Emirates Global Aluminium has focused on continuous improvement for decades as the foundation of developing and maintaining global competitiveness.

Continuous improvement involves everyone at EGA and is an integral part of our corporate culture.

We are in a heavy industry and, like almost everything human beings do, our work impacts the environment and society overall. By cultivating a mindset focused on continuous improvement, we believe we can maximise our positive impact on modern life, in the UAE and beyond.

We think that the people closest to a work process are in an ideal position to identify what improvements are required and create the best solution. Therefore, we have put in place a system to encourage and reward innovative thinking, at all levels of our organisation.

Over the past few decades, nearly 500,000 suggestions for operational and technical improvements have been made by EGA employees, out of which 270,000 have been implemented to generate savings of AED 366 million. Savings from these suggestions are shared with the employees who make them.

We also recognise the best suggestions each month and at an annual company-wide event. The recognitions are reviewed by a senior judging panel led by our Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.

Under the ‘Tamayaz’ programme, launched in 2016, mid-level managers at EGA bring together their teams to understand problems, conduct detailed analyses to find potential improvements, and implement them. EGA has Lean and Quality improvement experts who coach these ‘Tamayaz’ teams in their work. The suggestion scheme and Tamayaz are part of EGA’s application of the lean manufacturing methodology.

Lean manufacturing is a business culture that enables operations and support processes to be improved by continuously eliminating wasted activity that does not add value. It has been adopted by many leading global companies. The core of lean manufacturing is the philosophy that everyone can contribute to continuous improvement. Experts call this Kaizen, which is the Japanese word for ‘continuous improvement’.

We share what we have learnt about continuous improvement in the UAE and beyond, with government and private sector organisations.

We have also sought and maintain ISO and other certifications that help us both improve further and provide our customers and other stakeholders with third-party verification of our performance.