ALVANCE Aluminium Duffel triumphs VCK Business Excellence Award

The British metal magnate, Sanjeev Gupta’s ALVANCE Aluminium Duffel has been awarded the VCK Business Excellence Award by the Flemish Centre for Quality. They won the award for their quality roadmap that they have advanced in recent years.

The ALVANCE Aluminium Duffel quality story started in 2017 with a cost of poor quality (COPQ) of €10 million. The organisation put together a multidisciplinary team and injected hugely in its quality culture. This year they are heading towards a 50% reduction of COPQ. These efforts are now rewarded with the Business Excellence Award.

Dirk Inghels, Director Quality & HSE of ALVANCE Aluminium Duffel said: "Achieving the VCK award is great external recognition for the efforts made by the employees in implementing our quality roadmap. Since 2017 we have achieved significant year-over-year reductions in our COPQ by applying lean management improvement techniques and making appropriate investments. A large number of employees, ranging from operators to department managers to management, have actively contributed to the current result. They have submitted proposals and worked together on sustainable quality improvements. In addition to internal improvements, we have also seen our customer complaints decline. We see this award as an incentive to continue along this path with enthusiasm".

An Kint, Director of the Flemish Centre for Quality, commented the following about the award for ALVANCE Aluminium Duffel: "The jury chose the ALVANCE Aluminium Duffel team because of their large-scale quality initiatives and the involvement of all 600 operators. This commitment enabled the organisation to reduce the COPQ by about 5 million euros over 4 years. With a clear long-term vision and an organisation-wide impact, it became clear that one could speak of a cultural transformation."

ALVANCE Aluminium Duffel has been part of the ALVANCE Aluminium Group since 1^st October’20 and their headquarters are located in Paris. The group is part of the GFG Alliance, a leading GREEN ALUMINIUM producer.