What senior management should expect from R&D
John Dunstone and Ian Harrison, Orr & Boss, UK/US
Again and again, we hear CEOs within the adhesives industry lament their disappointment with the poor contribution that R&D makes to the profitability and growth of their companies. This session will address the issues of organizing an effective technical function and empowering it to create and commercialize new products that customers really want, while at the same time increasing gross margins. The session will cover three main topics: Ensuring a Direct Customer Link; The Role of Basic Research Within an Adhesives Company; and When Price/Performance Optimization Should Be a Focus.

Surviving the Competition
Richard van den Bergh, Hutchison 3G, UK
The adhesive industry is heavily focussed on consolidation and cost reduction. Neither will be sufficient to build sustainable competitive advantage and growth. Product Innovation is a strategic thrust which will. The presentation focuses on key management aspects to deliver value-enhancing new products and leadership issues.

Personnel Qualifications in Adhesive Bonding Technology
Dr. Andreas Gross, Fraunhofer Institute IFAM, DE
In Europe an industry-wide personnel qualification programme for adhesive bonding technology has been developed in close cooperation with industry, associations and R&D institutions. The programme comprises three levels: "European Adhesive Bonder – EAB", "European Adhesive Specialist – EAS" and "European Adhesive Engineer – EAE". These personnel qualifications have been proved to be an essential part of the transfer of and an important marketing support for adhesive bonding technology.

Risk Assessment of Hot Melt Manufacturing
Gary Raykovitz, National Starch & Chemical, UK
Safety in the workplace continues to be a key initiative in the Chemical industry. The processing of Hot Melts in closed systems can pose the risk of flash fires or explosions. This paper will review steps taken so this does not occur and that the safety of employees is ensured.

Managing Emergent Knowledge
Dr. William A. Lees,, US
For various reasons Corporate knowledge is lost. Emergent knowledge can be just as ephemeral. Computer based retrieval systems often fail because foreknowledge is required. This paper offers a novel, and proven, approach based on a true 'Expert' system that overcomes this restraint.

Delivering synergies in M&As
Laurence Danon, Bostik Findley, FR
Ato Findley has in the recent period carried through several major mergers and acquisitions. Whilst there are several traps to fall into, there are also ways of making sure that the transactions will actually deliver synergies.

Human Resources perspective on M&As
Alexander Willems, H B Fuller, DE
Among the staff of a merging company, the first spontaneous reaction often is: - What does this mean to me? Do I keep my position, do I stay in the company? How do you make sure that you will keep the optimum mix of people, and how do you treat the staff that will have to leave? These are the issues of the human resources manager.

Session 4 – Friday 22 September 2000, 9.00 – 12.30 hrs – Vision 2000 / E-Commerce
Session Chair: Dr. William A. Lees, formerly Permabond, US

European Standards for Global Use
Miguel García Martín, Gymcol SA, ES, Chairman CEN/TC 193
As the work of the European Standardisation Committee on adhesives is near its completion, there is a growing interest to use these EN standards as a global alternative for the industry against other standards like ASTM, DIN and so on, making special consideration on the close relation maintained between CEN/TC 193 and ISO Committees and the fact that in some cases CEN directly produces ISO standards.

Global Supply of Adhesives Raw Materials from a Small Company Perspective
Dr. Bruce Stanhope, Velsicol Chemical Corp. US
The globalization of the adhesives industry poses many challenges for the large multi-national adhesive producers. For small suppliers to succeed, they must be adept at listening to customer needs, and rapid in their responses. They must be able to learn new ways of doing things and be comfortable with change.

E-Commerce in the Chemicals Industry
Doug Timmel, Air Products Polymers, US
E-Commerce requires a new thinking in terms of actions from the business partners. The presentation will give examples on building electronic commerce capability, present case studies on benefits for both the customer and the supplier, and will describe how the e-commerce may serve the adhesives industry in the coming years.

ChemUnity - a new electronic marketplace for commodities
Herman Rijks, ChemUnity.com B.V., NL
ChemUnity.com is an on-line sourcing platform for Full-Truck-Loads of Chemical Commodities in Europe. Buyers can define what they want when & where, and ChemUnity.com will forward that inquiry to all the suppliers of that specific product. Within a day, a selection is made and if the best offer is within the range indicated in the buyer’s inquiry, the transaction -including credit insurance- is confirmed.

B2B e-commerce business models - what should the adhesives manufacturer expect?
Dan Murad, The Chemquest Group, Inc. USA

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