Language Career Press Contact Download centre About Elkem Sustainability Technology & innovation Elkem About Elkem Elkem Business System The Elkem Business System (EBS) plays an important role in all of Elkem's operations. EBS is first and foremost about improving customer satisfaction. The aim is to secure excellence in EHS, delivery, quality and cost. Elkem Business System is designed and aligned to support the strategic direction and operational goals of Elkem. EBS will drive the behaviour in the organisation and foster a culture of operational excellence, continuous improvement and deep learning. To do this we have to develop all our people to identify problems and find smart solutions – to develop world class performers that can achieve operational excellence and secure and improve customer satisfaction. As a guideline to what to do and how to do it EBS was founded on the four basic principles; Make to use, empowered people, eliminations of waste and processes in control. The principles of EBS are anchored in Elkem core values and act as a guideline of thought and action. The four basic principles of EBS Make to use puts the customer, both internal and external, into focus. The principle states that everyone in the organisation – down to the individual level – is connected as internal customers and suppliers in close relation to each other. The results we produce must always meet our customer’s need. For all customer-supplier relations there is an ideal situation characterised by better safety and morale, as required, 0 defects, instant response, one to one and at lowest cost. Empowered people is a conviction that each and every success is attributable to at least 70% human effort and just 30% to the system behind it. The people doing the work are the experts. They connect systems and are the driving forces within our value chain. The skills of the employees and their knowledge and experience add up to a resource that Elkem seeks to liberate through increased team organisation and the development of a systematic form of working where employees have an opportunity to contribute and can influence problem-solving and continuous improvement. Eliminating waste represents our strive for perfection. It concerns people’s continuous participation in simplifying and improving. Waste includes all unnecessary costs and the use of resources we incur during the production process for goods and services. Waste will often be built in to the systems in a traditionally organised value chain and will not always be easy to detect. Regarding waste there are three sins: i) Overburden, ii) Unevenness and iii) Non-value-added work. The last one is again divided into 8 different categories of waste: over-production, excessive inventory, waiting, unnecessary movement, excessive conveyance, over-processing, correction of mistakes, and under utilises creativity. Processes in control is about stability. We need predictable and consistent processes when it comes to manpower, machines, materials, and methods in order to meet our customers’ demands. This principle puts focus to the process. It is about developing a common understanding of the process with all its input and control parameters, make decisions based on data and facts, and removing unwanted variation in our processes. Shortcuts to... Career Press Contact Download centre About Elkem Sustainability Technology & innovation Solutions for... Aluminium Automotive Building & construction Chemical industry Electric arc furnaces Electronics & Solar Energy Engineering Oilfield Polymer applications R&D services Refractories and ceramics Business areas Elkem Silicon Materials Products & markets Fibre cement additive GroutAid® Gypsum board additive High performance concrete High performance concrete Materials for refractories Oilfield solutions Polymer additives Polysilicon Silgrain® for batteries Silicon for aluminium alloys Silicon for aluminium brazing Silicon for ceramics Silicon for glass coating Silicon for silicones About Elkem Silicon Materials Elkem Bremanger plant Elkem Salten plant Elkem Thamshavn plant Elkem Foundry Products Products Ferrosilicon for steel Iron foundry products Recarburisers About Elkem Foundry Products Elkem Foundry China plant Elkem Bremanger plant Elkem Iceland plant Elkem Chicoutimi plant Elkem Bjølvefossen plant Elkem Carbon Products Carbon electrodes Cathode blocks Cathode ramming pastes Coal tar products Lining materials Söderberg electrode paste Taphole and ladle materials About Elkem Carbon Elkem Ferroveld Joint Venture Elkem Carboindustrial plant Elkem Carboderivados plant Elkem Carbon Fiskaa plant Elkem Carbon China plant Bluestar Silicones About Bluestar Silicones Contact Editor Marit Flinder Johannessen | Executive editor Kristin Karlstad Elkem AS | Drammensveien 169 | Postboks 334, Skøyen, NO-0213 Oslo, Norway | +47 22 45 01 00 Follow us: Structure & legal Privacy policy