Jean-Luc Vildé

Manufacturing Director

Allnex

"Embarking on the 14.0 Journey - Assessing Digital Plant Maturity in 33 sites"

Interview with Jean-Luc Vildé

26. January 2020

Jean-Luc Vildé is based in Brussels since 2011 where he was Global Manufacturing Director and Head of Planning for allnex until end 2019. He managed 18 manufacturing sites in 12 countries. He worked previously 12 years at  BP Lubricants (Castrol), firstly as site manager & Regional Supply Chain Manager in France, in Asia during a 4 years assignment in Singapore, and then as Manufacturing Director covering all EMEA sites of BP Lubricants. Before that, Jean-Luc started his career with TOTAL in 1990, first as a Planning and Scheduling Engineer in a refinery and then as a Process & Project Engineer at Total Cray Valley, and.has worked for 2 years at JSP International on the construction and start-up of an expanded polypropylene plant in France.

Read up on his interview as he expounds on his topic ahead of the Global ManuChem Strategies on March 16th -17th, 2020.

we.CONECT: The pop in your job – Manufacturing Director at Allnex – which tasks would you highlight as particularly interesting? What is most exciting about your role, and why are you passionate about your job?

Jean-Luc Vildé: What excites most in my job is to explore best practices in the sites I manage and get them implemented in the other sites.

we.CONECT: You will present the topic on ‘Embarking on the I4.0 journey – Assessing digital plant maturity in 33 sites.’ How would you define the topic yourself? “The topic is relevant for us because…”?

Jean-Luc Vildé: The topic is relevant because every Allnex site is at a different stage on the digitalization continuous transformation journey: in some sites easy opportunities can be found, whereas in other more advanced  sites, new ideas & technical innovations could be tested/piloted. It is therefore essential to evaluate the maturity of every site, to prioritize and to resource the digitalization projects.

we.CONECT: Looking at the various case studies that are on the agenda for this year’s Global ManuChem Strategies: Where do you see the particularities of your approach? What can other companies learn from you?

Jean-Luc Vildé: It seems that other chemical companies are also on the digitalization journey, perhaps taking it top down as a strategic direction, whereas our approach at Allnex has been very pragmatic and adapted to specific needs.

we.CONECT: You are for the first time speaker at our Global ManuChem Strategies. What are your most important expectations for the event?

Jean-Luc Vildé: Sharing the very concrete experience of what we have been doing at allnex in terms of maturity assessment and the start of the execution of the project, and learning best practices from other companies.

we.CONECT: Which topics are particularly important for you in the context of the conference and why?

Jean-Luc Vildé: I am especially interested in the human and process aspects of managing changes associated with the digitalization onto the shop floor, the use of new data available, and how to leverage the benefits.

we.CONECT: The Global ManuChem Strategies is a highly interactive networking event – which conversations are you particularly looking forward to?

Jean-Luc Vildé: I am looking forward to sharing experiences at the World Cafés, and learning more from the presentation on sustainable chemistry.