From Procurement to President

00:00:00: Hello, I'm your host Adam Brunner and welcome to the Evonix Minute.

00:00:05: Your quick bi-weekly podcast for all the important stories, news, and announcements for Evonix North America region.

00:00:13: The date is December fourth, twenty twenty-five, and on today's episode, Evonix names a new president for the Americas region.

00:00:20: A new procurement strategy aims to achieve major savings, and a colleague from Allentown discusses the impact of a new NMR spectrometer.

00:00:29: those stories and more coming up in just a minute.

00:00:42: First up, leadership transition in the Americas.

00:00:45: Elias Lacerda will take over as the new regional president of the Americas for Avonix on February first, twenty twenty-six, succeeding Guido Skadlarik.

00:00:55: The announcement was made during a town hall meeting at Avonix Tipeke New Labs in Indiana.

00:00:59: Attended by thirteen hundred employees from six countries, the town hall also emphasized the importance of the Americas region to Ivonek's overall success.

00:01:07: This leadership transition underscores Ivonek's commitment to strengthening its presence and performance across the Americas.

00:01:13: Lacerda, who is fluent in multiple languages, brings extensive experience to his new role.

00:01:18: He has held various leadership roles within Ivonek, including vice president of global sales and key account management for the Silica business line, chief financial officer for South America, and regional president for Central and South America.

00:01:31: During the town hall, Ivonek's new president Americas focused on a personal triad of ideas, which he calls people, performance, prosperity.

00:01:39: People make business.

00:01:40: If you are committed, if you are engaged, if you like what you do, a lot of things can happen.

00:01:45: But we need to deliver what our body is waiting for us, which is performance.

00:01:49: Performance is our credentials for everything that we want to do.

00:01:53: And performance is something that we all have to think every day.

00:01:57: And prosperity is to build more, to hire more, to have our company more visible, to have fun in our job.

00:02:06: And this combination of the three things is the principles that you are always going to see me saying when we are interacting together.

00:02:15: Next, Ivana has introduced a new procurement strategy to achieve significant savings in maintenance, repair, and operations, or MRO, as well as laboratory supplies.

00:02:25: The strategy focuses on three key pillars, commercial savings, by buying the same items from different distributors to reduce costs, buying channel alignment, which is a clear purchasing guide that will be created to define preferred channels and suppliers encouraging consistent use, and specification optimization.

00:02:43: The goal is to standardize products and approve lower cost alternatives that meet or exceed current specifications across various categories and locations.

00:02:51: The initial phase of the strategy is already yielding positive results, with projected savings for twenty twenty-six, primarily from lower prices on high volume items and category level discounts.

00:03:01: Employees are encouraged to utilize the newly updated Ariba catalogs for all MRO and laboratory supply needs.

00:03:07: This will support Avonic in achieving its cost-saving goals by streamlining purchases through preferred channels.

00:03:13: According to Tiago de Sosa, regional unit head of the technical equipment in direct procurement,

00:03:18: our new approach targets categories that account for a third of our annual spending, with opportunities for additional cost reductions.

00:03:26: By bundling demand, we aim to secure better pricing, introduce targeted discounts, and establish volume-based rebates to address unsustainable spending trends.

00:03:37: Also, colleagues can always let me know if they have improved my ideas or see a better price on another platform.

00:03:44: Ivonic is dedicated to strategic resource allocation and cost-efficient.

00:03:51: Lastly, Folio highlighted an Ivonic colleague and his spectrometer.

00:03:55: Recently, Jim DeFilippis, a physical organic chemistry and nuclear magnetic resonance, or NMR spectroscopy expert in Allentown, Pennsylvania, spoke with Folio Magazine about his work at Ivonic's Allentown Innovation Hub.

00:04:09: In the interview, Jim emphasized the importance of a new NMR spectrometer in the analytics department.

00:04:14: A spectrometer is an instrument that measures the properties of light, particles or other electromagnetic radiation.

00:04:20: In this case, the cutting-edge instrument speeds up research by offering in-depth information about nuclei, like protons and carbons, which helps in accurately identifying and measuring sample components.

00:04:30: The NMR spectrometer is often used alongside other methods, such as infrared spectroscopy and mass spectrometry, to thoroughly analyze samples and tackle research challenges.

00:04:40: Jim is also a founding member and organizer of the Practical Applications of NMR in Industry Conference, or PANIC.

00:04:47: His expertise is essential in maximizing the NMR spectrometer's potential to improve research efficiency.

00:04:53: in Allentown was a fantastic opportunity to showcase how advanced spectrometers like our new NMR spectrometer facilitate problem solving.

00:05:03: By providing detailed insights, these instruments empower us to tackle challenges more effectively and drive innovation in our research.

00:05:11: I'm proud to be part of a team that leverages these technologies to deepen our understanding and enhance our products at Ivonic.

00:05:20: And that's the news.

00:05:22: I'm Adam Brunner.

00:05:23: Thank you for spending some time with us today on The

00:05:32: Evonic Minute.