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| May 5, 2008
Alcoa Team Selected for International Quality Competition
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Alcoa (NYSE:AA) announced today that its Warrick (Indiana) Operations
has been selected as a finalist in a prestigious, international
competition hosted by the American Society for Quality (ASQ).
The Alcoa “Current Efficiency Team”
will be recognized for boosting the Warrick aluminum smelter’s
current efficiency, reducing costs and increasing safety on Wednesday,
May 7, 2008, in Houston during the ASQ International Team Excellence
Awards program. The Alcoa team was selected along with 19 other groups
to compete in the annual awards competition, which highlights
organizational excellence in using quality improvement tools to create
significant, organizational cost savings. Members of the Alcoa team will
present their work during the World Conference on Quality and
Improvement sponsored by ASQ in Houston this week.
"This success and recognition is only possible because everyone at
Warrick Primary Metals has pulled together to obtain these excellent
results,” said Royce Haws, Warrick Primary
Metals Manager.
The team helped improve production and made the smelter more cost
competitive by improving current efficiency, which is simply the
percentage of power used to produce molten metal. Through the team’s
work, current efficiency has been steadily increasing –
rising from 94.1% in 2002 to 95.1% the first quarter of 2008 -- nearing
the practical limits of 96 %. Improvements also have been noted in
process stability. In addition, the team’s
work has resulted in other improvements, including safety and employee
engagement.
“Since the mid 1980s, Alcoa has spent
considerable time training employees to utilize many technical and
non-technical tools,” said Joe Riepenhoff, an
industrial engineer at Warrick who served as the quality manager on the
team. “It’s clear
that the investment in people consistently pays off with real business
results.”
The team used the principles of the Alcoa Business System (ABS) to
evaluate all the key processes that would improve current efficiency.
They also helped implement process management to evaluate everything
from the quality of raw and internal materials to the production
practices and procedures.
About Warrick Operations
Warrick Operations is one of the largest aluminum smelting and
fabricating facilities in the world. Alcoa's Primary Metals and Rigid
Packaging divisions are located here, where aluminum sheet for beverage
and food can ends and tabs are made along with other flat-rolled
aluminum products.
About Alcoa
Alcoa is the world leader in the production and management of primary
aluminum, fabricated aluminum and alumina combined, through its active
and growing participation in all major aspects of the industry. Alcoa
serves the aerospace, automotive, packaging, building and construction,
commercial transportation and industrial markets, bringing design,
engineering, production and other capabilities of Alcoa's businesses to
customers. In addition to aluminum products and components including
flat-rolled products, hard alloy extrusions, and forgings, Alcoa also
markets Alcoa® wheels, fastening systems,
precision and investment castings, and building systems. The Company has
97,000 employees in 34 countries and has been named one of the top most
sustainable corporations in the world at the World Economic Forum in
Davos, Switzerland. More information can be found at www.alcoa.com
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