Corporate Results

Though this case study is a true story, the details need to be kept sparse due to the confidentiality. However, some general corporate results can be reported  

The company reduced an already low incident rate by another 15% over the following decade. 

Many factories have not had any lost-time injuries for the last few years. The company has set annual aggressive safety goals based on the prior years experience. For example, an additional double-digit safety performance improvement goal has been publicly set to be met over the next 10 years. 

Incorporated safety and safety performance into their corporate social responsibility program—they are not just saying that they will be safe but also putting their reputation on the line, daily, and in the mass media. 

Very active internationally at safety conferenees to share lessons learned and promote better safety results for all. In fact, they benchmark their safety performance and share best practices at various international forums. 

---

The search for catalyst systems which could effect the 0x0 reaction under milder conditions and produce higher yields of the desired aldehyde resulted in processes utilizing rhodium. Oxo capacity built since the mid-1970s, both in the United States and elsewhere, has largely employed tertiary phosphine-modified rhodium catalysts. For example, over 50% of the world s butyraldehyde (qv) is produced by the LP Oxo process, technology Hcensed by Union Carbide Corporation and Davy Process Technology. 

The process involving aHyl alcohol has not been iadustriaHy adopted because of the high production cost of this alcohol However, if the aHyl alcohol production cost can be markedly reduced, and also if the evaluated cost of hydrogen chloride, which is obtained as a by-product from the substitutive chlorination reaction, is cheap, then this process would have commercial potential. The high temperature propylene—chlorination process was started by SheH Chemical Corporation ia 1945 as an iadustrial process (1). The reaction conditions are a temperature of 500°C, residence time 2—3 s, pressure 1.5 MPa (218 psi), and an excess of propylene to chlorine. The yield of aHyl chloride is 75—80% and the main by-product is dichloropropane, which is obtained as a result of addition of chlorine. Other by-products iaclude monochioropropenes, dichloropropenes, 1,5-hexadiene. At low temperatures, the amount of... 

Proper appHcation of one or more of the tools of quaUty should lead to the elimination of the causes effecting off-standard results and thus to improvement of the process under investigation. It is often the QA professional who is responsible for the introduction and faciUtation of the use of these techniques in the chemical corporation. 

Another furnace that does not require fuel preparation is the stoker boiler, which was used by New York State Electric Gas Corporation (NYSEG) in its TDE tests. At NYSEG, the stoker boiler, which has a 1649°C (3000°E) flame temperature (as does the cyclone boiler), has routinely blended low quaUty coal, and more recently, wood chips with its standard coal to reduce fuel costs and improve combustion efficiency. In the tire-chip tests, NYSEG burned approximately 1100 t of tire chips (smaller than 5x5 cm) mixed with coal and monitored the emissions. The company determined that the emissions were similar to those from burning coal alone. In a second test-bum of 1900 t of TDE, magnetic separation equipment removed metal from the resulting ash, so that it could be recycled as a winter traction agent for roadways. 

These scientists and engineers represent a special challenge to leadership in that the values and motivations may at times be at odds with corporate cultures that emphasise seniority, authority based on hierarchical influence, allegiance to corporate direction, a strict proprietary view of the results of science and technology, and expectations of instantaneous organisational response to changes in direction. 

There has been considerable research on chlorine-resistant RO membranes (48—52). A poly(/n j -2,5 dimethyl)pipera2inthiofura2anainide used in the presence of low (3 mg/L) concentrations of chlorine resulted in a membrane life of three years (48). A copolyamide hoUow-fiber membrane for use in desalination has been developed that is resistant to 0.5 mg/L chlorine (49). Millipore Corporation has also developed a sulfonated polysulfone member that has desirable chlorine-resistance properties. 

At Great Salt Lake Minerals Corporation (Utah), solar-evaporated brines are winter-chilled to —3° C in solar ponds. At this low temperature, a relatively pure Glauber s salt precipitates. Ponds are drained and the salt is loaded into tmcks and hauled to a processing plant. At the plant, Glauber s salt is dissolved in hot water. The resulting Hquor is filtered to remove insolubles. The filtrate is then combined with soHd-phase sodium chloride, which precipitates anhydrous sodium sulfate of 99.5—99.7% purity. Great Salt Lake Minerals Corporation discontinued sodium sulfate production in 1993 when it transferred production and sales to North American Chemical Corporation (Trona, California). 

L-asparaginase therapy with an extra-corporeal device in patients with malignant lymphoma has resulted in repeated remissions of metastases (242). This technique utilizes L-asparaginase covalentiy bound to the surface of a battery of plates contained in a portable chamber which has been inserted between an artery and vein. 

The submitters used trimethylalane available in a cylinder from Ethyl Corporation. Both neat trimethylalane and its 2 M solution in toluene gave comparable results. The toluene solution of trimethylalane is also available from Aldrich Chemical Company. 

An appreciation of statistical results can be gained from a study conducted to support the first application of computer control for an ethylene oxide production unit at Union Carbide Corporation in 1958. For the above purpose, twenty years of production experience with many units was correlated by excellent statisticians who had no regard for kinetics or chemistry. In spite of this, they did excellent, although entirely empirical work. One statement they made was ... [ethane has a significant effect on ethylene oxide production.] This was rejected by most technical people because it did not appear to make any sense ethane did not react, did not chemisorb, and went through the reactor unchanged. 

The Nippon Steel Corporation in 1972 pioneered the use of continuous annealing lines , in which rolled steel sheet is heat-treated and quenched under close computerised control while moving. For this advanced process to give its best results, especially when the objective is to make readily shapable sheet for automobile bodies, steel compositions have to be tailored specifically for the process composition and processing are seamlessly tied to each other. Today, dozens of these huge processing lines are in use worldwide (Ohashi 1988). 

---