In a move to enhance employees’ preparedness for its start-up of Line 6, Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), the Bahrain-based aluminium smelter, recently continued the series of “MJ Preparation Workshop” with another session.

The session was delivered by Alba’s deputy chief executive officer, Ali Al Baqali at Alba Club.

This strategic workshop is an initiative launched and led by Alba’s chief executive officer, Tim Murray, in order to enhance synergy and alignment amongst employees at all levels. It is based on the biography of the renowned basketball player, Michael Jordan, which highlights his outstanding level of preparation to achieve targeted results.

Alba held a workshop ahead of Line 6 start-up

“We, at Alba, believe that the best communication is direct communication. Such tailored workshops are transformational as through them we coach our human assets, our employees, to have the growth mind-set and the required level of preparedness to achieve our First Hot Metal target by January1, 2019,” said Al Baqal.

Since the beginning of the year, five sessions were delivered to employees across all levels, which included executives, managers, 2nd line and 1st line management as well as non-management employees.

Alba’s Line 6 Expansion Project is one of the largest brownfield developments in the region. Expected to begin production by January 1, 2019, this project will boost the smelter’s per-annum production by 540,000 metric tonnes, bringing its total production capacity to 1.5 million metric tonnes per year and making it the world’s largest single-site aluminium smelter.

GE OFFICIALS VISIT

Earlier in the month, Alba received a high-level delegation from General Electric (GE) Power at Al Dana Hall, Alba.

Led by the president and chief executive officer of GE Gas Power Systems (GPS) Chuck Nugent, the delegation comprised the chief executive officer of GE Turkey Canan Ozsoy, president and chief executive officer of GE GPS Projects MEI Mohamad Ali and the chief executive officer of GAMA Holdings Evren Unver, said a statement from Alba.

The delegates were received by Al Baqali; chief marketing officer Khalid A Latif; chief power officer Amin Sultan; chief administration officer Waleed Tamimi along with other officials from Alba, it said.

The delegation was briefed about Alba’s historical background, its achievements and importance to Bahrain’s economy then accompanied in a tour to Power Station 5 site, it added.

Al Baqali said: “Our flagship project, Line 6 Expansion Project, is under way especially as we have on-boarded the last batch of new recruits in June.”

“We are pleased to share the progress made-to-date on the Power Expansion Project with GE officials; we also trust that our EPC contractor, GE-GAMA, will continue their intensive commissioning effort to meet the pouring of First Hot Metal on January 1, 2019,” he added.

Nugent said: “We have a strong and long-term partnership with Alba, which has set a global first by deploying GE Power’s advanced H-Class turbine, the world’s largest and most efficient gas turbine for the first time in the region and in the aluminium smelting industry.”