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Houghton International is the world’s largest metalworking fluids company and is keeping ahead of its competition while fostering innovation and delivering value for a range of customers
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oughton International’s reputation as a problem solver for its customers has been long and hard-earned – it all started in 1867 (two years after its founding) when it introduced a rust prevention product into the American market. Since then the company has grown its products and industry verticals, and has also expanded internationally. After successive years of strategic investment and growth, the company was recognised in a 2010 report by Kline & Company as the world’s largest supplier of metalworking fluids. Following up this achievement, we speak to a number of key management figures within Houghton who outline how this was accomplished and how it will be maintained and expanded in the coming years. This report explores Houghton from multiple angles: we speak to Mervyn Chung-Fat, Director of Marketing and Product Management; Michel Gerard, Global Director for Automotive Components; Neil Winterbottom, Director of Fluidcare Operations; Mirek Kania, European Equipment and Services Manager; and Dr. Dave Slinkman, Senior Vice President of Global Research and Technology. Together they provide a fascinating insight into how the company has every aspect of its business geared to serving the needs of its customers while maintaining operational excellence across the board. Customer-centric operations Houghton International is responsible for
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bringing premium speciality chemicals and lubricants to a variety of industrial segments which include automotive, aerospace, metals, mining, machinery, offshore and beverage can industries. Leveraging its decades of experience working with such a variety of products and sectors, Houghton is now able to provide a range of associated services which help customers to manage their chemicals and provide as much value as possible from them. Headquartered in North America, the company has a truly global presence, whether through directly-owned offices or affiliated suppliers. Alongside the Americas, Houghton has a strong presence across the length and breadth of Europe, South-East Asia and the Far East, as well as manufacturing operations in India and Australia, Russia and
1900 Number of jobs to be supported by Houghton International
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H O U G H T O N I N T E R N AT I O N A L
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Turkey. Through a combination of partners and appointed representatives, Houghton has a presence in Africa’s two largest economies – Nigeria and South Africa. Neil Winterbottom explains how Houghton has come a very long way from simply selling specialised high-performing chemicals and is now able to also provide a range of after-sales services to customers, which helps them improve productivity, reduce costs and minimise risks. He says: “By recognising our customers’ needs, we can guarantee savings while delivering real benefits and adding value – and even make their operations more competitive. We have a lot of our employees operating and working on customer sites to achieve this - they have even become part of the customer’s team to a certain degree. Having continually delivered in this regard, our customers have come to rely on us as their main source of technical in-house know-how.” Mervyn Chung-Fat explains how Houghton’s customer alignment strategy is carried out globally: “The key element that we’ve learned is that one size doesn’t fit all, as chemical regulations change around the world. To be able to support a customer today you have to realign yourself with how they are organised and what their specific needs are. We try to make sure we support them locally, but with this global perspective, because so many are run at a global level or are looking into it for the future. Wherever our customer’s plants
Kevin Smith President, Europe, Middle East and Africa Kevin Smith has over 30 years of commercial and general management experience in global industrial, speciality chemical and consulting businesses. Prior to joining Houghton, Smith held the position of CEO, EMEA for Arysta Lifescience, a $1.6 billion global specialty crop protection firm, where he led the region to strong growth in revenue and profitability through acquisition, sales execution, commercial discipline, and product development.
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CE RTIFIE D
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“PURAGLOBE’s mission is straight forward to provide the best in class base oils from used oil feedstock and this gives an amazing >80% CO2 reduction for our clients. Puraglobe have consistently achieved these targets by having a clear vision, decent knowledge and a unique application to successfully navigate our milestones,” CEO Mr Andreas Schueppel said. “ PURAGLOBE is one of the world’s largest fully integrated non-virgin oil companies. They own the most advanced and modern global refinery for sustainable base oil specialties & products. The company’s focus is on superior and sustainable base oil solutions using exclusive refining technology in its conversion of used oils into premium products. In 1995 PURAGLOBE became the exclusive licensee of Honeywell UOP HyLube™ Process Technology to produce Group II products with commercial operations commencing in 2004. We will start the commissioning of the PURAGLOBE Group III refining plant based in Germany in the first quarter of 2017. The worldwide exclusive and completely novel Honeywell UOP HyLubeSAT™ technology will allow us to produce the highest possible quality of re-engineered Group III base oils building upon PURAGLOBE’s 12 years of successful operational experience. PURAGLOBE and Honeywell develop their R&D programs as a partnership, ensuring breakthrough advancements and eco-compliance. Today PURAGLOBE offers base oils with a certified carbon footprint. As a CareForClimate® certified business, PURAGLOBE prides itself on a sustainable business approach, and its processes are kinder to the environment compared with virgin or crude base oil refining; Hylube™ technology has already prevented many millions of tons of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere. The company values a cleaner environment, believing it drives business towards excellence, and that ‘greening’ engines from the inside-out with its specialist products contributes to the cleanliness of the atmosphere.
