Newsroom

27 September 2018

Olam Progida won the 1st Prize in Kaizen Awards

Olam Progida received the 1st Prize Kaizen awards in the Quality Circles Sharing Conference organized by The Turkish Quality Association (KALDER)

The leading name of the Turkish agricultural sector Olam Progida, received the Kaizen award with “the Laser Cleaners Project” in the Quality Circles Sharing Conference organized by The Turkish Quality Association (KALDER.) This prestigious NGO working on excellence organizes Quality Circles Sharing Conference each year in order to spread the team work and to share the best practices among the leading companies in Turkey. In these conferences, awards are given to prominent companies in 2 different categories namely Quality Circles and Kaizen.

This year, KALDER has organized the 20th Quality Circles Sharing Conference in Ankara on 11th October 2017. In this highly competitive awards program, 128 projects had applied to both of the categories. All 128 projects were subject to preliminary election by 14 evaluation committees consisting of 31 independent auditors. Of these, 10 Kaizen projects which have scores higher than 70 were visited on site and examined in details. In the final stage, 10 finalists made presentation to a crowd of approx. 500 people and Olam Progida received the 1st Prize in the Kaizen category with the Laser Cleaners project.

The Laser Cleaners project aims at improving the overall equipment efficiency (OEE) of the optic laser sorters. Optic laser sorters scans the hazelnuts with laser eyes during quality selection. Due to operational sensitivity, the laser sorters need to be cleaned at shift frequencies. The project group that consists of 7 group members working in the departments of production, maintenance, Health and Safety and OpEx has identified serious work safety risks during this cleaning process. The project has been designated as the primary Kaizen issue because Olam Progida embraces “zero accident” as its core value.

In addition to the H&S risks, the time lost during cleaning process is the highest in the optical laser sorter OEE measurement. Furthermore, the cleaning operation also has ergonomic difficulties. After completion of the project 3% of OEE improvement has been achieved with this Kaizen work and ergonomic improvements have been achieved by closing all the disclosures related to health and safety. The Benefit / Cost Ratio of the Project is 77.

With this great success Olam Progida became the first company in Turkish Hazelnut Sector and also became the first company in the whole Black Sea Region. This award paved the way for Olam Progida to be a role model in the hazelnut sector as well as the agri-business in Turkey.

Congratulations to the Laser Cleaners Project Team Members!

Finalists Kaizen Projects: Olam Progida (Agri-business), Coca Cola (Beverage), Roketsan (Defense Industry), Hema Endustri (Tractor Producer) TAI (Aviation), Kordsa (Tire Producer), Yiğit Akü (Car Battery Producer), Kastamonu Entegre (Wood Processor), Erdemir Çelik (Steel), Teksan Jenaratör (Generator Producer)