Robert Barger, plant manager of the DuPont plant in Ingleside, Texas, believes pride is a huge motivator when it comes to performance. “Pride is key to the plant’s safety excellence and running an efficient operation,” he said. Since Barger stepped into the role of plant manager three years ago, he has been focused on the long-term success of the plant, running a safe operation and making sure its output is continually improving.
Originally from Port Arthur, Texas, Barger obtained a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Texas A&M University in 1980. Upon graduation, DuPont hired him as a process engineer at the ethylene copolymers compounding and extrusion area in Orange, Texas. Since then, Barger has held several management roles throughout his 34 years with DuPont in locations such as Orange; Wilmington, Del.; Fayetteville, N.C.; and La Porte, Texas. From 1997-2004, he served in several operations roles at Ingleside so he was familiar with the location when he stepped into the plant manager position in 2010.
“Having worked at the Ingleside plant for seven years, I was very excited to return,” Barger said. “This is one of DuPont’s premier plants and there are a lot of great things happening here.”
The DuPont plant in Ingleside is considered a mid-size plant and consists of 600 acres with 220 acres used for manufacturing and the remaining 380 acres leased for farming. The plant produces refrigerant and propellant chemicals used in aerosol containers such as Suva® 134a, Dymel® 152a and Dymel® 134aP. Barger oversees the approximately 170 employees and 130 contractors at the plant.
“In my current role, I’m here to make sure this plant is successful long after I’m gone,” he said. “I want to ensure occupationally and environmentally safe operations while also being a good steward to the community. I communicate with the operators, mechanics and other leaders to make sure they understand what it takes to have a long-term viable plant as well.”
According to Barger, two of the most important skills needed for his role are having sound fundamentals and understanding what it takes to motivate people.
“The work at the plant is considered a high-hazard process so having good solid fundamentals in process safety management is extremely important,” he said. “You need to know the requirements and understand in intimate detail what it takes to run a safe operation. You also have to make sure people want to give it their all and not just because you’re telling them to.”
Safety excellence and participation
The DuPont plant in Ingleside, which celebrated its 40th anniversary last year, has always excelled in safety performance. The plant was recently re-designated a VPP Star site by OSHA for Region VI. Ingleside has participated in the program for nearly 30 years, and according to OSHA, it is one of the few with this long of a duration in the program. Ingleside has currently gone more than 950 days without an OSHA recordable injury to a DuPont employee or contractor.
“Being a VPP Star site shows our commitment to working safely and that we have good solid programs in place,” Barger said. “It’s important to the employees and our neighbors that DuPont runs a plant certified by OSHA.”
According to Barger, participating in the program also helps build a good relationship with OSHA and others in industry.
“VPP is a partnership among the government, management and labor,” Barger said. “We are able to ask OSHA questions and come to them for advice. Also through the program, members in industry can share their best safety procedures and hazard management practices with one another.”
In 2012, the DuPont plant in Ingleside also received a “Sustained Excellence in Caring for Texas” award from the Texas Chemical Council (TCC). The Caring for Texas Award program promotes continuous improvement in safety, community awareness, emergency response and pollution prevention.
“This is the highest award given by TCC,” Barger said. “We’ve received this award three times within the past 10 years. Our employees are very proud of this accomplishment and it demonstrates their positive attitudes toward safety. You’ll never hear ‘that’s not my job’ here.”
A good steward to the community
Serving as a liaison to the community is a large part of Barger’s role as plant manager. Barger said it is important to maintain good relationships with key decision makers and the community as a whole.
“These are the individuals who can influence decisions about whether or not to build new facilities,” Barger said. “There was a time during the phasing out of chlorofluorocarbons when this plant was almost shut down. The community communicated with corporate, informed them what a great neighbor we were and actually lobbied to put the Suva 134a facility here. Our employees also live in this community so it is important to all of us that we support it. Many of the plant’s employees at the Ingleside plant donate their time to various organizations or associations within the community.”
Barger serves in leadership roles for various organizations, including on the board of directors for the United Way of the Coastal Bend, Association of Chemical Industry of Texas and the San Patricio County Economic Development Corp. He is also the president of Port Industries of Corpus Christi and is on the mayor of Corpus Christi’s Blue Ribbon Water Task Force.
Looming challenges
There are two major challenges Barger and the Ingleside plant are currently addressing: finding a long-term diversified water supply, and building and training the next generation of industrial work force. Barger explains it is important the Corpus Christi region take a methodical approach in designing a water supply system that addresses the growing demands from various sources, such as industrial, recreational and residential.
“We are looking at other options like desalination and well water,” Barger said. “This area has a lot of construction activity pending from the Eagle Ford Shale. The question is are we going to have enough water for all this activity.”
Barger said DuPont is also working with local schools and organizations to build awareness about all the craft jobs coming to the area.
“We’re working with those still in school to help them understand these jobs are a route to success,” Barger said. “I am confident we can get the construction forces to build all these projects but the concern is having the people to operate and maintain them.”
Also, as more and more of the current work force retires, the Ingleside plant is working to train its next generation of employees.
“When I worked at the plant previously in my career, the plant was 25 years old and nearly everyone had been there from its beginning,” Barger said. “Then, when I returned six years later, I hardly recognized anyone. Eighty-five percent of the employees at the Ingleside plant have less than 12 years of service. The real challenge is making sure all of these new employees are sound in the fundamentals of operating and maintaining a plant. You can replace the person and the body but you can’t replace experience.”
To aid this knowledge transfer, Barger said the plant performs extensive classroom training for employees before they get out into the field and the plant also assigns a mentor to the new employee, working with that person for an extended period of time. During the hiring process of new employees, the hiring team at the Ingleside plant is made up of wage-roll employees so they are essentially picking their next coworkers.
Performance chemicals
DuPont has been bringing world-class science and engineering to the global marketplace in the form of innovative products, materials and services since 1802. The Ingleside plant is part of the company’s performance chemicals segment, which includes the titanium technologies and chemicals and fluoroproducts businesses. DuPont recently announced it will execute a full separation of this segment where it will operate as an independent, publicly traded company after the separation. The performance chemicals segment generated about $7 billion in 2012 revenues.
DuPont is looking to build two new fluorochemicals facilities in the near future. The first fluorochemical is a replacement for automotive air conditioning, which offers zero ozone depletion and extremely low greenhouse gas emissions ratings. The second fluorochemical is a foam expansion agent found in insulating foams. According to Barger, it’s possible the Ingleside plant could land one or both of these facilities.
“We are on the ‘short list’ for these two DuPont next-generation fluorochemicals facilities,” Barger said. “These facilities should be constructed within the next few years.”
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DuPont
Highway 361 South
Gregory, TX 78359
(361) 776-2561
Size: 600 acres
Employees: Approximately 170 employees and 130 contractors
Products: Suva® 134a, Dymel® 152a, Dymel 134aP and hydrochloric acid
