAMID makes ski and snowboard boots safer for professional athletes

Snowboard boots need to be stable and flexible. VESTAMID makes this possible

EVONIK IN

ACTION

Did you know?

Wolfgang Aigner, Managing Direc-tor of AITEC GmbH

What are the trends in ski and snowboard boots?It’s all about performance—the transmission of power for fast re-actions without any loss of energy.

How are you achieving this in the RC11 boot?Inside the shoe, multi-component injection molding processes are used to combine materials that have a variety of properties. One of these materials is VESTAMID. That’s new. In cooperation with Evonik, we are thus causing a minor revolution in ski and snow-board boots.

Can amateur athletes also bene-fit from the Evonik material?Certainly. Many amateur athletes are almost as good as professionals nowadays. They need top-of-the-line products.

A revolutionI N T E R V I E W

The power of the blueberry The German online shop for MEDOX has opened for business. This berry extract contains anthocyanins, which help the human body to help itself, for example by keeping blood vessels healthy. It is offered to consumers as a subscription product. (www.medox.de)

A winner: In the current RC11 pro athlete shoe from UPZ, the tongue and the two rein-forcing side ele-ments are made of VESTAMID

MEDOX®, SIPERNAT®, and VESTAMID® are registered trademarks of Evonik Industries AG or its subsidiaries. They are indicated in capital letters throughout the text.

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You recently launched a new sce-nario project: “The Futures of Spe-cialty Chemicals.” What’s it about? We will develop three to five dif-ferent scenarios that will show how industry might change by the year 2040. Which factors are shaping this transformation? What possible development paths exist? Where will opportunities and risks arise? The project aims to help us answer these questions, which are of considerable importance for the Group.

How are you proceeding? We start by collecting dozens of dif-ferent influencing factors. To do so, we conduct around 100 interviews with experts as well as numerous workshops both inside and outside of Evonik. In the next step, we identify the fundamental driving forces of the most powerful factors and project the possible development paths into the future. Finally, we will combine all of that into consistent and plausible scenarios.

After all, the title is almost all-inclu-sive. In all honesty, couldn’t this be done on a smaller scale? Specialty chemicals are a very complex field that encompasses a wide variety of markets, products, and technolo-gies. If you want to understand it, you first need to gain a complete overview. The important thing is to use this as a basis for building causal chains and then become more and more concrete.

How does this benefit Evonik? We have an incredible amount of implicit knowledge regarding the future of specialty chemicals at the Group. This knowledge is based on the experiences and assumptions of our employees. We want to systematically pool this knowledge and compare it with external estimates. The scenarios can then serve as a tool that the vari-ous units at Evonik can use to actively shape their future.

Why do we need it?We need to know where develop-ments are heading if we are to prepare ourselves accordingly. (BK)

Björn Theis works at Creavis, where he is responsible for the

scenario projects of the Corporate Foresight Team

5 minutes with…Björn Theis

PRODUCTS + INNOVATIONS

Cows chew their cud for many hours every day, turning their grass meals into high-quality

protein. The plants that cows leave standing on fields or pastures have now whetted the appetite of paper manufacturers. In their search for more environmentally friendly alternatives to wood, these manufacturers are now turning plant clip-pings into high-quality paper made of grass. Grass contains only one fourth as much lignin as wood. Lignins give plant-fiber materials their rigidity, but they have to be chemically removed during paper production. If grass is used instead of wood, the plants only need to be treated mechanically. Less than one liter of water is needed for this pro-cess per ton of grass, compared to thousands of li-ters per ton for wood pulp. Up to half of the mate-rial in a strong carton can now be made from

PRINTED GRASSThe paper manufacturer Scheufelen is replacing wood-based cellulose with

grass in order to save water and energy in production. If SIPERNAT is added to the surface mixture, the product can even be cleanly printed

P A P E R

grass. A carton also has to carry printing so that people can read what it contains. “However, this isn’t easy to do with natural fiber components that are appealing to the eye and to the touch,” says Uwe Schachtely, Head of Application Tech-nology Resins & Paper at the Silica Business Line. As a result, the paper manufacturer Scheufelen mixes SIPERNAT into the surface siz-ing that is applied to raw paper. The precipitated silica particles anchor the printing ink to the surface. At the same time, the layer of sizing prevents the fibers from being pushed out of the paperboard during printing. Harald Herzog, Marketing Manager Resins, says, “In this way we are helping Scheufelen to supply environ-mentally friendly products to the growing pack-aging market in particular.” (FF)

50%wood…

The production processWood and grass are used to create strong, environmentally friendly pa-perboard. The shorter the ground blades of grass, the finer the paper.