PURAGLOBE has furthered its credentials with its 24h Nuremberg ‘CareForClimate®’ 2015 and 2016 racing car team. The company has successfully produced the one millionth ton of non-virgin feed stock into Group II and III- base oil products, used for industrial, automotive and driveline lubrication applications. This further enhancement towards a Group III base oil enables lubricant manufacturers to formulate low viscosity engine oils, as well as lubricants, together with the advantage of cutting edge fuel economy performance level. PURAGLOBE have major plans for the future, starting with further expansion of production at its German industrial site. This further investment in production will enable PURAGLOBE to be the first worldwide manufacturer using this process to produce API Group III base oils at this high quality. On the technology front, PURAGLOBE have recently signed a Joint Development Agreement with Applied Graphene Materials UK Ltd. The agreement will see the development and characterisation of dispersions of AGM’s graphene nanoplatelets that will be included in PURAGLOBE’s sustainable base oil product and specialty technologies. It is anticipated that as a result of the collaboration, PURAGLOBE’s graphene loaded base oil solutions will find a home across a wide range of industrial and automotive applications, where the unique friction and wear properties of graphene will add significant performance gains in lubricants and machining fluids. PURAGLOBE aims to address climate change as a combined industrial approach, alongside global virgin companies, to extend the lifespan of natural oil resources in the future. Today PURAGLOBE base oil technologies are being used in various industrial, driveline and automotive applications (e.g. ATF, PCMO/HDDO engine oil formulations). If you want to become our customer please call us under +49(0)3441-22815923 or send an email to soenke.moehr@Puralube.com
are, we strive to provide the same promise of performance and service to that customer.” Michel Gerard adds: “Each industry has a range of specific needs, which at Houghton we strive to address and predict. Let’s use the automotive industry as an example, as it is a very challenging market where competition is very tough: the automotive customer is always looking to increase productivity and efficiency, as well as to improve quality.” “If we are to provide the right solution for this customer, we need to understand its needs all the way down to individual plant level, while also understanding its drivers from a global perspective. We often run audits at customers’ plants - we want to know how their processes work and what kind of process we can help to develop.” “We try to impact the whole manufacturing value chain which means that we know all the plant production processes and we understand where Houghton’s solutions can provide value and savings for the customer.” Talent management Ensuring that the company’s goal to retain its position as a global leader is fully understood, adopted and delivered across the world is no mean feat. Even with the best business model in place, no company can function without the collective efforts of its employees, which is why Houghton’s management teams make sure that
Mervyn Chung-Fat Director of Marketing and Product Management Mervyn Chung-Fat has 17 years of experience in the metalworking industry - in abrasives and metalworking fluids. He has worked in North America, Asia and Europe. He joined Houghton in Europe in 2011 as the Product Management Team Leader for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Now, he leads the global product teams for the automotive and aerospace markets in addition to the marketing responsibilities for EMEA. Chung-Fat earned his BS Industrial Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
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“Houghton employs chemists, chemical engineers, biologists, and metallurgists in the research and technology group and has over 20 PhD chemists involved in the Research efforts globally” – Dr Dave Slinkman, Senior VP, Global Research and Technology
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the company employs intelligent, dedicated and customer-focused employees at every level. The company has reinforced its talent management operations using a two-fold strategy – firstly by maintaining a constant working partnership with universities across the world and, secondly, by ensuring that the current workforce has the scope and resources to develop. Dr. Slinkman explains how the company is actively engaged in pushing the boundaries of current thinking to new levels: “Houghton is working with a number of Universities throughout the world, spanning a number of the application areas that we serve. In Europe specifically, Houghton is involved with the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, the University of Birmingham, and the Technical University of Dortmund. “Houghton employs chemists, chemical engineers, biologists, and metallurgists in the research and technology group and has over 20 PhD chemists involved in Research efforts globally.”
Winterbottom adds that the company measures its employees’ performance using a variety of means but primarily does so, in line with many other larger organisations, using a balanced score-card system. Furthermore, he explains that Houghton is not content to simply score the achievements of its staff on a case by case basis: “If we see a production
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improvement we will typically write up a case study. We will then circulate that within the organisation and also during our corporate reviews with our customers. There have been many cases of an improvement being scaled to multiple manufacturing plants; if we know improvements can be made, then there is no reason that these cannot be rolled out globally.” Continuous development is a key element of keeping talent and Houghton invests much in training. In 2013, Houghton won two Training Journal Awards for their HELIX training programme specially developed for their sales organisation. Smart innovation As European Equipment and Services Manager, Mirek Kania is keen to illustrate the pivotal role that research and development plays in directing the company’s approach to providing solutions to its customers, and it is this factor that enables Houghton to retain its leading global position. He says: “We are more distinctive in the marketplace because we provide the customer with the greatest number of tools and because we can offer them the most savings. If a customer uses standard filtration methods, for example, we can provide additional equipment that enables them to make unexpected savings - perhaps a secondary filtration device that helps to keep the fluid cleaner and in better condition.” Chung-Fat adds: “We have research groups
$1bn The amount of revenue generated by Houghton International
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Mirek Kania European Equipment and Services Manager Mirek Kania has a Master of Science from the Academy of Mining and Metallurgy, Krakow, Poland in NonFerrous Metals Material Engineering. He joined Houghton in August 1995 as sales agent and continued his career in various sales and commercial positions including sales Manager, sales Director for Poland, Fluidcare® Operation Director in Poland and Eastern Europe. Since 2012, Kania has led equipment and services business development in Europe.
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in North America, Europe, Asia and in South America. Everywhere we are producing products we have an R&D team there. Innovation is a core part of our corporate strategy. This also extends to managing our supply chain where continuous improvement – particularly Six-Sigma – is part of our DNA.” Dr. Slinkman explains that the Houghton’s extensive experience has endowed the business with both foresight and the will to act on it – particularly in regard to a global regulatory framework that is more environmentally-orientated than ever.
He says: “Houghton’s Hocut® 4000 series of metal cutting fluids is a great example of how regulatory changes like REACh can lead to innovative solutions as we have removed boron, DCHA, and formaldehyde releasing components while maintaining and improving lubricity.” In an industry where regulations often vary from country to country and where customer requirements are, by nature, in a constant state of flux, keeping to a single operational approach can be extremely challenging. Houghton International has demonstrated across the board that its business model is sustainable, profitable and flexible enough to attain its much deserved position as a global market leader. w w w. h o u g h t o n i n t l . c o m
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