(115b) The Sartomer Success System (3S):  Achieving Operational Excellence

The Sartomer Success System (3S) was initiated at the Sartomer Chatham facility in June of 2015 and, based on that success, deployed at the Sartomer West Chester facility in June, 2017. The 3S Process is a site-wide Operating Excellence Initiative, creating a culture that allows our most valuable asset, our employees, to directly contribute to the success of the site. The 3S Process is used to identify and create employee-driven Pillar Teams, each with specific elements to address. These Pillar Teams are site specific, identified by the Plant Leadership Team, to address specific needs of the site aligned with the Company and Site Vision. For West Chester, these teams include: Process Safety, Daily Management Systems, 5S, Training, Focused Improvement, and Planned Maintenance, in addition to the 3S Steering Team. The 3S Steering Team is comprised of each of the Pillar Team Leaders, Plant Management Staff, and the Plant Manager. To date, more than 90% of our employees at Chatham (75% at West Chester) have voluntarily participated on one or more Pillar Teams.

Prior to 3S Deployment, Chatham struggled to engage hourly employees in improving the site’s performance. Morale at the site was poor and product quality suffered. Chatham had experienced a number or process safety incidents, with poor self-reporting of smaller incidents (including near miss incidents), and had systemic issues with a number of other process safety (PSM) elements. Communication, which includes communication between management and the hourly associates, was also cited as an opportunity in employee surveys. For West Chester, similar gaps existed, with a greater need to improve onboarding of new employees due to a large number of employee retirements.

Since deploying 3S, Chatham has achieved “best ever” levels of personnel and process safety, product quality, cost control, and innovation. Similar gains are expected for West Chester. From a safety perspective, Chatham recently met the milestone of Sartomer’s “double zero”, which is more than 1 year without a major process safety incident (loss of primary containment or environmental release) or an OSHA recordable injury. Chatham has not had an OSHA recordable in more than 4 years, and has operated more than 11 years since it’s last lost time incident. West Chester also reached more than 1,000,000 man hours since its last lost time injury earlier this year and is preparing for certification by OSHA’s voluntary protection program (VPP) in early 2018. A business objective for Sartomer to achieve a “double zero” across the global business (4 manufacturing sites) in 2018.

The 3S Process is being used as a benchmark for Arkema, with many of the 3S elements being incorporated in to Arkema’s own global Operational Excellence Initiative, SMART. Chatham was selected as a pilot facility for SMART in the Americas in early 2016, with the Plant Manager of Chatham joining the SMART design team mid-year, participating in the EU introduction of SMART at the EU Plant Manager’s meeting, and assisting and creating the program for the SMART introduction at the America’s Plant Manager meeting in late October, 2016. West Chester is deploying SMART concurrently with 3S starting in October, 2017.

Each Pillar Team’s progress is displayed prominently on Pillar Boards, which includes: team membership (with pictures), the team’s mission statement and objectives, key performance indicators (KPI’s) to track monthly progress against these objectives, minutes, action items, and path forward. The Pillar Boards are maintained by the respective Pillar Team. This is to ensure visibility and accountability for all Pillar Teams, as well as encouraging further employee participation.

VSP, a Sartomer manufacturing site in France, also volunteered to be a SMART Pilot facility at the EU Plant Manager’s meeting. The 3S Process is also planned for expansion across Sartomer at the Nansha (China) facilities. In short, all Sartomer facilities are currently building on processes learned with 3S, elements of which are being expanded across Arkema with the global deployment of SMART.