50%grass…

…is ground

The cellulose and the grass are mashed

…is chemically converted into cellulose

This mash is spread out on a sieve,…

…pressed, and sized

The silica particles that are mixed into the binder are applied during the sizing process

The precipitated silica particles anchor the printing ink and bind it firmly to the surface

Grass paper

Microporous layer/silica particles

Printing ink


OUR MARKETS

Consumers want skincare products that are natural and sustainably produced. And they’re willing to pay a bit more for them. Biotechnologically produced plant extracts from Evonik are a response to this trend

S oft lighting and shelves of glass containers filled with delicate seedlings: This is the pro-duction line at the Evonik facility in Tours in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France. What’s special about this production line is

that the seedlings are not planted in soil. Instead, they are floating in a nutrient solution under sterile conditions. The key factors promoting their growth are the tempera-ture, the lighting and, most importantly, the composi-tion of the culture medium. They don’t need much more in order to produce high-performance active ingredients for cosmetics. But raising these plants is an art that few people have mastered.

This facility has been owned by Evonik only since May 2016. That’s when the specialty chemicals group acquired Alkion Biopharma SAS, a former startup, and integrated it into its Personal Care Business Line. The acquisition was

Natural potential

made because Alkion owned one of the world’s leading technologies for plant-based raw materials for cosmet-ics. “More and more consumers are asking for plant-based cosmetic products that are as natural and sustain-ably produced as possible,” says Tammo Boinowitz, who heads the Business Line. Today about half of all the active ingredients for cosmetics already come from plant ex-tracts. Evonik did not have these active ingredients in its product range—until it acquired Alkion.

Most of the plant extracts used by the cosmetics in-dustry are gained through conventional methods: The necessary plants are cultivated in plantations all over the world or gathered in the wild. For low-cost production in large amounts, these are the preferred options. However, they also have some disadvantages: a relatively low yield, widely fluctuating quality, and no guarantee of sustain-ability. “Environment-conscious consumers are very critical if rain forests are leveled in order to cultivate a certain crop plant,” Boinowitz points out.

High-perfor-mance plant-based active ingredients are the specialty of Evonik Ad-vanced Botan-icals

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OUR MARKETS

Evonik Advanced Botanicals (EAB), which is Alkion un-der its new name, uses plant-based biotechnology in or-der to avoid these pitfalls. “We cultivate the plants under controlled conditions in the laboratory, control the growth of the plant organs we want, and influence the substances that the plant secretes,” says Franck Michoux, the founder of Alkion, who is now the Head of Evonik Advanced Botanicals. He is describing the technology that he himself developed. His seven-person team in Tours uses this technology to produce what the cosmetics industry is asking for today: natural substances that are produced using biotechnological and therefore repro-ducible methods, and that are also extremely pure, high-ly concentrated, demonstrably effective, and have a good sustainability profile. During his early days as an entre-preneur, Michoux started to present his products at trade fairs and quickly found out how urgently they were needed. “I was actually expecting to attract customers from the pharmaceutical industry, but most of the cus-tomers who approached me were cosmetics manufactur-ers,” he says.

For the cosmetics industry, which aims to market its products globally, Evonik Advanced Botanicals offers an additional great advantage. Its specialists can gather plant extracts in two different ways: from undifferentiat-ed plant cells or plant stem cells, as well as from plant organs such as leaves or roots. In China, only the latter method is permissible. And because China is the world’s third-largest cosmetics market after Europe and the USA, Evonik thus has a crucial competitive advantage.

But what makes the products from Tours high-perfor-mance substances? “We know how to make the plants change their metabolic processes and thus produce more of the substances we want,” says Michoux. In order to do that, his colleagues only rely on the plants’ natural po-tential; they do not alter the plants’ genomes. The team simulates stressful conditions that can also occur in na-ture. The plants react to these conditions by producing

certain substances. And many of these substances are very interesting for the pharmaceutical and cos-metics industries because of their effects.

A great deal of research work has gone into finding these specific substances, because every plant species has different genetic poten-tials and must be cultivated under different conditions. These potentials have to be discovered through testing. “That’s why we are a re-search and a production

company rolled into one,” says Patricia Corral, the Head of Research and Development in Tours. The team has al-ready done this work for more than 60 plant species—in projects for international cosmetics manufacturers. All of these projects are devoted to finding plant-based active

About half of all the active ingredients in cosmetics already come from plant ex-tracts today

ingredients for high-quality skin creams with proven ef-fectiveness. There is a global demand for products that slow down the aging of the skin, for example. In Asia, many consumers want products for lightening the skin. “When our customers buy our global products, they re-ceive not only the plant extract but a complete package that also includes safety data, proofs of effectiveness, and recommendations for their marketing story,” says Michoux. In order to offer these products, Evonik Ad-vanced Botanicals can rely on an international network of Evonik Group experts in the areas of licensing, toxi-cology, marketing, and sales.

In turn, the facility in Tours strengthens Evonik’s profile in France, which is one of the most important centers of the international cosmetics industry. For ex-ample, the country’s “Cosmetic Valley” is the world’s biggest cluster of cosmetics manufacturers. It is distrib-uted across three regions, one of which is Centre-Val de Loire. In 2017, Evonik Advanced Botanicals moved into a completely renovated building in the Loire Valley. Tam-mo Boinowitz believes this location will be very attractive to customers, and that these customers may also be inter-ested in Evonik’s other specialty active ingredients. “Since the acquisition of Alkion, we’ve expanded our sales staff in France from three to ten employees,” he says.

