The interview is supplemented by illustrations of joint initiatives between Elkem Silicones and Lindea.
Adaptation of businesses and work organizations to the new post-lockdown situation and promotion of the human quality of work:
How has the episode we have collectively experienced in 2020-2021 strengthened or, on the contrary, changed your relationship with your customers and research partners, as well as Elkem Silicones’ internal R&I organizations?
Elkem Silicones employs nearly 4,200 people dedicated to finding innovative silicone solutions with a personalized approach. Elkem Silicones is a fully integrated global silicone manufacturer with 13 manufacturing sites and 13 Research & Innovation centers around the world.
Elkem Silicones offers a comprehensive range of silicone technologies tailored to various specialty markets in multiple fields, including aerospace, automotive, construction, consumer products, energy, healthcare, paper, personal care, and textiles. Elkem Silicones is committed to creating innovative and environmentally friendly solutions and business models that promote a sustainable future.
For years, our organization has been based on collaboration and the sharing of expertise between different teams across our sites around the world in order to best respond to global societal challenges. The health crisis has partly changed our working methods and has proven to be a real accelerator of our digital transformation. Indeed, Elkem Silicones employees, backed by a culture of innovation, mobilized very quickly to find solutions to the unprecedented situation of widespread lockdown in 2020. These new solutions enabled us to maintain our relationships with our customers while providing them with personalized remote support.
Here are a few concrete examples: our researchers now have virtual reality headsets that enable them to monitor our customers’ trials remotely and in real time, providing them with instant technical assistance. These same headsets have been used to provide live technical assistance from Saint-Fons for pre-industrialization trials in our factories around the world.
We have also integrated collaborative digital tools into our offering that significantly improve the efficiency of remote meetings, enabling us to share information, make decisions, and even brainstorm new ideas. As part of our Open Innovation initiative, we organized a “Shaking Days” event with more than 30 participants from the Lyon scientific ecosystem to work together on building the solutions of tomorrow.
Finally, many topics that place data at the heart of our systems have also been accelerated during this period. Developing a new product using artificial intelligence will enable us to respond more quickly to our customers’ needs.
Of course, all these tools are complementary and will not replace the expertise of our teams or face-to-face meetings, which enable us to build trust, share our expertise, and give more meaning to the silicone solutions offered by Elkem Silicones.
R&I Elkem, ATRion site, ©Renaud-Araud
Regeneration and revitalization of conventional and innovative economic activities in the regions:
What are Elkem Silicones’ specific characteristics in this field as an economic player? Does this issue have any particular applications for your customers or partners?
Established in Saint-Fons since 1953 and active in the silicone industry ever since, Elkem Silicones is a leader in a wide range of high value-added specialty markets.
Several tens of millions of euros are allocated each year, particularly in France at Roussillon and Saint-Fons, to the maintenance of our industrial equipment, the expansion of our production capacities, and the improvement of environmental and safety considerations. The agreement signed in February 2021 for the acquisition of a new production site south of Lyon demonstrates, on the one hand, the group’s commitment to remaining a player in the economic and social dynamics of France, particularly in the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region, and, on the other hand, its ambition for global growth. This ambitious investment and innovation strategy, both in R&I and in industrial tools, has also created jobs in the region.
Operationally, this investment and innovation strategy enables us to be better equipped to meet our customers’ demands and tackle the challenges of tomorrow. Mobility, new energies, electric cars, 3D printing, and healthcare, for example, offer great potential for development, provided that we are a highly dynamic industry capable of inventing new products and applications and that we are agile enough to support our major customers wherever they are.
For the record, silicone bathroom seals were invented in Saint-Fons in 1961, and today, in our laboratories, we are 3D printing implantable organs such as noses and ears, and the possibilities of this emerging technology are limitless.
3D nose printing ©elkem-ddjian
Coordinated and collaborative development and real estate initiatives: the success of a coordinated real estate project could increasingly be measured by the realism of its objectives and resources, as well as its ability to offer flexible and scalable solutions that are compatible with urban constraints, quality of life, and environmental preservation:
As an economic player in your region, did you feel exposed to this issue during the project that led to the creation of your new R&I center in the Lyon area? At what stages did this occur, and what impact did it have on your project?
Investing in Research and Innovation is the best way to ensure future growth. The success of our ATRiON project, a new R&I center inaugurated in early July 2021, is linked to the women and men who worked together to meet the needs of stakeholders. Elkem Silicones wanted to anchor its business even more firmly at the heart of the ecosystem of the Chemical Valley and the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region. Elkem is therefore ideally placed to accelerate the speed and diversity of its development projects and give its R&I teams the means to work in the best possible conditions. The researchers needed a collaborative, user-friendly workplace that was adapted to new ways of working and accessible. The city’s goal was to revitalize an industrial wasteland. During the preliminary design phases, collaboration between local stakeholders—the Metropolis, the Chemical Valley, and the Saint-Fons City Council—industrial development experts—LINDEA—and the Elkem project team was crucial in developing an ambitious and complex project, all within a tight timeframe.
In particular, in your role as an industrialist, what changes have you observed in the management of issues and requirements related to water, fauna and flora, protection against industrial risks, travel, and local mediation?
As a signatory to the Responsible Care Global Charter, our company works every day to:
- protecting people and the environment
- strengthening product management systems
- involving stakeholders
- contributing to sustainable development
Our teams are committed to working towards continuous improvement in order to meet health, safety, security, and environmental challenges. Regulatory changes are an integral part of our improvement plans.
Our plants are actively involved in the economic and social activities of the region. Through our partnerships, training programs, and sustainable development policy, we maintain close relationships and ongoing dialogue with local stakeholders.
To what extent are the principles of collaborative projects useful in developing your own R&D projects with your partners and customers?
As I mentioned earlier, collaboration between our experts and our clients and prospects is important. It is interesting to note that more than 80% of our innovation projects are client-focused. Clients are involved in our process of creating new products, new services, etc., from the definition of needs to industrial-scale validation.
The creativity and skills of our researchers are extraordinary, but strong interaction with our customers is key to delivering customized, value-creating innovations. This value is measured not only in financial results but also in the impact of silicone solutions—often essential and irreplaceable—that enable us to meet the strategic challenges of tomorrow’s world, particularly in terms of sustainable solutions.
R&I Elkem, ATRiON site, ©Renaud-Araud
Promoting responsible industrial and real estate investments that foster sustainability and economic and ecological returns:
For Elkem Silicones, what are the practical realities and future developments in this area, in terms of its investment, financing, and development choices?
Our ATRiON R&I center is just one example among many, as it plays a key role in securing our jobs and all of our industrial activities in the Rhône-Alpes region.