Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), one of the largest aluminium smelters in the world, marked the successful completion of the fifth working group of the Alba SmartWay in June.

With this move, Alba’s commitment to achieve an improvement target of $250 million came one step closer, said a company statement.

The Alba SmartWay – part of the AlbaStar Programme – was formulated in early 2010 as part of a broader initiative to improve performance, boost top line growth, enhance efficiency, strengthen competitiveness, and build-in a culture of continuous improvement.

Lean management techniques were implemented through working groups that were called “waves” whose aim was to bring cultural change in the organisation through full and active employee participation within the 31 Alba SmartWay teams.

With the completion of the final wave in June, Alba has initiated the actions that will pave the way towards achieving $250 million savings by the end of 2012, said a top official.

'One of the most remarkable accomplishments of Alba SmartWay was the transformation it brought along in the way everyone in Alba thinks and operates,' remarked Alba chief executive, Laurent Schmitt.

'It reinforced a strong emphasis on efficiency and enabled the company to orient itself as a continuous improvement driven entity. It also gave birth to 61 change agents who will carry this task forward and build the foundation for greater and continuous improvement,' he added.
 
The AlbaStar Programme was streamlined with the support of the company’s Operational Excellence Department, the company statement said.

A total of 370 ideas were launched during Waves 1 to 5, and have been compiled in a systematic way as “action plans” for department managers whose responsibility will be to see its completion under the oversight of the Operational Excellence Department, it added.-TradeArabia News Service