One typical member of this target group is Patrick Choisy, who is responsible for the development of natural products and for sustainable development in the research department of Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), one of the world’s biggest producers of luxury goods. Choisy has focused on plant-based biotechnology for decades, and he has also known Franck Michoux for a long time. In praise of the team from Tours, he says, “I’m looking at real experts and very rapid progress.” (AL)

At the facility in Tours, the plants are cultivated in the lab under controlled con-ditions

Experts in plant-based biotech-nology: Franck Michoux (left) and his young team

The heart of the cosmetics industry beats in France

“Cosmetic Valley” in France is the world’s biggest cluster of cosmetics manu-facturers. It extends across seven départements in the Centre-Val de Loire, Île-de-France, and Normandy regions. Here the 90,000 employees of about 800 companies generate ap-proximately €26 billion in sales of personal care prod-ucts and perfumes. Many of these companies focus on the global market. As a re-sult, it’s critically important

France

Paris

Tours

for them to have products that can be licensed all over the world in order to serve the current global consum-er trends.


FOLIO 1 / FEBRUARY 2018 COVER STORY

Michael Rinner is the plant manager in Fortier (USA): “A large part of our production output is supplied to Evonik’s own facilities in the USA, which further process the MMA”

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important precursor product for a wide variety of appli-cations.

Fortier is part of a global production network at the Methacrylates unit. With nine production locations in Asia, North America, and Europe, the Perfor-mance Materials Business Line is represented in all of the world’s major regions. The Methacry-lates unit supplies MMA, specialty monomers, and polymer molding compounds to interna-tional customers and is also a key supplier for other Evonik business lines. The methacrylate business has changed greatly, due to the Group’s restructuring and its increased focus on the es-sentials. Although deep cuts had to be made in some areas, the unit’s long-term viability has been enhanced and its processes within the network have been substantially improved at all of its locations worldwide.

“Our global production network and regional orga-nization enable us to intelligently manage the flow of goods throughout the world,” says Michael Pryka, Head of the Supply Chain and Business Services unit in Darm-

I t’s fall in Louisiana, and the weather in the Missis-sippi Delta has finally quieted down. The hurricane season has just ended in the USA, leaving the Evonik facility in Fortier unscathed. The region merely experienced some heavy rainfall. “We

would otherwise have had to shut down the methyl methacrylate (MMA) facilities,” says the site manager, Michael Rinner. Even without a hurricane, the year was stressful enough for the location’s approximately 75 em-ployees. The high worldwide demand for monomers and molding compounds, as well as the fact that some of our competitors’ plants were shut down, caused global sup-ply bottlenecks. “Our order backlog is still very good, and our facilities can’t meet the demand even though they are running at full capacity,” says Rinner. The situ-ation is the same at Evonik’s other MMA plants, which are located in China and Germany. The monomers are an

SHARING IDEAS

How does a company operate when it’s active in markets all over the world and its employees are distributed throughout the globe? To find out, Folio visited the production, product development, and marketing units and asked people how they organize their daily work processes in practice

10

SHARING IDEAS

FOLIO 1 / FEBRUARY 2018COVER STORY

In control: Stephen Sumerlin, a produc-tion engineer at the specialty methacry-

late facility in Mo-bile (USA), takes a

product sample

11

COVER STORYFOLIO 1 / FEBRUARY 2018

Jim Bunn, the operations manager in Osceola (USA), has his work cut out for him: An addition-al facility for compound-ing PMMA molding compounds will be built at the location this year. See also page 4

Plant Manager Mark Gwaltney and several of his employees regularly travel to Germany in order to talk about pro-cesses and techniques with their colleagues in Worms and Darmstadt: “That way we can learn from one another and improve together”

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stadt. His department is responsible for the global plan-ning of requirements and inventory. If possible, custom-ers are to be supplied with goods from the regions in which they themselves have production plants. In this way, the unit wants to keep supply lines as short as pos-sible. “The global network is also helpful when we have scheduled production downtimes for prolonged periods, such as the one we recently had in Worms,” explains Pryka. In such situations, production can be temporari-ly taken over by another plant.

However, other plants can’t help very much if pro-duction has to be stopped at short notice. “If the hurri-cane had forced us to shut down our facilities, it’s very unlikely that we would have received spur-of-the-mo-ment assistance from Shanghai,” says Rinner. “Howev-er, our warehouses would have been sufficiently filled for such an eventuality.” The plant in Fortier is Evonik’s only MMA production facility in the USA. Every day, the employees send out dozens of tank wagons and tank

trucks full of MMA by rail or road. The monomer is also shipped to customers in tankers on the Mississippi. The daily logistics business for North America is managed by the Supply Chain and Business Services department in Parsippany (New Jersey). The unit’s job isn’t always easy. Bad weather or totally ordinary things such as a short-age of truck drivers can quickly derail the best-laid plans.

