Custom tailored programme

Avgol Ros is a leading Russian producer of light industry materials focusing on the development of own production and the implementation of innovative solutions. The technical support team of SIBUR’s Tomsk facility (Tomskneftekhim) has been working closely with Avgol Ros for over six years now. To tackle the company-specific challenges, an individual joint action plan was put in place that saw the development and production of PP H263 FF, a unique polypropylene grade enhancing the material’s resistance to environmental stress. In accordance with the client’s requirements, the production has been streamlined to ensure that the grade is phthalate-free so that it can be used in a wide range of personal hygiene products fr om nonwoven fabrics without any restraints.

To address product quality issues, SIBUR and Avgol Ros experts agreed to exchange statistical data, with the producer providing information on changes in the key production-related technological parameters and the quality of the PP H263 FF grade, and the client sharing details on the technological parameters and processing specifications of each polypropylene batch.

SIBUR’s Tomsk facility (Tomskneftekhim).

“Our experts were working together as part of one team, holding joint briefings and discussions on current problems and relevant solutions,” says Lyudmila Kuzmina, Head of Customer Technical Support at SIBUR’s Tomsk facility. “Joint data reviews helped us to determine the optimal polypropylene production conditions, put them down on the process maps, and take a number of measures to improve and streamline the polymer’s quality. As a result, the PP H263 FF grade was brought in line with global standards and approved at all sites of Avgol Ros.” The client was also given an opportunity to regularly audit Tomskneftekhim's quality management system. This grade is available to all clients from the segment of nonwoven fabric materials.

In addition to feedstock quality matters, the companies were able to optimise the terms and frequency of supplies, set up a delivery notification system, and achieve compliance with all sanitary and hygienic requirements.

Makeshift contractor

Since 2015, SIBUR GEOSINT has been supplying geotextiles used in the construction of access roads and infrastructure facilities for Gazprom’s Power of Siberia pipeline. At the end of 2016, the client had an urgent need for a larger volume of the product.

“The problem came out of the blue,” says Konstantin Subbotin, expert at Sales of Thermoplastic Elastomers and Geosynthetics, SIBUR’s Plastics, Elastomers and Organic Synthesis Division.

“Under our agreement, we had a self pick-up arrangement with the client, but the transport company servicing the construction sites could not handle the volumes. This resulted in delivery delays and overstocking. That was when the plant’s logistics team stepped up to help the client. The first step was to get the client to sign an agreement with a regional transport company that had long-standing ties with the plant. After that, we arranged truck deliveries of materials to the nearest railway station, wh ere they were promptly loaded into the client’s railcars. At the same time, road deliveries were arranged directly to the client’s facilities. This comprehensive shipment system put a strain on the logistics team (not to mention the exponential increase in the document flow), but in the end everything went off without a hitch.”

As a result, the company managed to build a seamless shipment process, unload the overstocked warehouses, and meet the delivery deadlines. On top of that, the client was fully satisfied.

Natalia Kislukhina, Deputy Head of Procurement at Ekopolimers Trading, shared a similar vision of cooperation with SIBUR:

“SIBUR has always gone to great lengths to meet our needs when it came to urgent feedstock deliveries. For example, last year, we had several issues with the shipments of imported feedstock: the delivery was scheduled for the end of the month, but, all of a sudden, we needed an emergency delivery at the start of the month. The other supplier could not come up with a timely solution, while SIBUR was there to help us cover the feedstock deficit.”

Gazprom’s Power of Siberia pipeline.

Special offer

In 2014, SIBUR-Kstovo and SIBUR-Neftekhim underwent a two-month refurbishment. To four of SIBUR-Neftekhim’s clients, the lack of feedstock was equivalent to forced downtime, as they are linked to SIBUR's facility via ethylene oxide pipelines and have no proprietary collection tanks or racks to receive feedstock from alternatives sources.

“In order not to let our partners down, we took what looks like an extraordinary decision,” says Svetlana Girfanova, Head of Organic Synthesis Sales at SIBUR’s Plastics, Elastomers and Organic Synthesis Division, “which was to purchase the product from another company, allocate the technical capabilities to receive third-party supplies (we had no prior experience of this kind), minimise losses during the transportation, and use our own infrastructure (racks, tank farms, rolling stock and pipelines) to ensure undisrupted customer operations until SIBUR-Neftekhim resumes supplies.

Later, our clients confessed that they were pleasantly surprised at our ingenuity.”

SIBUR-Neftekhim.

“Two years ago, we started looking for opportunities to purchase isobutanol directly from SIBUR rather than through intermediaries, as we had done before,” told us Mikhail Slobozhaninov, Sales Manager at Teсhnopark. “Today, looking back on the many years of fruitful cooperation, I can say that we are almost like a family. We stay in constant touch with SIBUR: its managers send us early notifications of changes in the supply schedule, and we know that we can always ask for their help.

Our partnership with SUBUR has two main advantages. The first one is price. Given the large volumes we purchase, even a one rouble discount counts for us, as it strengthens our competitive position on the market. The second advantage is logistics quality. Previously, we had to address many challenges related to monoethylene and triethylene glycol supplies. For example, the warehouse we leased might have run short of storage tanks. Now, we just give a heads up to SIBUR, and they take care of it, which is, of course, very convenient.”

Partner's help

In May 2016, our end consumer, a large Austrian producer of adhesive tape, rejected our BOPP batch as defective, had shipments from the trader’s warehouse frozen and requested that we take back all of the BOPP.

“As per the approved procedure, we requested samples from our production facility for examination. No defects were identified. After that, me and a member of the technical support team visited the client's production site,” recalls Tatiana Mironenko, Sales Manager at BIAXPLEN, SIBUR International. “On site, we discovered that during the production the film was getting wrinkled, and BOPP quality had nothing to do with it. There was something wrong with the equipment. We are clearly not equipment adjustment specialists, but, at that moment, we realised that we had to come up with some kind of a solution. We got an idea. Why not ask for help one of our partners, a successful and experienced producer and supplier of adhesive tapes from Russia? The Austrian company accepted it. After about two hours of online discussions between the Russian and Austrian engineers and our own expert, we worked out a number of equipment adjustment recommendations. So, a bit of an effort on our part, and the problem was solved!” emphasises Tatiana Mironenko.

Curiously enough, the discussion revealed that the company managers had long known each other and that the incident presented a good opportunity to resume their old acquaintance. As a result, everyone was happy about the joint work, and the contract was saved.

One of our today's interviewees made a good point by saying that service is not about preventing problems but finding the right solution to them. All these stories show different approaches to helping clients out of difficult situations.

BIAXPLEN.

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