DUBAL takes five awards at Ideas.America Competition 2012

Dubai Aluminium, DUBAL, the state-owned corporation that operates the world’s largest aluminium smelter using pre-bake anode technology, has again received international recognition. Reflecting the high standards achieved through its corporate focus on innovation, DUBAL scooped five awards at the Ideas.America 2012 competition, held recently in Mesa, Arizona, USA. 

Three of the awards presented to DUBAL recognized innovative employee suggestions, namely:

“Elimination of material leakage using air sealing”, submitted by J Evasco and F Boyles from Potroom Maintenance, which won the Gold award in the Green Idea of the Year category;

“Access window for Gas Turbine rotor balancing weight installation”, submitted by A Avorque, R Jocson, R Tamayo and  S Hussain, which won the Gold award in the Team Idea of the Year category; and

Team Idea of the Year Bronze – CD20 superstructure lifting bail transportation trailer, submitted by E Sabio, Q Ahmed and K Hussain, which won the Bronze award in the Team 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.  By definition, these statistics allow companies to compare their programmes’ performance against other companies’ programmes.  This year, DUBAL won the SEER Performance Excellence Gold Award for 100 per cent employee participation; and the SEER Performance Excellence Silver Award for 100 suggestions per 100 employees.  

No stranger to the winner’s podium at the Ideas.America competition, DUBAL has won a total of 22 Ideas.America awards since first entering the contest in 2006. Indeed, DUBAL has won numerous awards at diverse international innovation-based contests including the annual Ideas.America, Ideas.UK and Ideas.Arabia competitions. 

Expressing his delight at DUBAL’s achievements at Ideas.America 2012, Abdulla Kalban, President & Chief Executive Officer says, "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.  We are very proud of our employees, whose ideas for continuous improvement play a key role in DUBAL's on-going success story.” 

Sultan Al Sabri Vice President: Human Resources & Organisational Effectiveness adds that a culture of innovation is encouraged in the company through the DUBAL Suggestion Scheme, which was established in 1981 and thus celebrated 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.  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.” 

In 2011, DUBAL implemented and awarded 20,515 suggestions with an overall employee participation rate of 100 per cent for the sixth consecutive year. This means that all eligible employees submitted at least one awarded suggestion during 2011. Besides, the DUBAL Suggestion Scheme achieved savings of more than AED 16.1 million in 2011, which raised the total savings achieved by the Suggestion Scheme over the last 31 years to more than AED 133 million. 

The Ideas.America Association formerly known as the USA Employee Involvement Association has been in existence for 70 years and is a non-profit service organization composed of members from all over the world in various sectors such as finance, commerce, industry and government. The association is dedicated to the worth, contributions and benefits of employee ideas and innovation systems, and other employee involvement processes.