Alba Casthouse secures ISO 9001:2008 certification

Alba's Casthouse Quality Management System was re-certified and upgraded to this new standard on June 3, 2009 after a rigorous certification assessment conducted by Bahrain based Bureau Veritas BV. The certification will remain valid until June 2012.

A special ceremony was held on Sunday, June 28, 2009 when the certificate was officially presented to Alba Chief Executive, Ahmed Saleh Al Noaimi by Bureau Veritas BV Country Chief Executive, Nicolas Mey, System Certification Services Manager, V. Sankarasubramanian, Senior Audotr/ Trainer, System Certification Services, K. S. Suresh Babu.

Also present at the event were some of the key members of the Alba Casthouse team who spearheaded the project and they were Acting General Manager (Casthouse & Engineering Services), Ahmed Mohd Al Hashimi, QMS Co-ordinator, Kishore Ghosh, Acting Manager (Casthouse Services), Garry Martin and Casthouse Maintenance Manager, Adel Faraj.

"Alba is strongly committed towards cost reduction, operational efficiency and in maintaining a strict focus on quality. The ISO certifications provide us with a viable benchmark to measure our performance and develop concrete goals for the future, namely, to ensure that our smelter continues to be recognised for its quality of products and services, safe working conditions and environmentally friendly operations.

"The new ISO 9001:2008 certification will provide our customers with a transparent window into our operations, and assure them that the systems already in place at Alba are of global standards. It will, of course, only help us to serve them better.

"I like to congratulate the Casthouse team as well as their interfacing strategic partners like marketing, material management, casthouse maintenance, process automation and BMS departments for their success in securing this feat in such a short time,"

remarked Mr. Al-Noaimi.

The adoption of the ISO 9000 standards are often regarded as a profitable business investment since it provides organizations with an opportunity to increase value to their activities and improve their performance continually, by focusing on their major processes. The standards place great emphasis on making quality management systems closer to the processes of organisations and on continual improvement.

As a result, they direct users to the achievement of business results, including the satisfaction of customers and other interested parties.

Alba has been consistently ranked as one of the largest aluminium smelters in the world and is known for its technological strength and innovative policies. It supports numerous community oriented programmes and social activities that have underlined its status as one of Bahrain's leading industrial organizations that remains fully committed to its corporate social responsibility.