United Arab Emirates, Dubai, 10th November 2009: Mashreq, one of the leading financial institutions in the region, bagged the Gold Award at the Kaizen Blitz Competition held during the First Continual Improvement Symposium 2009 organized by the Dubai Quality Group's Continual Improvement Subgroup held recently.
The award appreciating Mashreq's winning project: 5S project (Japanese concept) was presented by Mr. Abdulqader Obaid Ali, Chief Judge of the Kaizen Blitz competition.
The implantation and the pioneering of the 5S project is a philosophy and a way of organizing workplace with the intent to improve efficiency by eliminating waste, increasing efficiency and reducing rework.
DQG received 58 Kaizen cases from various industries such as Logistics, Banking, and Travel. Out of 58 Kaizen, 12 were further short listed for a live competition. Mashreq was the only organization to qualify for the finals from the banking industry.
Mr. Saad Maniar, Finance Director, Dubai Quality Group urged organizations to adopt the principle of Kaizen. "The Launching of the Continual Improvement Symposium comes in the context of Dubai Quality Group's diligent efforts to inform all the economic sectors of the improvement and organizational development standards in the business community as the main feature of competition and progress in all economic activities," said Maniar.
Mashreq 5S project, presented by staff at the Quality Department, was nominated for the Workplace Kaizen category. The project was successfully completed, and as a result, substantial improvement in the work environment, efficiency, and cost savings were achieved.
Somnath Menon, Head of Operations and IT, Mashreq commented. "It's an achievement to receive such an acknowledgment from a prestigious award. The 5S project is innovative and state of the art, which is used mainly in manufacturing industries and not many financial institutions have implemented it so far, hence we wanted to open the way and be the first. The adaptation of the 5S technique has created a productive and high quality environment in Mashreq's Operations, resulting in faster customer query resolution, faster retrieval of documents, organized and efficient workplace, free of clutter."
More than 250 participants including a large number of researchers and specialists who have enriched the business community of the UAE attended this event.
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About Mashreq:
Mashreq is one of the largest banks in the UAE and the second oldest. Founded in 1967 as Bank of Oman, the bank has played a pioneering role in the industry, particularly in retail banking. Among its many firsts, it was the first to launch such products as travelers' cheques, credit cards and ATMs.
Mashreq has received numerous international awards such as the Best Bank in the UAE in 2008 from Euro money and various awards particularly for quality management. According to independent research it has more ISO certifications than any bank in the region by a wide margin. It's most recent acknowledgement was Best Consumer Internet Bank in Qatar and Best Consumer Internet Bank regionally by Global Finance Awards 2009.
As a leading financial Institution in the UAE Mashreq aims to be world class in every facet of its business, including its social responsibility to the community it serves. Towards this goal the bank pays particular attention to recruiting, training, developing and retaining UAE National employees.
© Press Release 2009
