We produced synthetic rubber, one product with different specifications. It was a very old production site with lots of manual interventions. There were two tanks and we emptied the ingredients into the first tank to mix and then into the second where we heated, stirred and then added more ingredient. We had to note into an Excel spreadsheet the quantity of the ingredients. The synthetic rubber would be added into water tanks, steam added to achieve flocculation. The flocks would be sent through water tanks and then pushed through an extruder and on to dryers.  Packing was done by an external company.

We worked in three shifts: early, late and night always. The rhythm was to days in early, two in late and two days in night shift then two days off. Our contract said that we should work 36.5 hours a week so we worked always overtime which we could take again through the year as holidays. In total, we would get 60 days of holidays in a year as a result.

We worked in a shift team of eight and there were different positions. The shift manager decided who would work where. We had two or three people in the control room, one or two in the laboratory, one in dryers and two or three people doing the inspection rounds.

During the inspection rounds one would be speaking with the people from the mechanical and electrical workshop, or changing the one of the dryers from backup mode to production mode, starting up pumps and coolers, starting of batches by emptying sacks into tanks.

So called ‘Tag outs’ had to be done when a pump or other equipment would be taken out of production. You would have to check the P&ID, for example to find out which valves had to be closed. You would then go and put a tag on the valves and make a note in a list that this valve had been closed. The list would then go to the control room so that the colleagues there could see which valves are currently closed. In addition, the parts that must not be moved were tagged on the production floor. Only when the inspection team had completed the tag out, then the maintenance people from the workshop would be allowed to work on the pump or other equipment.

It would have not been possible to fully automate this old plant from the 1980s. If you would want to automate the plant fully, you would have to rebuild it entirely. The raw materials were consistent, but the plant had a mind of its own and you had to learn all the peculiarities and manual operation.

I enjoyed that I had to know and do things by hand because it was an old plant. It was also interesting that we could work in different roles and with different people. I earned well and I had a lot of free time because I could work overtime. However, I felt that after a while a knew everything and I could not learn anything new.

The working hours were very tiring, changing from early, late and night shifts. I new after working two years that I had to study further and learn more, opening up different avenues.

On the whole, I would have preferred to work with a more sustainable product of which I can be proud in the long run.