Air Liquide reported €500m in business efficiencies last year as it strived to be a more streamlined business focusing on IT and portfolio management, according to CEO Francois Jackow.
Speaking on an earnings call today following the release of full year results, he said, “The objective is to reduce several layers throughout the organisation – as an example, we removed regional hubs that were supporting operations in Europe, Americas and Asia.”
He added that it was going “deeper into each entity” to flatten the global organisation and expand the span of control.
“The transformation is almost complete in the Americas and Asia and is well underway in Europe,” he said.
Another area involves business service centres. Previously Air Liquide operated several in each main region and now it is setting a limited number of larger ones, extending their scope to transactional tasks in HR, procurement and IT, and managing them globally to benefit fully from economies of scale.
Source: Air Liquide
Technology has understandably been a core focus. Every day, 3.5 billion data points are collected from Air Liquide’s 500 plants, 20 million gas cylinders, and 9,900 trucks.
In primary production, it launched best practices automation and a set of digital tools, and identified five main processes that have been benchmarked to enhance the efficiency of commercial practices globally.
This area deals with the review of fundamentals, such as pricing management and daily routine training, as well as performance monitoring and incentives.
“For all the transformation tasks, we continue to leverage data, digital tools and new capabilities of AI and the overall objective is to be more systematic and disciplined in the way we work, deploying standardised systems and routines with well-defined processes,” the CEO added.
Data and AI enable Air Liquide to monitor sleep apnea patients, using an algorithm that predicts the risk of non-adherence of treatment among those equipped with a connected device, while its electronics business line designs and supplies technological solutions based on very high purity gas and advanced materials.
Elsewhere on the hour-long call, Air Liquide said it is expecting more final investment decisions (FID) to be pushed back to the second half of this year as customers wait on policy and economic clarity.
Read more: Air Liquide grapples with FID slowdowns
