UAE-based leading smelter Emirates Aluminium (Emal) won an international award in recognition of its drive for innovation and development at the recent Ideas UK conference in Bristol.

The UAE industrial flagship was the winner of the ‘Continuous Improvement’ Idea of the Year for 2012 for the Modification of Alumina Funnels, which was submitted by the Reduction Maintenance Team at the Al Taweelah-based smelter.

Emal president and CEO Saeed Fadhel Al Mazrooei said: “The Emal workforce has cultivated a culture of continuous improvement, largely through an active employee Suggestion Scheme that facilitates improvements and recognises contributors.”

“We have a participation rate of over 70 per cent of our workforce, with 11,000 employee suggestions submitted over the past two years alone. Testament to the success of the programme, more than 60 per cent of suggestions were implemented at Emal.”

Ideas UK is a world leading non-commercial association in the UK dedicated to employee suggestion schemes/reward and recognition processes.

Emal was a main sponsor of the conference and has submitted a list of employees’ suggestions implemented at the Al Taweelah aluminium smelter during 2011 and 2012.

Al Mazrooei added: “This award is recognition of the commitment shown by everyone at Emal to always strive to improve how we work. It is this spirit to seek improvement which will ensure Emal continues to go from strength-to-strength as we grow into one of the world’s largest single-site aluminium smelters.” – TradeArabia News Service