PROMEB is located in Yaounde, and a manufacturer of wood products such as doors, kitchen cabinets, wardrobes and ceilings. Through Kaizen activities, the company optimized transport and storage systems, reduced defects and rework, and reduced average manufacturing time of the products from 9 hours 2 minutes to 5 hours 13 minutes. As a result, sales amount increases 7.8%.
In the medium-scale organization category, Ethio Agri-CEFT PLC Tea Processing and Packing Factory (TPPF) in Ethiopia received the outstanding award. TPPF is located in Addis Ababa, and produced tea, herbal products, spices and tea bags. TPPF organized 33 Kaizen teams and 2 Cross-functional teams in the factory departments and applied 5S, occupational safety and health and problem-solving activities. As results, the company reduced packing defect (rete) rate from 4.21% to 0.11%, envelop defect rate from 4.36% to 2.64% and increased 39% of labour productivity in monetary value.
Mauritius Telecom Ltd in Mauritius received an Outstanding award in the large-scale organization category. Mauritius Telecom Ltd is located in Port Louis and provides telecommunication and ICT services (Internet, TV, Mobile, Cloud, Enterprise solutions, Data Centre) and mobile payment solution. The company improved services and processes by using the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) method and preventive actions with monitoring of network, process testing and feedback from customers. It also improve productivity mainly by reducing wastes with automation of processes or digitalization of customer touchpoints. Three other companies received Excellent awards:
Awash Melkassa Chemical Factory (AMCF) in Ethiopia received an Excellent award in the micro and small-scale organization category. AMCF is located in Awash Melkassa, and produces sulfuric acid, aluminum, and Hydrogen peroxide. The company made cost reduction through modification, revision, and design of worn-out spare parts as a part of activities of cross-functional teams. Capacity utilization rate increased from 42.8% in 2022/23 to 66.8% in 2023/2024, and average raw material loss reduced from 5.32% to 3.34%.
LA PRATIQUE ELECTRONIQUE in Tunisia received the excellent award in medium-scale organization category. La PRATIQUE ELECTRONIQUE is located in Diar Ben Salem. The company is producing electronic wiring, simple wired wiring and their integration, and embedding. The company made layout change, reduced 86 % of work-in-progress before sprue removal and 100% before packaging by introducing pull production system. It also improved 42 % of productivity in grinding wheel preparation station and 32 % in column insertion station through workstation optimization.
COFICAB TUNISIE in Tunisia received an Excellent award in the large-scale organization category. COFICAB TUNISIE is located in Tunis, and specializing in the designing, manufacturing and marketing electric and automotive cables. Kaizen activities started at the end of 2020. The company improved First Time Quality (FTQ) of products from 55.09% to 73.63% in 2023 (improvement rate of 33.65%). Waste rate of metal battery cable was reduced from 3.9% in 2021 to 1.3% in 2023 (improvement rate of 66.66%). It also improved the frequency rate of workplace accidents from 6.6 in 2021 to 4.5 in 2023.
By the sixth round of the award process, all the nominees in 2024 are winners of selection process of own country. Prior to the awards, the nominees made online presentation on their activities and achievements on 22-26 July, which contributed to mutual learning and information sharing of Kaizen good practices among the nominees, nominators and Kaizen promoting institutions. Scoring process of the nominees has made by representatives of the nominating organizations and members of the Examination Committee. All of them demonstrated well-established Kaizen performance such as strong top managerial leadership, 5S, visualization, layout changes based on a time study and digitalization.
The award ceremony was held as a part of the Africa Kaizen Annual Conference 2024, a two- day hybrid conference consisting of online and on-site events during 28-29 October, hosted by the Tunisian government and co-organized by the Africa Union Development Agency- New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
29 October 2024 Africa Kaizen Awards 2024 Secretariat