Welcome to The Face of Innovation, a companion to FMC Corporation's 2011 Annual Report. Here you will meet just a few of the more than 5,000 people who make FMC a truly innovative place to work. Simply scroll down to view brief videos and descriptions of the latest innovations within our three global businesses: Agricultural Products, Specialty Chemicals, and Industrial Chemicals. Learn more at fmc.com.
FMC Agricultural Products has shattered a long-held industry paradigm. Instead of being limited to inventing new active ingredients or becoming a generic manufacturer competing on cost, this business pursues a novel approach: combining FMC licensed chemistries with other proprietary products to solve customer problems. This "virtual" manufacturing strategy and focus on customer intimacy are producing market and product innovations at every turn.
The road to innovation usually takes several detours before the "Aha!" moment arrives. That was true of FMC innovator Bruce Black and the Verifi™ bed bug detector. The initial idea was sparked during an entomology conference, where Bruce was bothered by the growing concerns over bed bug infestations. This led him to wonder what attracts or deters these dreaded creatures, so he developed a series of monitors and traps before he arrived at the final design. Gotcha!
Anthem™ herbicide is a new product developed in part by FMC innovator Sam Wilson. As the efficacy of existing herbicides has waned, the role of Anthem as a pre- and post-emergent, broad-spectrum weed control product for corn, wheat and soybeans is sure to gain the attention of growers worldwide. Registration for Anthem is expected in late 2012.
FMC's Fiber Club – Clube da Fibra – is the first initiative of its kind in Brazil. Nurtured by FMC innovator Maria Paula Luporini, it has become a valued resource for cotton producers, offering a forum for leading cotton producers to discuss challenges and opportunities in production and trade. The Brazilian Cotton Growers Association was an outgrowth of the Club, becoming one of the strongest associations in the country. The Fiber Club is also known for fostering the growing involvement of women in cotton production, thanks in no small part to Paula's leadership.
For FMC innovator Farooq Shahid, creating marketing programs to inform an undereducated population of local growers in Pakistan simply made sense. Campaigns have involved school programs (2,000 conducted in one year alone), mobile cinemas (1,000 presentations from inside large container trucks), and community theater (more than 300 trainings in one year). The program included launch of a Farm Advisory Service Program, where FMC affiliates visit farms weekly to identify any crop problems and suggest solutions.
Around the globe, the people of FMC Specialty Chemicals make it their business to understand customer needs by providing: innovative solutions that enable customers to quickly go to market; technical excellence that reliably delivers the highest quality products; and service that exceeds expectations. From food ingredients to pharmaceuticals to lithium batteries, a culture of innovation abounds.
Brian Fitch and his innovation colleagues on the FMC CLEAR (Center for Lithium Energy Advanced Research) Lab team are helping power a new generation of better, longer lasting batteries to power everything from electronic tablets to trucks. The Bessemer City, North Carolina, lab features a "dry room" for sensitive lithium testing, plus a battery formulation center that's become a global nexus for knowledge exchange on lithium-ion technology.
The thought of having every car on Earth powered by batteries would be a dream come true for Marina Yakovleva and her team. Through the development of FMC's Stabilized Lithium Metal Powder (SLMP®) technology, they are helping launch the next generation of lithium batteries to power electric vehicles. SLMP is an enabling material and technology that significantly improves energy density of the Li-ion battery.
FMC innovators Therese Andersen, Christine Markussen, and Michael Dornish, based in Sandvika, Norway, used their understanding of ultrapure polymers to develop an alginate-based foam technology useful for culturing cells in three dimensions (3D). Easy to use and available in different forms, FMC's NovaMatrix®-3D offers a highly versatile 3D cell culture system for tissue engineering and cancer research.
A unique form of "cereal milk," a product developed in collaboration with FMC, has been strongly embraced by consumers in Asian markets. Members of FMC's Shanghai innovation team – Dan He, Eric Zhao, Tony Gao and Steven Xue – were central to producing this portable, quick snack, a nutritious mix of milk and grains. The use of FMC’s Avicel plus carrageenan stabilizes various components in the beverage, allowing high-pressure, high-heat tetra packaging to ensure a six-month shelf life for the product. It's already a big hit with customers throughout the region.
When you keep a steady eye on traffic through your windshield, gaze out at your lawn or at the street outside your office window, we are there. When you wash your clothes, dishes or car, we are there. When you print a document or read our annual report, we are there. FMC Industrial Chemicals delivers ingredients that make life easier, safer and more enjoyable.
Dr. Wendy Plocher is helping poultry breathe easier through the introduction of FMC's S-Carb® sodium sesquicarbonate in their feed. The product reduces litter moisture and its related ammonia emissions, enhancing respiration and improving overall health and performance. S-Carb also improves a bird's ability to digest food more efficiently.
FMC's Jared (Zeek) Kropf and Tom Findlow were tasked with developing a low-cost process to produce high-purity milled trona (primary source of sodium carbonate) from a feedstock often containing more than 10 percent impurities. They quickly identified a unique, robust beneficiation technology that yielded some of the highest product recovery ever achieved by FMC.
How do you create a game-changing, sustainable cost improvement process? If you're Brian Wimer, Jerry DeSalvo and Julio Holgado at FMC's Bayport, Texas, peroxygens facility, you start by launching a cross-functional Cost Improvement Network to share ideas. Then you establish a structured cost improvement process, and set a stretch goal to reduce manufacturing costs by 4 cents per pound over a four-year period. Call it 4X4 and hand out replica trucks to kick off the initiative and reinforce it along the way. Then beat the goal by three months. That's how.
The Face of Innovation is evident everywhere in our business, from our Global Innovation Centers (like the one in Ewing, New Jersey, shown above) to the fields, offices, laboratories and production locations of our customers worldwide. Please come back to this site to meet more of the many FMC innovators who are solving problems and improving the quality of life for people in every corner of the globe. Learn more at fmc.com.
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