Mobile in Mobile

A 20-cubic-meter tank truck full of MMA has just ar-rived at the unloading station in Mobile (Alabama). “We are the most important internal customer for Fortier,” says Mark Gwaltney, the operations manager of the site’s facility for specialty methacrylates. In their daily work, the colleagues use an efficient process to unload the monomer tank trucks in order to send them back fully loaded with azeotrope to Fortier, which is 260 ki-lometers away. The azeotrope is a by-product of the pro-duction in Mobile. After arriving in Fortier, the azeo-trope is treated and fed into the process in order to produce fresh MMA in an endless cycle. “We are very closely integrated into the production network,” says Gwaltney.

The Mobile location uses MMA as a raw material for the production of specialty monomers that are em-ployed in car paints and adhesives, for example. De-

pending on the product, a special alcohol is used for transesterification in the reactor. In this way, the facility’s 25 employees can manufacture up to 14 different products. “Our sister plants in Worms and Shanghai enable us to provide our customers with backup solutions,” says Gwaltney. “However, I regard our global production network as being much more comprehensive. We also have a com-petitive edge because of our global sharing of know-how, tools, and processes.”

Further processing in Osceola

MMA is also the most important starting material for the production facility in Osceola (Arkansas). Here the monomer is further processed to form the high-quality plastic polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). Evonik sells PMMA in the form of molding compounds (i.e. as gran-ules for injection molding and extrusion applications) and in processed semifinished products such as sheets, tubes, and films. The products are known in the Ameri-cas as ACRYLITE and elsewhere in the world as PLEXI-GLAS. PMMA molding compounds are used in various sectors, including the automotive industry, where it is utilized in vehicle lighting and in body attachments, for example. Semifinished products made of PMMA are found in many objects of daily life, including facade el-

ements, materials for creative furniture design, and cabin windows in aircraft.

The plant in Osceola is located only around 720 kilo-meters from Fortier—in a huge country like the USA, that’s practically around the corner. Nonetheless, it can take as long as two weeks to transport goods in freight cars between the two locations. Freight traffic in the United States is very slow compared to other countries. “Whenever the order situation makes it neces-sary, Fortier also sends us MMA in tank trucks,” says plant manager Jim Bunn. Many trucks are on the road at the moment.

At the loading station, employee Alex Boyce (above, second photo from the left) is busy fill-ing PMMA molding compounds into a tank wagon. When the wagon is full, it will travel to the Evonik plant in Sanford (Maine), where the PMMA molding com-pounds are further processed into semifinished PMMA products such as sheets or rods. The customer require-ments are challenging in ways that go beyond the reli-ability and punctuality of the PMMA deliveries. “The globally operating companies in the automotive indus-try in particular expect us to supply them with the ex-actly the same product everywhere in the world—no matter whether we manufacture it in the USA, China or Germany,” explains production manager Terry Gibbs. Each plant differs slightly from the others, because it re-

Acrylite® and PLEXIGLAS® are registered trademarks of Evonik Industries AG or its subsidiaries. They are indicated in capital letters throughout the text.

12

FOLIO 1 / FEBRUARY 2018COVER STORY

Goods and information have long been traveling around the world. But what about ideas? They are often shared more informally. However, Evonik doesn’t want this process to be left to chance. “In situations where colleagues aren’t likely to run into each other, we have to create oppor-tunities for people to simply make an observation or toss an idea into the conversation,” says Ronny Sondjaja. In 2014, this concept inspired Sondjaja, who was the Innovation Manager of Oil Additives at that time, to create iXplore. Oil Additives noticed early on that it needed such a system, since this Business Line is widely scattered after growing out of two units—one in the USA, the other in Germany. Since then, the digital idea platform for a total of 450 employees located all over the world has become a veritable play-

ground for people who think outside the box. Here, sales representatives report their observations and their colleagues from research or market-ing departments then build on this information. Production teams discuss technical problems and their solutions. Everyone is invited to take part in a constructive dialogue. If a discussion reaches a certain depth, moderators such as Sondjaja organize video con-ferences. The results are impressive: Almost one fourth of the ideas that were submitted have led to concrete projects. Additional formats have also been created, including monthly presentations by external experts and the iXplore Week, when departments from around the world showcase new and interesting developments. After all, the next brilliant idea could come from anywhere. (TR)

Ideas without borders

flects the state of the art at the time it was built. As a re-sult, it’s sometimes a challenge to fulfill the product specifications precisely. “That’s why it’s so important for us to extensively transfer knowledge and share ideas with our colleagues in the other regions,” says Gibbs.

Meetings, Skype, and phone calls

Sharing ideas with colleagues around the world is also crucial for product development and marketing at Per-sonal Care. Petra Biehl (below, fourth photo from the right, together with her colleague Ivy Hou) handles global operational marketing from her office in Essen. Just now she’s in a conference call with the global mar-keting team in order to coordinate a presentation for the introduction of the newly developed Natural Care con-cept in Asia. “We control and support all product launches from Essen,” explains Biehl. “It’s essential for us to also keep an eye on the trade fairs and our capaci-ties with regard to application technology, marketing, and communication.”

