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February 19, 2007
International Excellence at Yennora
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Yennora has been chosen by Alcoa as an international centre of manufacturing excellence with the establishment of a training facility that will be used by Alcoa operations throughout Australia and Asia.
The Alcoa Centre of Excellence will focus on business and manufacturing management systems and tools to improve results in all key areas including production, safety and environmental performance.
Around 100 Alcoa employees from all levels will attend the centre during 2007 for three-week programs that combine classroom and practical training.
They will learn how the Yennora plant has significantly improved its performance in all key areas including safety, environmental management, quality and production by strengthening its management systems and engaging employees in improvement projects.
“Having this Centre of Excellence at our manufacturing facility allows our colleagues from other parts of Alcoa to see our systems in action and learn from our people at Yennora,” said John Costley, Yennora Location Manager,
“It’s a vote of confidence in the Yennora operation and represents a significant investment in people by Alcoa,” said Mr Costley.
One of Alcoa’s senior managers with global responsibility for business management systems, John Carter travelled from Davenport Iowa to officially open the new centre.
The President of Alcoa’s Asia Pacific businesses, Mr Jinya Chen, also attended the opening, along with the Hon. Kim Yeadon MP Member for Granville, the Hon. Pam Allan MP Member for Wentworthville and the Holroyd City Council Mayor Clr Dr John H Brodie.
Clr Dr Brodie said he was proud that Alcoa had chosen Yennora as the location of the new centre. Dr Brodie congratulated Alcoa on its investment in its people, aligning it with the Holroyd City Council motto of “Built around People”. Clr Dr Brodie also thanked Alcoa for its ongoing contribution to community projects.
Contact details: Josephine Parrett 02 9681 9554 or 0404 800 542
Background
The Yennora plant is one of two aluminium rolling mills in Australia operated by Alcoa. The other is at Point Henry near Geelong, Victoria. They have a combined annual production capacity of more than 200,000 tonnes.
Alcoa ARP at Yennora is Australia's largest recycler of aluminium products, recycling about 70,000 tonnes per year, including 550 million cans. Around 90% of aluminium fabricated at Yennora is from recycled material.
Recycling aluminium plays a critical role in addressing the global greenhouse gas challenge – it takes five percent of the energy required to recycle aluminium as it does to produce it.
As a product, aluminium is also part of the solution for the greenhouse challenge. Alcoa researchers have forecasted that with global projections for the use of aluminium in cars and trucks and the numbers of vehicles in use, aluminium will increasingly become part of the global climate change solution with the industry reaching a climate neutral state by 2017. This means the global warming impacts of aluminium production will be fully offset by the amount of carbon dioxide emissions saved by the use of aluminium in the transportation industry. Today’s motor vehicles use aluminium in engine parts, panels, electronic systems and wheels. An average aluminium part is 40-50 per cent lighter than a steel part and every 10 per cent reduction in weight leads to a 6-8 percent improvement in fuel economy. Less fuel means less emissions and every kilogram of aluminium used in a car can reduce CO2 emissions by 20 kilograms over the life of the vehicle.
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