Acknowledging the professional expertise and best practice standards of Dubai Aluminium Company Limited (“DUBAL”), the company was invited to share its expert knowledge and benchmark experience in employee involvement schemes with a senior delegation at TOTAL Abu Al Bukhoosh, Abu Dhabi. DUBAL’s Marwan Al Sawaleh (General Manager: Human Resources) and Saleh Janeeh (Manager: Quality Assurance) did the honours, by presenting the company’s well established employee involvement programme – known as DUBAL Suggestion Scheme – to 21 senior executives from TOTAL, which included Henry Delafon (General Manager) and Sultan Al Hajji (Deputy General Manager) on 2 February 2009.
Widely acknowledged as the world’s largest modern primary aluminium smelter with a captive power station and Dubai’s industrial flagship, DUBAL celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2009. The anniversary coincides with the 28th DUBAL Suggestion Scheme Awards, which was introduced in 1981 to engage and empower employees to put forward their ideas for improving the business.
In his presentation to the TOTAL delegates, Al Sawaleh explained in detail the benefits derived by DUBAL through the employee involvement scheme. He also emphasised the importance and need for tapping the employees’ valuable knowledge and innovative thought processes, which if collectively utilized, will benefit the business during this period of financial crisis.
Janeeh then explained DUBAL’s Suggestion Scheme process to the delegates, emphasizing the involvement of top management in the recognition process and the overall success of the DUBAL Suggestion Scheme. Janeeh added that DUBAL has pioneered employee involvement in all aspects of the company’s business; and that the Scheme has been used as a model by a large number of organisations, both locally and internationally.
DUBAL has also taken a lead role in establishing Ideas.Arabia, a sub-group of Dubai Quality Group (“DQG”), which aims to spread knowledge regarding employee involvement to other local industrial, commercial and government institutions.
Delighted about the invitation to visit to TOTAL, Al Sawaleh said, “It is very important to share our successes with other local and external organisations, particularly on how we involve our employees in the day-to-day activities of our operations. DUBAL has gained through employee ideas and we are extremely proud of our employees’ creativity and their achievements during the last 28 years.”
About Dubai Aluminium Company (“DUBAL”)
DUBAL is the world’s largest modern aluminium smelter with a captive power station. It is also one of the largest non-oil contributors to the economy of Dubai. Built on a 480-hectare site in Jebel Ali, Dubai, UAE, DUBAL’s major facilities comprise an 960,000 mtpa primary aluminium smelter, a 2,600 megawatt power station, a large carbon plant, three casthouses, a 30-million-gallon-per-day water desalination plant, laboratories, port and storage facilities. Employment is provided to more than 4,100 people, of whom approximately 21% are UAE Nationals.
The company has the capacity to produce more than one million metric tonnes of high quality finished aluminium products a year, in three main forms: foundry alloy for automotive applications, extrusion billet for construction purposes and high purity aluminium for the electronics industry.
DUBAL serves more than 290 customers in 46 countries predominantly in the Far East, Europe, the ASEAN region, the Middle East and Mediterranean region, and North America. The company holds ISO 9001, ISO/TS 16949, ISO/IEC 27001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certification; and has twice won the Dubai Quality Award in the Production and Manufacturing sector (1996 and 2000).
