United Arab Emirates: Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, received two gold awards at the 2019 Ideas Arabia competition for creative suggestions put forward by employees.

The Ideas Arabia competition focuses on emphasising the power of employee engagement in continuous improvement through suggestion schemes, and rewards the most outstanding ideas implemented under various categories.

The winning EGA submissions included a safety suggestion developed by EGA employees Leyson Ecuacion, Reynaldo Subong, Gereliv Magale, Jayaprakash Rajagopaland and Rolando Milloria. The idea eliminated a potential fire risk affecting machinery by modifying equipment components.

EGA’s Ravindrakumar Shinde, Rajesh Chenolil, Melchor Gella, Satish Rajput and Balakrishnan K.P.were also recognised for designing and building a robotic cleaning machine for pipes, so they no longer need to be removed for cleaning. EGA benefitted from considerable time-saving and reduction in waste through this suggestion.

Abdulla Kalban, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at EGA, said: “Over the years, our globally recognised employee suggestion scheme has resulted in successfully implemented and impactful suggestions across the company. Through encouraging employees from all levels to contribute to our culture of continuous innovation, we have created further value and efficiencies in our operations.”

EGA has participated in Ideas Arabia since 2006. Last year the company also won two gold awards.

EGA has operated an employee suggestion scheme since 1981. 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.

In 2018 alone, nearly AED 50 million worth of savings were generated through a record 38,037 suggestions from EGA employees, while in 2019 so far EGA has saved AED 24.8 million.