YES. We make chemistry tangible.
As we introduced our new shift system over the past several years (read more here) at our production site in Oyten, we were able to bring on a lot of new employees on to our production, quality control and engineering teams. To get our new team members up to speed in the world of silicone chemistry, our development team organized a new range of training modules. The focus wasn’t just on conveying chemical or application-specific knowledge, but also on the mutual exchange with the participants regarding products and production processes. I think that when you know all the different ways our products are used and have direct contact with them there’s so much more incentive to really do your best.
Making complex ideas easy to understand? Challenge accepted!
For us as developers it was particularly challenging to explain complex relationships as simply, understandably and interactively as possible – but we were happy to take on that challenge. Using building blocks – I’m sure everyone remembers them from childhood – we were literally able to make our chemistry tangible for all our participants. The building blocks made it easier for everyone diving into each particular topic so much more easily than using complex structural formulas that everyone probably remembers dreading from their time in school. We also prepared several experiments for each group to conduct during each training module. All of the questions, comments and even the suggestions for further improvements made it obvious that the participants were fully engaged and staying on task – that was really rewarding to see.
Broad interest and exciting insights
Ultimately we developers also walked away having learned something new and gained exciting insights into production and quality control issues. I also really appreciated how so many of our colleagues from the engineering, customer service and logistics teams took the opportunity to join in spontaneously to deepen their knowledge. As soon as the pandemic conditions permit it we’ll be back with more and are looking forward to sharing that experience again. We’ll also be sure to bring our building blocks, motivational gummy bears and chocolate along – we promise!
