Three questions for Lucas Martini, Site Manager in Memphis, MPP BU, USA:

Ask your colleague!

In August, 20 site managers from the Americas region met in Toronto, Canada. Over the course of three days, they listened to more than 25 presentations from over 30 speakers. They also visited the West Hill site of the LAB business unit. You, Mr. Martini, were also there. What was your experience at this meeting?

Lucas Martini: A very fruitful exchange. I was able to talk to all my colleagues about the challenges at their respective sites. We shared experiences and presented best practices to each other. If every site implements even one idea from this week, safety, operations, cost efficiency, and team building will improve significantly. I am convinced that this opportunity for mutual exchange is crucial to the success of each individual plant.

What new ideas or practices will you now implement at your site in Memphis?
I really got a lot of fantastic ideas for Memphis. What impressed me in West Hill was the use of digital checklists, which were presented on the topic of predictive maintenance. Bastian Jana gave a very good presentation on this, and I spoke directly with his team. We also want to introduce these digital checklists at our Memphis site and use our iPads specifically for this type of checklist. This will allow us to document information in real time and take photos that we can upload directly to the system. This will make our work and the entire site management more efficient and better. Of course, this also brings us another step forward in terms of safety.

Another thing I'm looking forward to is the visit of the Operational Excellence Site Diagnostics team to Memphis. We will discuss how to implement AI tools in our distributed control system. Our goal is to achieve significant savings in raw material usage.

What was the most valuable or insightful experience for you at the meeting?
Networking. For example, a quick Teams call with someone I met in person this week can trigger a valuable initiative that significantly improves our plant. This allows me to leverage our company resources without having to bring in external consultants. It's quick, easy, and much cheaper. It's also good to know that we in Memphis are not alone in our efforts to optimize our operations. The visit to the West Hill plant was also inspiring. The facility and the people there were impressive. And I was really glad that the tour didn't take place in winter.