Whether they are working on a product launch or a new formulation, the employees in all regions regularly confer about various projects when they attend global

technical meetings and marketing conferences or com-municate via Skype or on the phone. Moreover, employ-ees from a variety of functions and representatives from the various regions come together twice a year at the Personal Care Summit to report on new developments in the areas of leave-on cosmetics, rinse-off products, and actives (active ingredients).

The cosmetics business is driven by trends. In order to find out about the latest developments, the marketing team members regularly talk to their sales colleagues or commission special companies to conduct research. Some trends apply only to a specific region, while others affect several markets or even have a global impact. “For example, we introduced a concept for a post-exercise deodorant stick only in the USA and Latin America,” says Biehl. By contrast, the concept of natural cosmet-ics, which has existed in Europe for some time now, was recently introduced in Asia as well.

Ivy Hou, the Marketing Manager for Asia, is attend-ing the summit in Essen. Many new developments are now coming from Asia. In her presentation, Hou ex-plains to her colleagues the trend to give cosmetics a certain texture—for example, a foundation that looks like chocolate, a sunscreen that melts on the skin like ice cream, and a gel that turns into oil when it is applied. “Consumers also want to enjoy the use of cosmetics—they want to see, smell, and feel something,” says Hou. This trend could also grow in importance in other re-

gions in the future. The team in Shanghai (China) that developed the formulations shares the associated know-how with its colleagues at the other labs in Germany, Singapore, Indonesia, South Africa, the USA, and Brazil. Throughout the world, the specialists for application technology routinely help each other create formula-tions. “During the development of new products and concepts, we regularly draw on our colleagues’ exper-tise if they already have experience regarding certain issues,” says Hou.

Trends differ even within major regions. Asia is a classic example. For example, moisturizing products are not in demand in countries with high humidity. “We al-ways try to make our concepts so well-balanced that they are suitable for the entire region,” says Hou. How-ever, the trend toward increasingly differentiated cos-metics is continuing. “In the future, we will certainly work on even more specific solutions for smaller re-gions,” says Hou. As a result, the wishes of consumers all over the world will be fulfilled even more precisely. (CAH/UJ)

13

P EPEOPLE + EVENTS

PEOPLE + EVENTS

In South Korea, Evonik is reacting to the electronics industry’s increasing demand for high-purity hydrogen peroxide. The Active Oxygens Business Line has doubled its production volume at the

Ulsan location and built additional storage tanks. The electronics industry uses hydrogen peroxide in many processes, including as an oxidation and cleaning agent for wafers, which are the starting

point for producing the semiconductors that are used in most electronic devices. Evonik and its Taiwanese customer Kuang Ming Enterprises staged a joint event to celebrate the growth of the

Ulsan facility’s production volume.

PRODUCTION VOLUME DOUBLEDS O U T H K O R E A

A grand performance by AEROSIL: Nippon Aerosil Co., Ltd. staged a chemistry show and presented fas-cinating experiments last November as part of the anniversary celebration of the Mie Prefecture’s cultural center in Yokkaichi, Japan

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E V O N I K D E V E L O P M E N T P R O G R A M

Better negotiation and communicationThe first workshop of the Evonik Development Program (EDP) in the USA was held last fall in Mobile (Alabama) for recent employees of the Group. The nearly 20 partici-pants spent four days honing their communication and negotiation skills. The second EDP module is scheduled to start in May.

AEROSIL®, ACRYLITE®, PLEXIGLAS®, DEGAROUTE®, and VESTAMIN® are registered trademarks of Evonik Industries AG or its subsidiaries. They are indicated in capital letters throughout the text.

What: ............. A development and application lab

Country: ......... BrazilSegment:........ Resource

EfficiencyArea: ............... 100 square metersEmployees: .... 2Tasks: ............. Developing for-

mulations for floor-covering hardeners, in-dustrial paints, sealants, and com-posite materials; training sessions for customers

Market: .......... Latin America

New in… Guarulhos


PEOPLE + EVENTS

Full of energy and friendliness

I moved from my homeland of Bra-zil to the USA in 2004, and I’ve

been working for Evonik for the past four years. The move was a great opportunity to expand my personal and professional horizons. In Boston, I initially had to get used to a different kind of social life. Whereas in Brazil we are constantly surrounded by friends and family members, Americans prefer to spend their evenings with a smaller group of people. The greeting rituals are different too: In the USA a simple handshake is considered appropri-ate, but in Brazil the custom is to kiss the person on both cheeks. Lat-er on, I immediately felt at home in Mobile. The weather here is fantas-tic, the people are full of energy, and there’s a fabulous coastline, almost like the ones in Brazil. Of course I also miss a few things. In addition to my relatives, I mainly miss the bak-eries in Brazil.

Eliana Fiorese is a project manager at Process Technology & Engineering America in Mobile. She loves the secure and relaxed way of life in the USA and the opportunity to travel widely. She prefers to spend her leisure time with her entire family, including their Tibetan Terrier.

