Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), one of the largest aluminium smelters in the world, recently achieved a new milestone in the production of slabs by focusing on increasing efficiency levels.

A team at the Casthouse, led by the manager of the Casthouse operations, Abdul Rasool and superintendent Arif Noor, challenged the department’s planned target of producing 110,000 tonnes of slabs per year.

By improving the production processes they succeeded in bringing in additional 25,000 tonnes to enlarge the production capacity to 135,000 tonnes per year.

This result was achieved without any loss of quality and without any compromise to safety.

The team recently also utilised the same quality centred and safety oriented approach in achieving another major milestone.

The Casthouse produced 250 metric tonnes of slabs in a single shift, and in the process, far exceeding the average production figures per shift that revolve around 100 to 150 tonnes.

These results are a direct consequence of the company’s recently launched pilot programme to strengthen efficiency levels through increased collaboration in problem solving and idea generation, decrease of unnecessary waste and turnaround time, reduction in costs and development of bottom-up solutions, a statement said.

“We are highly proud of all those who were behind this success story,” said Mohammed Mahmood, Alba chief operations officer.

“This is a good example of how companies can experience spectacular results when organisational goals are shared by each and every employee,” he added.

Alba chief executive Laurent Schmitt said: “Our goal of increasing our production capacity remains unchanged but we are keen on doing so with sustainable competitive costs and without compromising on quality and safety.”

“This achievement by the Casthouse team demonstrates that this goal can be reached and inspire everyone at Alba,” he concluded. – TradeArabia News Service