Prior to the Global ManuChem Strategies 2014, we spoke to Rutger Wever, EHSQ Manager, EMEA West & Central, Kemira Oyj / Finland

1. Interview
Kemira Oyj / Finland
Rutger Wever, EHSQ Manager, EMEA West & Central
Prior to the Global ManuChem Strategies 2014, we spoke to Rutger Wever, EHSQ Manager, EMEA
West & Central, Kemira Oyj / Finland
we.CONECT:
In your opinion: What are the main
current
challenges
and
trends
regarding
management
and
optimization of chemical production
and what are the specific challenges
related to your company?
to address this optimization need. The
more effective this is done, the better it
exploits the smaller
and bigger
opportunities that would otherwise have
been ignored. All of these contribute to
addressing needs of our customers and
the company financial results.
programmable logic controllers (PLCs) or
full digital control systems (DCSs).
Kemira has taken care in virtually all of
her plants that outside connections are
physically
impossible
or
severely
restricted using infrastructure and
software protection measures.
Rutger Wever: Our company probably is
fairly typical for European chemical
manufacturing. The company’s main
challenges are twofold: Firstly, to
address changes in demand volumes
and
geographies,
and,
secondly,
manage an ageing manufacturing asset
base; both while maintaining excellent
cost control. We see a tendency to
consolidate chemical production, and
utilize plants well beyond their initial
foreseen life span. The consequences:
consolidation forces supply chains and
manufacturing units to be highly efficient,
responsive and flexible. Ageing plants
require highly competent staff to ensure
reliable and safe operations. Doing this
while exercising cost control will require
optimization of processes and elimination
of hassles throughout the total supply
chain. This includes hassles resulting
from incidents, illustrating my interest in
the topic: whatever we can do to drive
down incidents in industry, this benefits a
well-organized
supply
chain
and
therefore serves our customers.
we.CONECT:
Do you use and / or plan to implement
new technologies like MES, Big Data
& Cloud Technologies?
we.CONECT:
According to your presentation
“Designing,
implementing
and
prioritising
Process
Safety
Management
program
elements:
practical experiences & suggested
approaches”,
could
you
briefly
introduce us to the project and what
is important about this topic?
we.CONECT:
Looking to volatility in commodity
markets, which role plays operations
management, specifically S&OP and
plant capacity management?
Rutger Wever: In order to stay profitable
it is of the highest essence that
companies optimize their manufacturing
asset base. Sites cannot be opened and
closed arbitrarily so the challenge in
operations management is to always be
on the lookout for opportunities. You may
not need it today but it is certainly asked
tomorrow. S&OP and plant capacity
management essentially deal with trying
Rutger Wever: Kemira extensively uses
SAP for planning purposes, both in
optimizing stock levels and in smartly
allocating
manufacturing
resources
through
e.g.
Materials
Resource
Planning
and
Available-to-Promise
mechanisms.
Big
Data
is
still
underdeveloped while we feel there is
sufficient room for improvement using
more traditional approaches. A Cloud is
currently not considered.
we.CONECT:
Do you use mobile technologies to
optimize operator management and
operator mobility?
Rutger Wever: One highly successful
application of mobile technology is the
use of hand barcode readers in some of
our warehouses. It allows our operators
to move much more freely in our plant
with stock and product info available at
the push of a button.
Improvement potential is in the area of
maintenance (e.g. directly recording
inspection/monitoring
data
in
the
maintenance
system)
and
in
manufacturing execution (e.g. recipe
confirmations).
we.CONECT
Which role plays the topic critical
infrastructures in relation to cyber
security in your plant?
Rutger Wever: All of our plants operate
computer controlled processes, using
Rutger Wever: Developed country
chemical industry is facing a future with
business and financial challenges. At the
same time we need to exercise tight
control of our safety and environmental
performance, regulatory pressures, as
well as the challenges that existing and
ageing plants provide for day-to-day
efficient operations. The project is
addressing structural ways to identify
and address potential weaknesses in the
process safety area. These weaknesses,
if left unchecked, may sooner or later
develop
into
plant
reliability,
environmental and safety issues. Apart
from
the
potential
significant
consequences to our staff, our assets
and our neighbors, these issues will in
turn affect the ability to ensure agile and
efficient supply to our customers. That is
a direct threat to continuity of our plants
and companies. What is important is to
match the resource and financial
capabilities with the hazards identified
and the project proposes a phased and
risk based approach in order to address
this. Lastly the project stresses the need
for a positive team-wise approach to
make this a success.

2. we.CONECT:
How different will the Chemical
Operations/Manufacturing of the year
2020 be from today’s ones?
Rutger Wever: I do not expect the world
to return to last century stability. Markets
will increasingly seek optimization and
therefore require changes to allow
flexibility and low cost without sacrificing
on quality. Society will increasingly
demand
100%
protection
against
industrial accidents and environmental
impact, regardless from formal regulation
or existing ‘acceptable norms’. In 2020
we will have lost – through retirement of
a complete generation of chemical plant
operators and engineers - significant
competencies gained from the early
years of manufacturing, and addressed
this through increasing plant automation
and remote operation. Even compared to
today we will see many more unmanned,
standalone
units
producing
the
chemicals a society needs. That also
means that human intervention to ‘fix an
issue before it becomes a problem’ is no
longer possible. More robust/reliable
designs, good quality hazard analysis
and safeguarding, and quick response
capabilities
from
other
company
locations – or even shared between
companies – will become more common
in order to ensure uninterrupted supply
chains, optimal production planning, and
a robust, safe production.
we.CONECT:
Which question would you like to ask
the
delegates
of
our
Global
ManuCHEM Strategies 2014?
Rutger Wever: I would like to invite all
the delegates of ManuCHEM Strategies
2014 to participate in the presentation
and engage in discussion, and ask two
questions to each:
1.
Which areas of operational
management do you feel your
company needs to spend most
effort on to be absolutely sure
we operate a plant that is
efficient,
safe
and
environmentally
in
best
possible shape?
2.
Looking at the prioritization
that Kemira puts in its Process
Safety work, which issues are
we
underestimating
or
overestimating?
we.CONECT:
Thanks a lot for this interview!
Interview Partner: Peter Haack and
Rutger Wever.
Rutger Wever has held various engineering
and EHS managerial roles, responsible for
safety & technical performance of Seveso-level
chemical plants. Currently Rutger supports
Kemira’s Western & Central European sites on
EHS and is standardising Kemira’s Process
Safety Management global policies. Rutger
holds Chemical Engineering degrees from
Twente University (NL) and Imperial College
(London, UK), and a Business Science degree
from Open University NL. He is married and
lives in Rotterdam.
Global ManuChem Strategies brings together
industry leaders to discuss the current state of
the industry, the impact of new regulations and
the challenge to increase efficiency in chemical
operations and technical assets.
Information about the event and
we.CONECT can be found at:
http://production-chemicals2014.weconect.com
about
Contact:
Henry Fuchs
Managing Director / Product Management &
Marketing
Phone: +49 (0)30 52 10 70 3 – 44
Fax: +49 (0)30 52 10 70 3 – 30
Email: henry.fuchs@we-conect.com
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