Operational Management of Emirates Global Aluminium

This presentation discusses the operational management strategies of Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), the world's fifth largest company of aluminium. It covers EGA's current strategies, challenges faced, inventory and information management, and recommendations for better sustainability. The presentation also includes information on EGA's vision and values, types of aluminium produced, and its contribution to the UAE's GDP.

Operational Management
Of
Emirates Global Aluminium
Title:
Assignment Name:
Student Name:
Course Name and Number:
Professor:
Date:

Introduction
Dubai Aluminium Company Limited (DUBAL), is one of the largest producers of “Premium
Aluminium” in the Middle East. The DUBAL collaborated with the Emirates Aluminium in 2013 and
formed a new company Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA). The Emirates Global Aluminium is the
world’s fifth largest company of aluminium. The company’s net worth is $15 billion. The company
was formed in 1979. The company EGA is built on the great heritage of two phenomenal aluminium
pioneers.
Aluminium is considered to be one of the most versatile metal in the world. The aluminium produced
at the Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), is transformed by its global customers which is more than
350, into products which makes the modern life better. The aluminium produced in EGA is utilized in
making smartphones, skyscrapers, car parts, building materials and food packaging. The EGA
employs around 8000 people and supplies its products in more than 60 countries.
The Emirates Global Aluminium fulfills 90 percent of the UAE demand of aluminium and contributes
in the country’s GDP by 7 percent. The company’s main operations are based in Al Taawelah and
Jebel Ali.

EGA Operations Strategy
All the operations strategies of the Emirates Global Aluminium are derived from its Corporate’s vision and
values.
Operations Strategy
Vision
The vision of the company
is to provide the world with
the best and the highest
quality of aluminium. There
are three core values which
are attached with the
company’s vision (OCHIAI,
NAKAMURA & KITAI,
2015).
Values
Protect
 Safety is paramount.
 Act with transparency,
fairness and integrity to
safeguard our business.
 The environment should
be protected, wherever
they operate.
Provide
 Making sure and providing
rewarding career and
opportunities for
development for all people
and sustainable
relationships with every
person associated with the
company.
Perform
 Empower the people
through ownership,
accountability, and team
support.
 Succeed in operations by
means of innovation and
improvement (Viveros
Gunckel, Crespo
Márquez, Barberá
Martinez & Gonzalez
Rossel, 2015).

EGA Current Strategies - Material
Strategic (CORE) Material
 CP Coke.
 Backed Anodes.
 Pot lining material.
 Refractory items.
 Alumina
 Liquid Pitch.
 Aluminium Fluoride (Ma, 2014)
 General Materials.
 Mechanical equipment spares.
 Power & Desalination spare.
 Electrical spare.
 Major equipment spares (Karthikeyan,
2008).
EGA
Jebel Ali
Port
Supply
Warehouse
Material
to Plant

EGA Current Strategies - Manufacturing
Carbon
Plant
Dross
plant
7 pot
lines
1573
reductio
n cells
3 Cast
Houses
External
Customers
Power plant 2350 MW 23 Gas
Turbines 7 Steam Turbines Desalination
Plant
Potable
Water
Information
Strategic
Material
General
Material
Extrusion
Billets
standards
Ingots T
Shape Ingots
Small Ingots
(Harvey,
Heineke &
Lewis, 2016).
Stores
Information
From
Warehouse
From Warehouse
From & To
Supplies
From & to Sales &
Distribution
Waste
energy
Power
Portable Water

EGA Current Strategies – Sales & Distribution
Information from supply and
manufacturing
Information from regional sales
offices/Representatives
Finished
product
from
plant
(Voss,
2007)
EGA
Storage
Facility
Customer Base
Asia (44%)
Europe (23%)
GCC/Mena
(21%)
America (12%)

Different Types of Aluminium Produced in EGA
The company produces three major types of
aluminium.
-Foundry Alloy for Automotive Applications
(Jonsson, 2000).
-Extrusion-Billet for industrial, transportation
and construction purposes.
-High quality aluminium for Aerospace and
Electronics industries.

Current Strategies related to the Suppliers &
Product
Suppliers
 EGA is a worldwide supplier.
 It has become the choice of the customer, due
to its long term positioning plan (Sprague,
2007).
 Supply to the customers are conducted in the
set deadline.
 Company enjoys a Competitive Cost
Advantage, with no interruption in the supply
of raw materials

Total Quality Product
The company applies the latest technology related to cell
reduction, which is D18+ & DX+ Ultra on Plotline
operations, which is very helpful in reducing the discharge
of greenhouse gases (Lewis, 2007).
The company applies state-of-the-art and the Control-Pot
control system, which are a good way to control and
monitor the pots in the pot line.
The technologies which have been developed, has been
formed with the R&D initiative.
The final products have to go through many quality
checks before they reach the stores (Lummus, 2007).

Critical Analysis of the Operations Management
 The company water needs are fulfilled by the process of utilizing the
on-site desalination water, the company should take initiatives to
try to utilize water from other sources too, which will help in making
the process more efficient (Meredith, 2001).
 The transportation of the product is done through the air, land and
water. The air and land management are handled by a third party,
which increase the risks of fraud or loss, due to stealing.
 The company is most efficient with its work and delivery, but at
times due to the continuous and close coordination, at times leads
to confusion.
 The company operations strategies lacks flexibility in context to the
huge about of production and the applications of many operations
strategies, which makes it difficult to identify losses (Selen &
Soliman, 2002).

