Dubai Aluminium Company (Dubal) has won five awards at the Ideas.America 2011 competition, held recently in the US city of San Antonio.

Three of the awards presented to Dubal recognized innovative employee suggestions.

One suggestion entitled “Re-design Steam Turbine#14 Deaerator Control System” won both the Overall Idea of the Year Trophy and the Team Idea of the Year Award.

The submission entitled “Template for graphite preheat” won Silver Award in the Green Idea of the Year category.

The other two awards presented to Dubal fell into the Ideas.America Statistical Awards category, whereby the performance of a company’s employee involvement programme is evaluated in various areas.

This year, Dubal won the SEER Performance Excellence Gold Award for 100 per cent employee participation; and the SEER Performance Excellence Honourable Mention Award for savings per 100 eligible employees.

"This international acknowledgement could not have been possible without the technical expertise and the commitment of our employees; as well as their creativity, which has enhanced our processes significantly,” said Abdulla J M Kalban, president and chief executive officer.

“We are proud of our employees, who play a key role in Dubal's success story. Over the years, Dubal has won several international competitions, inspiring us to participate regularly in forums such as the annual Ideas.America, Ideas.UK and Ideas.Arabia competitions.”

Marwan Al Sawaleh, general manager, Human Resources, added that a culture of innovation is encouraged in the company through the Dubal Suggestion Scheme, which was established in 1981 and thus celebrates its 30-year anniversary in 2011.

“The Dubal Suggestion Scheme is a great tool as it gives employees on the shop-floor a forum for recommending changes to the way we do things,” he said.

“The scheme is very well received, as evidenced by the number of employees who have contributed thousands of ideas for improvement in all areas of our business.”

“Moreover, the excellent thinking behind their ideas has enabled Dubal’s hugely successful participation in international competitions – a feat that many organizations try to emulate and of which we are extremely proud, both of ourselves as a company and our employees,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service