production operator

maintenance mechanic

process operator

logistics technician

chemical operator

Arkema

Experienced Global Quality System Manager. ASQ Lead ISO 9001 Auditor, ISO 45001 and ISO 18001, CMMI.
Global operations Quality Leader. Establish Best Practices and Implement Key Strategies training and knowledgebase for competency and awareness. Oversee compliance of Quality Management and Assurance based on internal surveillance internal audits and assessments of products, processes and services
Ensure adequacy, effectiveness and compliance through surveillance audits of processes, products , system, source inspections and quality performance
Issue Resolutions in accordance with CA/PA, create a training knowledgebase of process improvement and issue resolutions in order to prevent occurrence or reoccurrences.
Maintain Supplier Qualifications, evaluations and compliance audits for effectiveness. Maintain CA/PA resolution tracking, liaison to supplier and customer. Coordinate and oversee Quality assurance, configuration management, issue resolution         data analysis
Compliance monitoring and measurement analysis reporting to management
Oversee inspection and testing processes to ensure compliance with regulatory standards and customer requirements. Conduct failure analysis and provide technical issue solutions
Identify deficiencies and troubleshoot the issue resolution and root cause analysis of the issue.
Coordinate customer contact with customers and suppliers to ensure customer satisfaction. Work to ensure return or new customer through customer and quality satisfaction
Oversee and assess the all production, manufacturing and fabrication techniques and standards to ensure compliance with all regulatory body of standards, ANSI, NEMA, UL, TUA, FAA, IEEE, NACE, ASME Y14.5 Ð 1994
Development roles and responsibilities (RACI) process ownership relationship throughout the organization in order to encourage organizational involved in process improvement and continual improvements (One of my most successful strategies)
Coordinate Management Review Meetings for reporting data analysis, risk, issues, customer satisfaction and complaints, report compliance needs. Critical needs awareness, trend and data analysis. Provide quality solutions and issue resolutions. Maintain ISO 9001 certification and all regulatory standards
Establish dashboards and measures (metrics) to monitor processes to drive

The plt use to be Union and now is not. Since the Union has been voted out, management is enjoying their freedom. They are changing all the rules, to their liking. Operators are expected to do their work and keep their mouths shut. There is a constant threat of being fired. The managers are using people and not paying them for what they are doing. Example: Someone is trained on a job, the trainer moves on, the trainiee is now doing the job, but not drawing the extra money for learning the job. The Co. shows that person to still be training. Also, this stops that person from being able to work O/T on that job. Even though they have been working by themselves for several weeks, or even months. There is no care about senority. They move and place people as they see fit. Overall, management is on the war path. If you can put up with that, it's not to bad of a place to work.

It's rotating 12hr shifts. 4 on, 4 off. (5:30 / 5:30) Every time you come off of your days shift, you are on-call for your 4 days off. (You are not paid for this, and you are not given a pager.)

The Co. put in a clock not too long ago. Before that, the operators came and went when they wanted. Within reason. Now they are controlled with a time clock.

It is a very mixed group of people, hispanics blacks, whites, males & females,

The Safety in the plt has improved over the last several yrs.

It is a Distillation process, with H2S being made also.

There are 4 different oper jobs and one chief oper per shift. That gives you 5 opers per shift. Then there are 2 relief opers.

The Co had a lay off a few yrs back, so now, most opers are doing more work.

The process is very stinky. (Sulfur based)

All opers must be on the Fire Team. (A&M once a yr) Also, once a yr they go through 1st Aid CPR & HasWhoper training. (In house)

The Co has a CBT Program and you must stay up to date on these.

Their is a ton of paper work for work permits, such as LOTO's, Line Breaks, etc.

As far as the fellow workers go, it's a mixed group. Some like to turn the lights off and sleep and some like to enjoy conversation, or maybe listen to the radio. Some are nice and some are pure jerks.

Operators catch liquid samples and shoot them in a GC. Then they make the needed adjuments to their units, to stay on-test.

Only one unit is a 2 man unit. the others are one man.

Review and maintain SAP price & contract exception messages and take required action to resolve invoice price, quantity, timing variances, and service issues for the business warehouse, terminal, and Toller facilities.
Manage SAP master data (timeliness & accuracy), facility data, and forecast data to ensure cost effective and reliable business support services. Tasks must incorporate and resolve new growth volumes, new product scale ups, product capability vs. capacity match, and seasonal services requirements.Create Inventory Schedule Agreements and Deliver Schedule PO’s for manufacturing
Measure and analyze time, quantity, and accuracy cost data for each terminal, warehouse, and Toller facility service
Resolve issues causing non-optimal performance, potential business interruptions, or negative customer impact.
Measure and communicate the plan vs. actual performance for each terminal, warehouse, and Toller while analyzing, understanding, resolving the significant variances. The variances should be addressed timely to reduce Total Cost to Serve and to achieve the Tactical Operations PlanNegotiate pricing with suppliers. 
 Maintain the Supply Chain Asset Cost master data files and folder structures.Work on SAP System
Purchasing Department primary SAP Purchasing Super User
Provide reports summarizing cost performance for Terminals, Warehouses, Tollers, including trend performance vs previous quarter and Year over Year. Reports must identify key cost drivers vs planned cost activity and overall business goals
Actively participate in support and lead improvement projects for the business terminal, warehouse, and Toller costs and services for the optimization of customer and product sourcing as well as business structural cost reduction. 
.

