Be on the same page with the consumer
On 4th of July the training seminar for employees of commercial departments and management of companies Metadynea and Metafrax Chemicals was held at AUM Complex site. Topic of the seminar was a new product – melamine, which Metafrax began to produce this year.
During the training day participants learned about melamine production technology, its main characteristics, quality control methods, applications, features of storage and logistics. The expert speakers were Sergey Smetanin, Deputy Head of Melamine Plant and Kristina Stryapunina, Chemical Engineer of AUM Complex Analytical Laboratory, they also drew attention of colleagues to the features of producing the product on the plants of different types and to the characteristics which are not specified in the technical documentation but which are important for melamine usage.
Maxim Hamidullin, Quality Manager of Metadynea LLC shared information about resin synthesis with the usage of melamine with the colleagues. Since May, the company has started mass production of melamine formaldehyde (MF) resins with the usage of melamine from Gubakha. This was preceded by a series of studies and laboratory tests conducted by employees of the Orekhovo-Zuevo site. During this time, MF-resin producers gained a lot of knowledge and experience, that, as Maxim Hamidullin believes, will help the group's managers when communicating and working with consumers.
- I hope that this information will help colleagues involved in the sales of melamine, MF-resin, to become closer to the consumers, communicate with them on the same wavelength, understand their requirements, problems and offer solutions, - Maxim Gennadievich noted.
The meeting proved to be useful not only for managers, but also for process specialists. The analysis of feedback from consumers of Gubakha melamine, the largest of which is Metadynea, caused a heated discussion. “We managed to discuss solutions for improvement of melamine quality, jointly outlined an action plan, recognized the need to adjust product homologation programs for large consumers,” Maxim Khamidulin shared.
During the seminar, the participants were able not only to learn about the technology of melamine production, but also to see the production itself. Sergey Smetanin conducted a detailed tour of the melamine plant with a capacity of 40 thousand tons per year for the colleagues, showed the main process units. The participants also visited the warehouse of finished products and visited the laboratory, where they got acquainted with modern equipment for analytical quality control of raw materials and finished products.
- We were impressed by the greatness of AUM Complex site; modern organization of safety issues; solutions that were applied in the production management. I would especially like to note the cleanliness and livability of the territory, - shared the Head of the Research and Development Center of Metadynea LLC Sergey Ivanov. – We thank the organizers for the opportunity of having informal communication between representatives of the producer and consumer of melamine. An interesting exchange of views took place on the particle size distribution of the product, the possibilities to control it and the importance of this parameter for the further production of resins. It is worth noting that the exchange was open, the difficulties that arose were not hidden, and the answers were quite exhaustive. For me, according to the profile of my activity, a visit to the laboratories was also relevant and interesting, where I managed to get acquainted with the hardware base used in quality control and evaluate the applied design solutions. I am glad to have the opportunity to expand contacts between employees of various divisions of the Group during such events, which, I hope, will be useful in future work.