How AIChE Helped Syngenta Educate Their Workforce in Process Safety

Syngenta is a global company specializing in agricultural science and technology, in particular seeds and crop-protection products. The company is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, with High Hazard Manufacturing locations in the U.S., Israel, and China. Syngenta strives to enable farmers to grow crops efficiently, safely, and sustainably in order to produce food and enable farmers’ prosperity. The safety element is where Steven Murphy enters the picture. Steve heads process safety at Syngenta.

A few years ago, Steven was presented with a challenge: he was tasked with increasing process safety knowledge at manufacturing facilities across the globe on specific aspects of process safety. Syngenta has an internal training program, but certain areas needed reinforcement. And while many employees were specialized in process safety, a number of engineers with different specializations required specific process safety skills to perform their jobs safely and meet safety regulations. Working with AIChE, Steve was able to tailor a program specific to the needs of process safety engineers and managers, operators, chemical engineers, manufacturing engineers, shift supervisors, and EHS (Environment, Health and Safety) professionals at Syngenta.

I had a chance to chat with Steven recently about this.

Evan Flach: Please describe the reason why you partnered with AIChE. What was the need? 

Steven Murphy: Syngenta was launching a process safety knowledge program, and AIChE eLearning filled many gaps in our internal training offers. These gaps included areas like risk-based process safety (RBPS), layers of protection analysis (LOPA), process safety management, hazard identification, and hazard analysis for operators (HAZOP).

EF: Which Syngenta teams are taking part in the training? 

SM: The teams include Internal PRA (Process Risk Assessment) (HAZOP) leaders, HAZOP teams, process/chemical engineers, and HSE/Process Safety auditors.

EF: How is the training being administrated, and is it part of an orientation or onboarding process?  

SM: The program is administered globally to up to 1,000 employees, with plans to grow this number in the future. It is part of Syngenta’s Safety Critical Competence Framework, Professional Development of CE, and validation of auditors. It sits within Syngenta’s training platform and links to specific competency pathways within that.

EF: How has the training helped Syngenta? What is the impact of consistent training for a global workforce?  

SM: AIChE’s Train-a-Team program has helped drive consistency in competence for safety-critical roles. It has also helped us improve our internal processes to align across our sites.

EF: What value does process safety training offer to your company? 

SM: We can reach globally distributed teams with consistent, quality eLearning. The fact that the training is able to be paced as it suits the user and has meaningful validation tests at the end really adds to its value. This helps to ensure that our learners are understanding the principles and applications from the training, as well as how they can apply them in their day-to-day operations.  

EF: If you could share one thing with an organization thinking about utilizing AIChE Academy’s Train-a-Team program, what would it be? 

SM: It is definitely worth investing in AIChE Academy. It has offered us value by providing high-quality content that would have taken significant resources for us to develop ourselves. It is also effective in raising process safety competency among our employees, which allows us to spend more time focusing on conversations about how these process safety principles can be applied to Syngenta-specific applications.

How Train-a-Team Has Helped Other Companies

AIChE has partnered on training with over 100 companies in a variety of industries, including chemicals, oil & gas, fertilizers, food and more. AIChE Academy’s Train-a-Team is part of the new Institute for Learning and Innovation (ILI) and offers a variety of flexible formats for training large groups of people. Below is a summary of the different training formats available.

Instructor-led Training

Offered onsite or virtually, instructor-led (face-to-face) training offers an opportunity to work with experts to answer questions, share knowledge and real-world experience, and participate in valuable group discussions.

Bulk eLearning

eLearning provides on-demand access for employees that fits within their schedule and ensures a uniform training experience.

Tailored Programs

Employers can develop a customized education program to fit with their company’s goals for specific employee roles and experience levels. These programs can include training plans, eLearning, and direct, one-on-one access to an expert in the field, enabling students to ask questions and get immediate feedback. In addition, special license agreements provide discounts on unlimited training in specific technical areas.

Topical Areas

In addition to process safety, topic areas include Chemical Engineering for Non-Chemical Engineers, Cost Estimates and Financial Analysis, Crystallization Operations, Coding: Python, Modular Chemical Process Intensification, and Hydrogen Safety.

Learn more about AIChE Academy's Train-a-Team or request a proposal for your company. 

Note: This post was developed by AIChE to educate companies and their employees about AIChE’s educational offerings.