Very good group of people to work with.  Laid back approach.  Very hands on with learning.  Trial by fire.

3 managers and 4 superintendents in 5 years.  

Two separate philosophies by superiors when it came to working on equipment.  Difficult to gauge what was expected of you.  

Most difficult part of the job was product changes and blind rolls.  Not much in sync as far as preparedness and organization when it came to the turnarounds.  No checks and balances in place and no personal responsibility or a accountability taken when job was not completed or an incident occurred.  Very little consequences put into place for your actions.

Easiest part of the job was the very laid back approach.  Operations is in its own building and can pretty much do whatever we want.  Nobody was standing over your shoulder while you're out in the unit.  You can clean up and prepare your equipment any way you want, as long as it was clean.

I had zero experience in chemical manufacturing when I began my career at Arkema Grand Rapids. There was a lot to learn and I was always busy. It's not so bad if you know what you are getting into. It's hard work, very physical, and you will be sweating a lot, no matter what you are doing if you are in production. The infrastructure and technology are way overdue for some upgrades, and the building itself is old enough to be a Grand Rapids antiquity site.

This could be stated as a pro or con, but the place was chronically short staffed and there was a lot of overtime available, which thankfully was almost never mandatory. 

The management had far less experience in comparison to the production crew, so naturally the supervision style was  "hands off", no micromanaging whatsoever.

They had their own certification programs that allows for an ambitious employee to earn a higher pay rate.

All in all, it was a great place to work, but it was a tough job, mentally and physically challenging.

Arkema has the potential to be great. Some of the people care about their job but for most it is just a job. The Upper Management team are low quality Engineers that do not have a strong understanding of Engineering concepts and their Personnel Management Skills are even worse. It is the only company I have worked for that finds ways to strive to remove incentives from working for the company so they offset their terrible financial management skills. New hires are not compensated for experience level. They only hire the cheapest employees/contractors they can find and accept poor quality craftsmanship to save a buck. My direct coworkers are great to work with but they were not hired for their skills. I feel after working for this company I have gone back in time with many fewer vacation days, less employee growth or training, undefined structure and terrible safe work practices.

Started my career at the production plant, worked out well and allowed for growth. However after 2009 economic crash, company cut back personnel and although the production demand has fully recovered, headcount remains below par. Company prioritizes employee safety, yet operators are tasked with far too many duties to maintain the “world class” work ethic expected from management. This atmosphere drives employee morale into the ground, resulting in the high turnover rate experienced in the last 5 years. Expectations of ones job are simply unrealistic unless you want to live there. It could be a good place to work jobs were added in both production and lower management/quality roles. But that doesn’t appear to be happening anytime soon.

Management doesn't care about your well being.  They always say "Don't Rush" but we need it now!!  If there is time to lean, there's time to clean!  Some of it is pushed down from corporate. 

Always either starting up or shutting down units to meet production goals and/or fixing broken equipment. 

They rush you through the training on qualifications just to make it look like they have qualified people.  Average years of experience is about 5 years.  

They are always changing rules, just as a knee jerk reaction to an incident that was created by themselves for not properly training their own people.  
Compensation is ok but it takes a long time to get there. It isn't comparable to the rest of the industry in the area.  Maintenance/Planning Dept is a joke. They have some great contract workers but they are overworked and underpaid also. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
When I first started the environment was great. After about two years there was a management change and the culture started to go down hill.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Management is hard on employees. They expect a ton and give nothing in return. Very unsafe work environment and unwilling to upgrade equipment. Arkema Beaumont runs things until they break.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Terrible. Management has unrealistic expectations of its employees. The work load for operations is ridiculously high due to the unwillingness to spend money on new equipment. Unsafe work environment.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Tons of permitting due to super heavy maintenance work load. Hurry up attitude from management makes you feel rushed.

- Managed export accounts in Pacific Rim, Europe, Central and South America; coordinating customer orders, manufacturing sites, and freight forwarders (air/ocean); ensuring timely shipment of all exports in compliance with US Export Administration and Federal Trade Regulations and Foreign Country Requirements, including HAZMAT
- Prevented cancellation of a $3.7M contract with major European customer by identifying improvement opportunities
- Partnered with 3rd party vendors for safe delivery of 17 forty foot ocean containers for initial Arkema Chemicals joint venture with the Chinese government
-Developed innovative methods of re-routing materials from the Mobile, AL plant during the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma
-Performed analysis of sales order data in support of forecasting process; monitored unplanned demand activity and provided updates for Sales & Operations planning

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Production operator 105 salaries reported	$28.99 per hour
Maintenance mechanic 37 salaries reported	$37.41 per hour
Process operator 4 salaries reported	$28.11 per hour
Logistics technician 14 salaries reported	$23.32 per hour
Chemical operator 10 salaries reported	$28.06 per hour

Working at Arkema: Company Overview and Reviews

Arkema

Arkema Ratings

Popular jobs at Arkema

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected