Some of the world’s best design trends originate in Europe – think cars, fashion, building.
So it’s no wonder the architects of Tomago Aluminium’s new business operating system looked to their European counterparts for inspiration.
Tomago Aluminium has transformed in recent years, producing new records for safety and production, but there is still more to be done, Superintendent Greg Kinniard said.
“We still have periods of instability resulting in frustration and waste. The time is right to create an operating model that will future-proof our business,” he said.
“It is based on a set of principles and tools to eliminate instability and drive Tomago towards a precision culture capable of further step changes.”
Recently a team with representatives from across different divisions of the business – including Casthouse, Carbon and Emission Control – embarked on a European training mission visiting smelters in Slovakia and Qatar.
“It was a unique opportunity to see other sites dealing with the same issues you do,” Greg said.
Known as world-leaders in sustainable aluminium production, Slovalco produces an output of 198,000 tonnes of products each year.
“Slovalco are setting the industry standard in variation and housekeeping – the site is spotless,” he said.
“An example is when you enter our Paste plant, covered overalls and face mask are worn, but when we toured their same facility no protections were needed, such is the condition of their plant,” he said.
“They’ve worked themselves into a position over the years that as soon as anything starts to leak in their system they stop and fix it immediately because it’s so obvious.”
Similarly, Qatar smelter, Qatalum, are precision focused and have a dedicated improvement team to facilitate changes across the business and ensure their operations remain at the forefront.
“Both of those plants had a precision culture and that is the future for Tomago”.
“We do a lot of things well already at Tomago but it’s about refining some other areas to set us on the same trajectory.”
Pictured Above: Andy Robbins, Greg Kinniard, Scott Asquith, Andrew Withers amd Phil Bartlett pictured with some of the Slovalco team.
