Syngenta: work as one team to help each other

Syngenta people worked hard to source anti-epidemic equipment and ensure production kept operating. Syngenta China Indirect Procurement teams, HSE teams, Logistics teams and Finance teams ended their Chinese New Year holiday earlier to support this work.APAC Indirect Procurement Team quickly swiftly took actions to look to the international market. They spent days and nights seeking help from countries across APAC, EAME and LATAM.

Many people went the extra mile to help colleagues in China. For example, Ana Rojas, a buyer in Colombia, paid with her personal credit card and shipped face masks in a grab to secure them, and Febrian searched the Indonesia market to combine more than a dozen different brands of face masks.

“In this type of environment, if you need to wait for everything to be right before you move, you will never win. Indirect Procurement, supply chain and finance have reacted quickly, took actions as One Team and it has paid off,” said Thomas Mascali, Head of Indirect procurement APAC.

In 25 days, half a million face masks, significant volumes of anti-epidemic products and forehead thermometers from 10 countries were sourced and exported to China.

While the coronavirus is starting to be controlled in China, anti-epidemic products are required elsewhere as the outbreak continues to affect countries worldwide. Starting with a request from Syngenta Japan in early March, Syngenta China teams are now a major supply center to countries around the world, with the help and support from Sinochem and ChemChina group leaders.

Sinochem and ChemChina have decided to donate and ship back all their N95/FFP2 respirators which were originally purchased and imported from France with the help of Syngenta. Indirect procurement have also formalized a coordination team across four regions to collect needs and requirements, and find appropriate solutions.

Charlene Liu, Head of Indirect Procurement China, has taken on the responsibility of uniting the whole Indirect Procurement Community. She and her team are working two-shifts to allow for time zone differences. So far, this has resulted in 500,000+ N95/KN95 respirators, 400,000+ surgical masks, 38 forehead thermometers being sourced in less than a month and are now ready to be shipped worldwide. This also includes five ventilators being sourced which will be donated to the Argentine Ministry of Health.

Meanwhile, another team led by Brad Jiang, Logistics Manager in China, is dealing with the most difficult export challenges as airlines have decided to stop or reduce not only passenger flights but also cargo flights.

In response to an urgent appeal by Swiss authorities, Syngenta also joined forces with Huntsman to enable the production of hand sanitizer for the Swiss Canton of Vaud and the CHUV General Hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland.

At the production site in Monthey, Switzerland, Syngenta and Huntsman are working together to produce and donate approximately 50 tons of hand sanitizer to hospitals and pharmacies. Syngenta usually does not produce hand sanitizer at its plant in Monthey, but were able to flexibly and quickly adapt its facilities to be able to respond to this urgent need.