Arkema Chemicals Background Arkema Chemicals, the chemical branch of the oil group Total, was created in April 2000 from the merger of the chemical and petrochemical activities of TotalFina and Elf Aquitaine. Arkema Chemicals stands among world leaders in base chemicals and commodity polymers, intermediates and performance polymers, and specialty chemicals. Arkema reported sales of about $21 billion in 2003, and the company employs more than 61,000 people. In February 2004, Total proposed to reorganize its chemicals branch, based on the establishment, alongside petrochemicals, specialties and fertilizers, of a new decentralized organization that would eventually become independent. With a turnover of some $5 billion and 19,300 employees, this new structure, provisionally called CIP, would consolidate the Chlorochemicals, Intermediates and Performance products assets of the present Atofina. As one of the major chemical companies in the world, Arkema Chemicals is committed to developing a quality assurance system to ensure a continuous progress approach. It involves the whole enterprise, in every field, with the aim of streamlining operations and boosting results in the interest of all partners (customers, suppliers, stakeholders, personnel and local authorities). Spotlight on Arkema's U.S. Operations For more than 10 years, the company’s U.S. operations have been successfully using GP MaTe as their preventive and corrective maintenance system, as well as their spare parts inventory and maintenance, repair and operations purchasing system. The 14 plant sites, with more than 150 concurrent users, operate on a shared server over their Wide Area Network. This enterprise approach allows them to use GP MaTe to gather more standardized data across the system. “If we’re trying to create standard reports that the whole company is going to use, we can build it knowing what parameters we have to ask for,” says Ed Boley, information services and technology manager. The shared server environment lets the company look at the broad spectrum of reports to determine how the company is doing as a whole, he adds. Another benefit of using GP MaTe is the product’s flexibility for growth when the company needs it to, Boley says. Arkema Chemicals is continually growing and currently has major projects underway, including enhancements to the system’s scheduling modules, adding function asset capability, and developing an inspection route module. GP Solutions is building these GP MaTe enhancements and sharing the cost with Arkema Chemicals. “GP MaTe handles everything that we need it to handle plus the growth,” Boley says. “We can step up to the plate and say we need something and have it fairly quickly.” << Back to list of success stories Copyright © GP Solutions, Inc., 800-234-3267 or 410-244-8548, information@gpsonline.com