The Broadening Viewpoint of Technical Management
I/EC June 1959, Volume 5 1 , No. 6 APPLIED J O U R N A L S , ACS 1 1 5 5 Sixteenth St., N . W . Washington 6, D. C. Director of Publications, C. B. Larrabee Editorial Director, Walter J . M u r p h y Executive Editor, James ΛΛ. Crowe Production
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IISUICI V Advertising Management REINHOLD PUBLISHING CORP. (For Branch Offices see p a g e 1 2 7 A)
130 A
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
The Basic Responsibilities of the Chemical Specialist A r e Legion
^ J E T T I N G there fustest with the mostest" is a slogan that really did not begin or end with the W a r Between the States. It has always been a p a r t of the general picture of competitive enterprise. But as the world's geographic boundaries have shrunk, as time lags in delivery of goods have telescoped, being the first on the spot with either the most or the best, or both, has attained first class rank in industry and commerce. Nowhere have we been struck so forcefully with this fact than at the recent symposium in Cleveland on packaging and transportation of chemical products, sponsored by the Chemical Packaging Committee of the Manufacturing Chemists' Association. I / E C published in 1955 ( I N D . E N G . CHEM. 47, 1185-203) a group of articles from a similar symposium, which also included the labeling of chemicals. M u c h — very m u c h — h a s h a p p e n e d in the few years since then. Plastics were still in early stages of use as packaging possibilities for bulk handling. T o d a y there are all-polyethylene shipping bags, steel drums, and fiber containers lined with plastic, and one p r o d u c e r is offering 250-gallon all-polyethylene d r u m s . W e have m u c h increased truck haulage of a wider variety of chemical products. T h e r m o s barges for molten sulfur are successful, and liquid m e t h a n e has been successfully carried by tank vessel from the U n i t e d States to Britain. T h e r e are piggyback, fishyback, and all sorts of modifications. Use of the airslide, blowing drying materials directly from truck trailer to storage units, is attracting considerable attention. And the more conventional materials and methods all have new looks. W e cannot but see the chemical engineer entering in full stride this field of packaging a n d transportation, as he has market research and development, and m a n y other areas once considered fringe or completely outside engineering circles. T h e M C A symposium left the impression that this was a n area within the chemical industry still dominated by the expert old-time traffic people who had grown u p in the j o b , or had joined chemical companies after years of railroad experience, and the like. W e were pleased to meet a few chemists and chemical engineers of our vintage or older, a n d a few younger ones, all intensely interested in how m o d e r n trends in packaging and delivery might affect their p r o d u c t s : prices, corporate profits, handling, safety aspects, even the decision whether to manufacture a product a n d where. Particularly noteworthy was this c o m m e n t by R. B. Schaefcr of Pennsalt Chemicals Corp. : " T o d a y the chemical industry is manufacturing products which by container standards of 1940 could not be packaged for shipment with reasonable safety. These products are now being m a d e , shipped in plastic containers, and delivered safely to m a n y destinations in an almost routine m a n n e r . " Emphasis today in all of the chemical industry is on the concept of m a n a g e m e n t in d e p t h . Every m a n m a y not be a king, but far down the line in the C P I today m e n are managers, be their bailiwick large or small, elevated or not. And to carry out their duties properly a n d discharge their responsibilities to their companies they must have the broad kind of a p p r o a c h to technology a n d , of course, technical m a n a g e m e n t in the widest possible sense. T h e whole-company view requires the whole m a n . T h e field of packaging a n d transportation can still be in the good hands of the packaging expert a n d the professional traffic manager, b u t it behooves the chemical specialist regardless of whether his training is in chemistry or chemical engineering, whatever his place on the ladder, to know w h y and how these areas m a y affect his contribution to his company's progress, a n d how his work m a y affect theirs. Circle No. 16 on Readers' Service Card
