CLOSING NOTES: MY TOUGHEST CHALLENGE
Anne Duncan JEN BAYHI-GENNARO
THE CHALLENGE Australia native Anne Duncan had been in her post as plant manager of Almatis in Burnside for just under six months when, in a span of three days, the only other three alumina refineries in the United States announced financial hardship. Two declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy and one announced full curtailment from July 1. “Sudden opportunity. Such obligation,” Duncan says. Almatis had a planned multiyear transition from smelter alumina to specialty grade alumina and had to enact it in a period of four months, or lose a significant market share opportunity. “We had a plan to eventually get there, and suddenly we had to be there,” Duncan says. “We used to only ship our alumina on barges. Suddenly, we had to be able to equal the other three plants in terms of logistics. We had to very quickly get it into railcars and trucks and barges,” she says. Additionally, one of the closed operations had been a major supplier for Almatis’ parent company, leaving the Burnside refinery no choice but to step up and become the sole supplier. “We had to be like them in every way—40% improved chemical purity, tighter physical properties, and ship in the same manner,” she says.
ery needed major upgrading. “The asset had been neglected for a long time by the previous owner prior to the refinery being bought by Almatis in December 2013,” Duncan says. She credits the Lean Six Sigma method of systematic problem solving and discovering the root cause for helping her and the team work through what seemed, at first, an insurmountable task. “We built in a framework that was outcome driven. We held all of our meetings standing up and built engagement with team members. ‘What are you doing next week, how did you do last week?’—drawing on people to be accountable,” she says. “We celebrated frequent small milestones. I just knew we would get there. I didn’t think about what if we didn’t.”
THE RESOLUTION “We didn’t have it all mapped out—we just had to start,” Duncan recalls. The team immediately set about building relationships with logistics providers to establish shipping methods. “We also ran aggressive advertisements and bolstered our ranks with talent from the other three plants,” Duncan says. Their team swelled, adding 80 to reach over 350 on-site, working around the clock to improve the quality of their product from one standard smelter grade alumina to different specialty grade aluminas—the latter used in refractories, spark plugs, printed circuit boards, water treatment and synthetic marble counters. Doing so wasn’t cheap, as the refin-
THE TAKEAWAY Almatis has succeeded in improving its market share and supplying a much higher-grade mix of products than before. It is able to service customers in its preferred way of shipping all over the domestic U.S., overseas to the parent company, to third-party customers and up and down the Mississippi River. And as a leader, Duncan has learned the value of setting the expectation or goal, then stepping back and letting people rise to the occasion. “Our team’s competency has really come along,” Duncan says. “They’ve really skilled up. You’d be surprised how well people have done with the challenge when given the chance in a supportive environment.”
POSITION: Plant Manager COMPANY: Almatis Burnside, LLC WHAT THEY DO: Almatis Burnside, located in Ascension Parish, is a dedicated specialty alumina producer.
CAREER: Duncan has 25 years of international
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DON KADAIR
experience in bauxite and alumina. She joined Almatis Burnside in 2015 from the role of chief technologist at Rio Tinto Alcan in Australia. She has a Black Belt in Lean – Six Sigma. She resides in Baton Rouge with her husband, John, and their three teenage children.
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