Aluminium Bahrain's (Alba) concerted efforts to bolster continuous improvement across the organisation received a boost when three of its Bahraini employees were certified as Lean Six Sigma Black Belts by McKnight Gracie Management Consultants (UK).

Chief executive Tim Murray awarded the employees - Isa Ishaq for improving casthouse furnace reliability project, Hussain Dawood for gas turbine outage optimisation project and Faisal Raffii for billet defect reduction project, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

The employees achieved their Black Belt certifications in Lean Six Sigma by combining their knowledge of standard operating procedures with newly acquired skills of Lean Six Sigma to identify areas of improvement, suggest and implement appropriate solutions.

"Alba's success lies in the empowerment and professional development of its national workforce," Murray said.

"We are proud of our employees' achievement - they represent the commitment of Alba towards strengthening talent management and its core values of achieving operational efficiency, global competitiveness, social responsibility along with superior customer service.

"The Lean Six Sigma philosophy will enable Alba to leverage cost improvements within the on-going Titan Programme and prepare the company to be better able to face future challenges of profitable growth," he said.

Through its extensive focus in operational excellence, Alba, which had undertaken the initiative of training its employees in this certification since 2011, has become a forerunner among Bahraini companies in the Lean Six Sigma Management philosophy.

The aim was to bring about improved competitiveness, increased operational efficiency and greater savings. The two-year Black Belt journey in Alba begins through extensive smelter-customised, in-house Lean Six Sigma trainings.

Till date, Alba has achieved a level of five Certified Master Black Belts, three Certified Black Belts and 32 Certified Green Belts. In addition, the company has also achieved a level of 336 trained Green Belts and 12 trained Black Belts, who are potential certification candidates. - TradeArabia News Service