Emirates wins two top spots at international ideas competition

A Dnata team won the Environmental Trophy for devising and implementing a new way to segregate and recycle newspaper waste from its aircraft that will result in over 2,000 tonnes of paper recycling in its first year and therefore save 39,000 trees and 16 million gallons of water.

Another team, from Emirates' Flight Operations, won the 2008 Health & Safety trophy for their idea to re-design and build a training smoke hood, used in Safety and Emergency Procedures (SEP) training, that provides a safer, cheaper and more realistic piece of training equipment that can be re-used. Previously, time-expired real aircraft smoke hoods were used, which were dangerous to transport and store and has now been discontinued. The new solution contributes to the health and safety of employees.

The Idea of the Year competition featured ten category trophies and also presented 'Highly commended' and 'Commended' certificates to recognise excellent entries in the competition, of which teams from the Emirates group received three for ideas:
A Dnata Technical Services employee was highly commended for his idea to modify an engine cut off system that made - this modification has had considerable impact and has enabled an easy retrieval of the defective charge alternator from the aircraft, without the aircraft having to be towed away. This has saved many manhours and delays, and therefore saved money.

A team from Emirates Engineering were commended for their idea to create a smooth access point between the piston and guide bushing for all tripod jacks. This modification has had considerable impact on serviceability of equipment by preventing damage to critical areas during operation, subsequently reducing consumption of spare parts and maintenance costs. Additionally, the need to overhaul or replace major components is minimised.

A team from Dnata Cargo were commended for their idea to review and redesign the process of Cargo Transfer Manifest preparation, creating a more automatic and computer-based system. This eliminates delays and time spent manually preparing manifests ensuring timely service to the airline, accurate reporting and a reduction in paper filing needs.

Martin Tomlinson, Emirates' Senior Vice President, Performance Development said:

"Innovation is one of the pillars of Emirates' success. We have a number of internal programmes that encourage staff to innovate and contribute ideas to improve the way we do things - whether from an operational and environmental efficiency standpoint, or the health and safety of our products and services or the workplace. These programmes have benefited the company in terms of better efficiency and productivity, they contribute to the bottom line, and also empowers and motivates staff. We are delighted that the best ideas from our staff are now being recognised internationally at the Idea of the Year competition."

The Idea of the Year Competition 2008, held by Ideas UK, drew submissions from companies such as Boots Manufacturing, BAE Systems, British Telecom, CYTA Tele-Communications (Cyprus), BUPA, Richo UK Products Ltd, Ministry of Defense (UK), Diageo, Lloyds TSB and other top Dubai companies such as Dubai Aluminum (DUBAL) and Dubai World.

IdeasUK is a non-commercial association dedicated to employee suggestion programmes. ideasUK was founded in 1987 and receives no funding from Government or from private enterprise.-ends