Going global with Synergi®

When Kemira started using Synergi® in autumn 2004, the Group Safety Manager had been looking for a system solution for some time. Upon coming across Synergi®, he was impressed that the software was developed by people with a pure risk management background, as it was so well adapted to the various businesses. It slid smoothly into the organisation of Kemira’s headquarters. Since then, it has been spread throughout the various Kemira sites in Finland – and even further.

“We have been very happy with Synergi® in Finland”, current Group Safety Engineer, Mira Saksi, says. “We don’t have to install anything locally; I appreciate that it is run over the Internet, which facilitates the process of communicating across company departments and geographical borders.”

The challenge in terms of risk management and reporting earlier was that Kemira comprised six independent companies. Today, Kemira is a chemicals group made up of four rather different business areas: Kemira Pulp&Paper (chemicals to turn pulp into paper and cardboard), Kemira Water (water purification and sludge treatment solutions), Kemira Specialty (for cosmetics, packaging inks, food and detergent industries) and Kemira Coatings (paints).

The companies used a lot of different systems for registering missesand near misses, demanding a lot of effort from the HSEQ managers to keep an overview.

“We were definitely in need of a group reporting system like Synergi®. Earlier, we were forced to send emails or call people to have them send us the Excel sheets describing the incidents  in order to get the complete picture. Ultimately, I hope to get rid of those Excel sheets all together. Fortunately, we are already more than halfway there,” Saksi smiles.

Kemira produces and provides about 10,000 different chemicals crucial to make the wheels turn for customers scattered world wide. Apart from in Finland, Synergi® has been implemented in the central European EU-countries where Kemira operates. As Kemira has gone global, now the risk management system is going to be spread as well.

“We currently have functions in about 140 sites in 40 countries worldwide. This introduces new challenges because there are many different approaches to risk management outside the EU. We continuously need to develop the system to take different laws and languages into account and to be able to work more efficiently. But I find Synergi very flexible and simple, as the initial package you receive is merely a framework in which you can create your own system,” Saksi states.

She says she is amazed at how smoothly the cooperation with Synergi Solutions has been, but thinks Kemira has a good part of the responsibility to make it work as well: “Customising is just a matter of how well you describe what you need. After the description is communicated, Synergi Solutions will perform the operations.”

Kemira currently has a payroll of about 9,000 employees in the production plants and in the offices – and all of them are potential Synergiâ users.

“Everyone has the possibility to report and an obligation to contribute. We are conscious about providing means for people to ensure that they have a real possibility of doing that. A PC connected to the Internet is never far away. Thus, not having a computer is a bad excuse today, and a connection is also possible to fix. I believe it is all about how well you train your users. If you are good at that, your people will report to you,” Saksi concludes.


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