Initially I couldn’t imagine spend-ing several years abroad right af-

ter completing my training. But an opportunity like this doesn’t come along every day. Today I’m happy that I landed in Vejle. The city is very beautiful, and it is situated along a fjord, so you’ve got the sea right in front of your door. In the evening I often go jogging or to the fitness studio. Here in Denmark there are language courses free of charge. I’ve also made a few friends through the language school. They say that the happiest people in the world live in Denmark. I think that’s true! The Danes simply radi-ate happiness, and the people here are incredibly kind. I notice that when I talk to customers on the phone. So far my Danish is only ad-equate for shopping. The language is similar to German, but the pro-nunciation is difficult. Fortunately, however, the Danes are very sup-portive.

Philipp Schiefner completed his training as an industrial manager in Hanau in Jan-uary 2017, and four days later he moved to the city of Vejle on the Danish coast. Today he is the National Sales Assistant at Animal Nutrition. He enjoys his work in customer service.

Full of energy and friendliness

Eliana Fiorese Mobile

Philipp SchiefnerVejle

Handshakes instead of kisses, helpful people, gorgeous coasts and fjords: Employees who decide to work abroad for Evonik as expats

receive countless new impressions both inside and outside the workplace—and yet they can still feel at home

In Russia, Evonik has joined together with Russian and international com-panies to establish an association for manufacturers of polymer flooring. Our product VESTAMIN is a component of these floor coverings, which are primarily designed for the commercial segment. The association aims to establish environmentally friendly, durable, and safe technology more firmly on the Russian market. We plan to do that by providing technical support to the manufacturers and distributing information to architects and builders. We are also helping to reformulate construction regulations that date back to the 1970s and do not take the new properties of floor coverings into account. Our business with DEGAROUTE and epoxy resin hardeners is also benefiting from the association.

What’s the purpose of your new association?

A question for Mr. Yaroslavskiy

Vladislav Yaroslavskiy is a Business Manager at Crosslinkers in Moscow

U S A

Osceola produces more molding compoundsPerformance Materials is expanding its plant for manufacturing PMMA molding compounds at its location in Osceola (Arkansas, USA). These compounds are known as ACRYLITE in the USA and as PLEXIGLAS in the rest of the world. When the new part of the plant is commissioned in the first quarter of 2019, the facility’s produc-tion capacity will almost double. This will enable the Methacrylates Business Line to react to growing demand, in line with its focus on profitable markets. In the USA, Mexico, and South America, there is a growing need for high-quality applications in the construction, lighting technology, and automotive market segments.


4:20 p.m.

2:55 p.m.

8:30 a.m.

PEOPLE + EVENTS

The construction of the new Me6 methionine plant in Singapore is a gigantic task. To make

sure the work proceeds according to plan, Min-Zae Oh, the junior project manager responsible

for the cyanohydrin utilities unit, makes his rounds every day on the construction site

contractor Wood, breaks down the entire facility into small sys-tem packages. In this meeting, Oh and the operations expert Armin Friedrich talk about the exact distinctions.

11 a.m. Choi Kean Keong from the existing methionine plant and Oh discuss the graphical user interface of the process control system. Since a control station operator will run both systems in the future, it is im-portant for user interfaces to have matching designs.

12 noon The Me6 project team shares lunch in the construction site cafeteria. It serves Indian, Chinese, Malaysian, and some-times Western food.

1:15 p.m. Meeting with Jozef Nelen, CNU project manag-er: Are the project costs on budget? Is the team staying on schedule? Marco Boelick, the lead piping engineer, reports on the progress of pipeline in-stallation.

8.30 a.m. Min-Zae Oh makes his morning rounds. Togeth-er with the project manager, Martin Köstner, he inspects the progress made in the construc-tion of the cyanohydrin utilities unit (CNU), one of four sub-projects for building the new Me6 methionine plant. The structure will house important reaction steps for methionine production in the future.

9:30 a.m. Planning the com-missioning procedure: Meriam Naranjo Gonong, the lead turnover engineer of the sub-

Diary

STEP BY STEP

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2:55 p.m. Time for a quick cup of coffee in the air-condi-tioned kitchen before heading back out to the construction site. The outside temperature is 30°C, with 80% humidity.

3:25 p.m. The first process-ing pumps have arrived. Oh inspects them for transport damage together with Naz


3:25 p.m.

12 noon

9:30 a.m.

nationalities are repre-sented in Evonik’s work-force. The Group is con-vinced that the diversity of backgrounds, genders, specialties, experiences, and ages helps to promote creativity and innovation at Evonik.100

OVER

PEOPLE + EVENTS

From bike paths in Warsaw and pedestrian overpasses for school-children in Thailand to bus lanes in New York City, you manage a very global business…Yes, our products can be found almost everywhere in the world. In order to withstand the competition, we focus on close partnerships along the entire value chain—not only with our direct customers, the formulators, but also with their customers, the appliers. These, in turn, receive orders from the local, regional, and supra-regional agencies that we need to win over for our solutions.

That creates big challenges for your employees, doesn’t it?It does indeed. Our success depends on the effective cooperation between the sales staff and the technical cus-tomer consultants, who primarily pro-vide our customers with on-site advice and support.

What are the hallmarks of a suc-cessful employee? A successful employee is persever-ing, takes the initiative, enters into relationships, lends a hand where it’s needed, and works to achieve results. We actively promote such behavior. For example, we create tandems con-sisting of employees from different countries and cultures who work to-gether for a year to complete a task.

What trends are motivating you and your customers? The main one is the increasing urban-ization and the associated demand for crosswalks, bus lanes, and bicycle paths. Such markings are meant to protect more vulnerable road users and increase traffic safety, while stay-ing durable. Autonomous driving is another trend that we want to be pre-pared for ahead of time. To make sure of that, we are cooperating closely with universities and research insti-tutes. (FF)

Jochen Henkels is the Head of Road Marking & Flooring at

the Coating & Adhesive Resins Business Line

5 minutes with…Jochen Henkels

Domingo Sailan, the civil su-perintendent for Wood.

4:20 p.m. Oh and Sailan ex-amine the first steel structures of the CNU subproject. Con-struction is now above ground, a major milestone.

5:35 p.m. Min-Zae Oh takes the bus home. Before he tucks his children into bed at night, he reads them a story. His son’s current favorite storybook is The Gruffalo. (JR)

A W A R D S

Top employer awardFor the eleventh time, the independent Top Employers Institute has honored Evonik as one of the best employers in China. This is an im-portant distinction in China’s hotly contested market for talented in-dividuals. The Group is a best-in-class company when it comes to the categories Learning and Development, Performance Management, and Onboarding.

T O K Y O

Three-dimensional learning for everyoneThe purpose of the CyberClassroom is to enable people to experi-ence chemistry in innovative ways. At the Science Centre World Summit in Tokyo (Japan), Evonik presented a new version of this three-dimensional learning platform, which is now also avail-able online. Users of the CyberClassroom previously needed a special IT system in order to view molecules and atoms from all angles and to observe tests. Because the learning platform is now online, it can be accessed in schools as well as by anyone else who is interested in it. Moreover, users are invited to contribute to the platform’s content. Information: evonik.de/cyber-classroom


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EVONIK + US

Cherry blossoms make spring in Ja-pan a very special experience. The trees look like clouds made of pink petals. Cherry blossoms, which are called sakura in Japanese, are a tra-ditional symbol in art and literature. Because of their short flowering season, they represent transience. That’s why they are so cherished and admired. But the blossoms also represent new beginnings, in line with the start of the new school year and business year in April. The cherry blossom season begins in southern Japan and gradually glides northward to Hokkaido. The beginning and the high point of the season in the individual regions are forecast. We meet colleagues, fam-ily members or friends for a hanami—a picnic under the trees—and enjoy the view.

What I’m looking forward to this month…

Kana Yamamotoworks in Ac-counting at Oil Additives in To-kyo (Japan)

What to enjoy in the Dossenheim area

Renate Kiesinger is in charge of dispatch handling at Supply Chain Management & Services in Dossenheim

Cherry blossomsThe garden of

Schwetzingen Palace is worth a visit in the springtime. The Japa-nese cherry trees are then in bloom—but

only for a few weeks.

5Cycling

After a long day of cy-cling, mountain bikers meet on top of Dos-

senheim’s local moun-tain, the Weißer Stein, to enjoy the panoramic

view.

4Cuisine

Try the Odenwald spe-cialties at the Dossen-heimer Weinhof, such as Handkäs mit Musik (cheese with chopped onions) and schnitzel

with cheese sauce.

3History

If you’re interested in history, you should visit the Roman town of Ladenburg, which has a medieval city

center. Carl Benz was born here.

2Hiking

This region is known for its hiking trails. The Castle Trail, for exam-ple, is 120 kilometers

long and takes you past more than 30 castles, palaces, and shrines.

1

M Y F A V O R I T E P L A C E

A sea of sunflowers: Just before Christmas, the MAXI employee initiative gave every employee at the Methacrylates Business Line in Germany a sunflower seedling in a pot. This year, the most beautifully blooming sunflower will receive a prize

The Kamchatka Peninsula offers many natural wonders: geysers,

30 active volcanoes, deep forests, and wild animals, including bears. During the Soviet Union era, the peninsula was a military prohibited area. Today it’s open to tourists, and it’s a popular destination for visitors from Russia and abroad. You can ex-plore the region with a guide, either on foot, via boat or in a helicopter. Our flight there from Moscow took more than nine hours, but we were still in the same country. I found that fascinating. Our backpacking tour to volcanoes and hot springs was a real adventure. For me and Kamchatka, it was love at first sight. It’s a majestic faraway place.

Yulia Lysenko works in Moscow (Russia) as a pro-curement manager

FOLIO 1 / FEBRUARY 2018

Even as a child, I was fascinated by the glittering lights of the cargo vessels on the Mississippi River,” reminisces Carl Lucy,

who grew up in the state of Arkansas and works at the Evonik fa-cility in Osceola today. He still appreciates light as something far more than a remedy against the dark. “Light has a positive impact on our health and our psyche,” he points out. In recent years, Lucy has gained lots of know-how and knowledge about lighting—and on this basis he has illuminated not only his own home but also his workplace. “A well-lighted environment improves productivity, quality awareness, and occupational safety. It’s also very import-ant for shift workers,” he says. On the strength of his research, Lucy persuaded the plant manager, Jim Bunn, to allow him to re-place every single light bulb on the plant grounds—from the of-fices to the production hall, the warehouse, and the parking lots—with more powerful LED lights. His colleagues enjoy the brighter lighting, but that’s not all: The long-lived LEDs require up to 80 percent less energy. “That means we need up to 53,000 watts less electricity,” says Bunn. (CAH)

Shining brightHow Carl Lucy makes sure all of his colleagues

have plenty of light at the Evonik location in Osceola, Arkansas (USA)

Sparing no effort

18

1965

60,000 kilowatt hours of power are needed by the plant every day. That corre-sponds to the annual energy needs of 15 four-person households.

OPERATIONS

“The essential foundation of the plant’s success

is our shared concept of ex-cellent cooperation”Frank Höper, plant manager

The facility in the Marl Chemical Park is embedded in the C12 production network. This is where butadiene

is used to synthesize the high-performance plastic polyamid 12 via laurolactam

Julia Klankert, a chemical day-shift worker, is responsible, among other things, for the shipping of chemicals. Anja Bagus manages the laboratory, and Ali Abdali is the head of projects and process optimization. Peter Assing works as the day-shift fore-

man in production (from left).

FOUR TEAM MEMBERS

At a glance

LAUROLACTAM

103 employees

Applications

29 in the day shift

In the Middle Ages, the Vest Recklinghausen was one of the domains of the archbishops of Cologne. It roughly corresponds to the area of today’s Reckling-hausen district, in which

Marl is located. It has lent its name to various Evonik products. The polyamide

12 VESTAMID was named after the Vest in 1963.

Aroma com-pounds industry

Automotive industry

Refining industry

Metal coatings Aerospace

Laurolactam is manufactured from the initial product cyclododecatriene in five processing steps. Laurolactam is used as a hot-melt adhe-sive, construction material or coating powder. Together with its precursors and polymer derivatives, it is highly useful in a wide range of sectors.

HIGH LEVELS OF COMPLEXITY REQUIRE

A RELIABLE ENERGY SUPPLY

20,000 m² of operating

area140 km

7,800measuring

stations350 t of steam need-

ed per day

450pumps

400 km of cable

The plant in figures

was the year when the first reactor for the polymeriza-tion of laurolactam was commissioned in Marl.

of pipes

Even a power outage of less than a second would cause massive disruptions in the production plant. It would take a week for the plant to return to its previ-

ous production volume

74 in 12-hour rotating shifts

VESTAMID® is a registered trademark of Evonik Industries AG or its subsidiaries. It is indicated in capital letters throughout the text.

FOLIO 1 / FEBRUARY 2018 19

FOLIO 1 / FEBRUARY 2018 QUESTIONNAIRE

Personally speakingAIRPLANES AND TIME MACHINES How would you explain your work to a child?I’m the person who makes sure that our cus-tomers receive the goods they ordered.

What do you never leave for work without? My wedding rings. If I don’t wear them, I feel lost and naked.

What was the last book to get you really excited?The Light between Oceans, which was beau-tiful and sad at the same time, which made for exciting reading.

Which invention are you especially grateful for?Airplanes, because I love to travel.

What invention would you like to see?A machine that could take us back in time to revisit history.

Whom would you have loved to meet for a beer or a coffee? Mahatma Ghandi—I would have talked to him about learning self-control.

INDEPENDENT AND TOLERANTWhat talent would you like to have?To be able to compose classical music and then play it on a piano orviolin.

Is there anything you miss?I miss my family members in France.

Who or what has had the big-gest impact on you?Leaving home at the age of 17 to study in France; that made me the independent person I am to-day.

How would you describe your home town in one sentence?Morocco is diverse, beautiful, and very cultural.

In your opinion, what is the best quality a person can have?Tolerance. Of everything.

FISHING AND PARTIES What is your favorite meal of all time? And why? Fresh wild trout at a BBQ. As a child I used to go fishing with

my father in Morocco and as we caught them from the river, they would go straight onto the grill.

What was the last thing to leave you speechless?A beautiful full moon on the horizon.

Out of the blue, you win €500. What would you do with it?I would have a big party with my special friends to make them happy.

What drives you crazy?Usually, people. I am pre-cision-driven, so maybe I drive them crazy too.

And what helps you to relax?

Running and yoga.

Veronique Paxton

Business Unit: Evonik SSA Function: Customer Service Nutrition & Care Nationality: French Age: 51 Place of residence: Johannesburg, South Africa

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“I would have liked to talk to Mahatma Ghandi about learning self-control”

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working around the world -...

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