Challenges Faced by EGA in
Comparison to its CompetitorsThe challenges which the EGA is facing in comparison to its
competitors are the following-
The biggest challenge which the EGA is facing is the
quality of the product. Some competitors of EGA are selling
cheap quality product. They are selling it at very cheap
prices which attracts the customers. The EGA cannot
reduce it prices as the quality it is offering demands such
prices.
The other challenge which the EGA is facing is the
difficulty in fulfilling the high demands under the set
deadlines, both locally and globally. Whereas the new
competitors of EGA doesn’t have much customers and do
not have any dearth of supply.

Inventory Management
The company has a strict approach towards inventory
control, to fulfill its contracts and supplier demands
successfully.
The effective management of storage operations in all
the warehouses, helps in the effective management of
the inventory. There are two main and four satellite
warehouses for the smooth functioning of all the
operations (Hawari & Aqlan, 2012).
The company utilizes the latest technology to maintain
and check their inventory.
For maintaining the quality standards and integrity of
the inventory, effective cataloguing is practiced.

Information Management
All the information related to the competitors, like
the new technology, pricing, policy, etc. is regularly
and continuously tracked, to stay ahead of the
competitors.
All the information associated with the market is
also constantly tracked and new operations
strategies are made on their basis (KRAJEWSKI,
2009).
All the information related to the production is
keenly observed and recorded, so as to detect any
losses in advance.

Tools Currently Used for Operation
Strategy MRP – The warehouse inventory control
(MRP) system, is based on a barcoding
process, which can be easily operated with
the help of appliances which can be
handled in hand.
 Problem Solving- EGA solves its problem
by using Six Sigma (LSS) principles.
 Balanced Score-card- This tool is helpful

Suggestion for some IT Tools for
Better Supply Chain Radio Technology- To reduce the irregularity in an order,
especially when it is in transit, this tool is very effective for
such situations. By practicing the Radio Frequency
Identification Technology (RFID), an organization can very
easily monitor the products during the production line and
at the supply line too.
 Advanced Weighing Technology- The biggest
hindrance in a supply chain is the process of weighing.
There are modern technology weighing scales which
measure the payload weight and also the gross weight of
the trucks. This technology is also very helpful for the
purpose of security.
 Transport Management Software- This technology is

Recommendations
The EGA needs to build alternative suppliers, as some of
current suppliers are struggling with the new imposed
carbon taxes due to the climatic changes in some
countries (Beckman & Sinha, 2009).
The EGA should link to companies with advanced
technology, rather than wasting their time in building their
own technology.
The EGA should also take some initiative by employing
young talent, from the UAE origin.
The EGA should get into connection with the new
emerging markets and the economy, to build diversified
customers.

Conclusion
The EGA Is Running Successfully For Many Years, But Still The
Company Should Work Towards Better Future Sustainability.
The Company Should Build New Strategies To Strengthen
Their Relationship With Their Customers And Suppliers. They
Should Also Encourage The Stakeholders To Make Big
Investments Which Will Help In Bringing Effectiveness In The
Operational Management. The Company Has A Responsibility
Towards The Environment, The Company Should Try To
Maintain A Good Environment By Reducing The Emission Of
Harmful Gases And Should Indulge In Practices Which Do Not
Harm The Environment.

References
 Beckman, S., & Sinha, K. (2009). Conducting Academic Research with
an Industry Focus: Production and Operations Management in the High
Tech Industry. Production And Operations Management, 14(2), 115-124.
 Harvey, J., Heineke, J., & Lewis, M. (2016). Editorial for Journal of
Operations Management special issue on “Professional Service
Operations Management (PSOM)”. Journal Of Operations Management,
42-43, 4-8.
 Hawari, T., & Aqlan, F. (2012). A software application for E-Kanban-
based WIP control in the aluminium industry. International Journal Of
Modelling In Operations Management, 2(2), 119.
 Jonsson, P. (2000). Towards an holistic understanding of disruptions in
Operations Management. Journal Of Operations Management, 18(6),
701-718.
 Karthikeyan, P. (2008). DUBAL is in her court [WIE from Around the
World]. IEEE Women In Engineering Magazine, 2(2), 44-45.

KRAJEWSKI, L. (2009). MOTIVATING STUDENTS IN THE
OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT CLASS: CHALLENGES FOR THE
PUBLISHING INDUSTRY. Production And Operations
Management, 7(2), 188-193.
Lewis, M. (2007). Charles Babbage: Reclaiming an operations
management pioneer. Journal Of Operations Management,
25(2), 248-259.
Lummus, R. (2007). The role of APICS in professionalizing
operations management. Journal Of Operations Management,
25(2), 336-345.
Ma, Q. (2014). Neural Operation Management: A New Avenue
for Productive and Military Operations. Frontiers Of
Engineering Management, 1(3), 304.
Meredith, J. (2001). Hopes for the future of operations
management. Journal Of Operations Management, 19(4),

OCHIAI, H., NAKAMURA, T., & KITAI, M. (2015). 1F14 Real-time Train
Traffic Operation Assistance System(Operation management). The
Proceedings Of International Symposium On Seed-Up And Service
Technology For Railway And Maglev Systems : STECH, 2015(0),
_1F14-1_-_1F14-9_.
Selen, W., & Soliman, F. (2002). Operations in today’s demand chain
management framework. Journal Of Operations Management, 20(6),
667-673.
Sprague, L. (2007). Evolution of the field of operations management.
Journal Of Operations Management, 25(2), 219-238.
Viveros Gunckel, P., Crespo Márquez, A., Barberá Martinez, L., &
Gonzalez Rossel, J. (2015). Graphical Analysis for Operation
Management: A Graphical Method to Support Operation Decision
Making. Quality And Reliability Engineering International, 32(7),
2299-2311.
Voss, C. (2007). Learning from the first Operations Management
textbook. Journal Of Operations Management, 25(2), 239-247.