It's clear: good ideas call for good ideas. Specialists talk about inspiration and collaboration, enabling environments and the importance of positive feedback. Surely this is what we are experiencing at Alegre, because our Núvol platform, created to collect good ideas, shows that year after year the number of proposals increases.

Last 2023 they grew clearly in two groups. On the one hand, there are the most veteran people in the company, who demonstrate their involvement and knowledge of the processes. However, proposals are also growing among those who have been with the company for less time, probably because they are infected and also want to explore innovative ideas using the perspective that their more recent incorporation gives them.

THE BEST IDEAS FROM THE POLAND PLANT

Of the proposals submitted at the Poland plant throughout 2023, the winners of the annual awards have come up with great ideas around cost reduction. They are as follows:

• Grzegorz Walada, for dosage of shredded material-pipe system located in octabin.
• Dominik Grzelak, for palletization and automation in the production of semi-finished products on 2 machines.
• Edyta Pietraszewska, who proposed the reuse of plastic bags from 1664 packaging as garbage bags.
• The winning Kaizen Group this 2023 was represented by Bogdan Muszyński and Kacper Waluś in the area of cost reduction by adding shredded material from Ford material to 2231.

WINNING PROPOSALS IN SPAIN

At the Valencian plant in Albal, the best 2023 proposals were submitted by:

• José Juan Miquel Fernández, who proposed an improvement in packaging.
• Ricardo Alberich Navarro, who came up with a process improvement.
• Marta Robles Bastida, who allowed us to incorporate an improvement in packaging.
• As for the Kaizen Group, the winning team proposed a formula to optimize the supply of components and semi-finished products to production.

BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY

At the awards ceremony at the Valencia plant, Enrique Careaga, our CEO, summed up the philosophy of these actions by stating that "competitive companies can only be competitive when they have competitive employees" and gave the example of the great sports teams. He also proudly highlighted the high level of employee participation and the example set by the good ideas of the Kaizen groups, which are formulated as a team and involve up to three shifts.

In his speech, Careaga referred to the word "commitment", a term that the entire team usually uses. According to him, the proposals collected in Núvol are a clear indicator of such commitment because "they imply going beyond the strict fulfillment of obligations".

Congratulations to the winners and let the ideas pour in!