How Syngenta Saved ‘A Few Hundred Thousand Euros’ Through Better Workforce Qualification Controls
All skills defined, expired certifications caught before they lapse, and a training record that can’t be overridden by assumption.
A mistake that cost the price of a house
Syngenta breeds and produces seeds at scale, but green cabbage seeds and broccoli seeds look nearly identical. This means telling them apart requires specific training and an exam. When a new employee without that qualification worked unsupervised, 480 kg of mixed seed had to be destroyed.
“This would have meant that the farmer would have had a field of 80% cabbage and 20% broccoli,” said Martin Stumpe, Group Lead at Syngenta. “A 480 kg error that also cost a few hundred thousand euros. Enough to buy a small house.”
The root cause was an Excel-based skills matrix that contained an error, a misplaced mark that said someone was qualified when they weren’t.
An ‘X’ in a cell wasn’t enough
Hundreds of people work at Syngenta, and all of them undergo the aforementioned seed recognition training. Tracking who had passed what used to mean logbooks and spreadsheets stored on individual hard drives, with no reliable central record.
“Merely placing an ‘X’ in a cell to show that someone had acquired a certain skill didn’t really cut the mustard,” Stumpe said. “We used to train our staff to use this machinery but didn’t record or keep track of this information properly. This eventually cost us dearly.”
We can demonstrate that all our staff have received training and are qualified and that their certification hasn’t expired. I can work proactively instead of reactively.
Martin Stumpe
Group Lead, Syngenta
From reactive to proactive
The shift AG5 created at Syngenta is straightforward. Stumpe now finds out about expiring certifications before they lapse.
“Suppose someone’s forklift truck certification had already expired without my knowing. I’d have to jump through hoops to get our driver recertified as quickly as possible,” Stumpe said. “Knowing his certification is going to expire in four months’ time, we can plan accordingly, saving both time and money.”
More than 68 distinct skills are now defined in the system, from seed recognition to packaging and seed-coating machinery operation. Employees access their own skills portfolios directly through the app, see what they still need to qualify for, and understand the path to taking on different roles.
The implementation, despite Stumpe’s experience of messy system rollouts, went smoothly from day one.
Implementing AG5 went incredibly smoothly. We hit the ground running and everyone could access their skills portfolio right away. So satisfying!
Martin Stumpe
Group Lead, Syngenta
