Dubai World signed earlier this week (Sunday June 24) a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Harrington Middle East, one of the region’s foremost corporate consultants, to provide management training, technology and knowledge solutions to its employees.
The MoU signed by the Business Excellence Center (BEC), a corporate department of Dubai World, and Harrington Middle East at the group’s corporate headquarters, is part of the Group’s efforts to bring excellence in its business models.
A series of ten two-day workshops will be conducted over a one-year period to focus on thirteen fundamental tools, techniques and concepts that enhance team and individual performance.
Recognized worldwide as an essential part of modern corporate quality improvement programs, the workshops are designed to expose participants to these fundamentals and also provide practical hands-on experience in their use.
Abdul Qader Obaid Ali, Director, Group Internal Audit and Quality, Dubai World, said: “Cooperation with Harrington Middle East will strengthen the consultancy services we provide the business units of Dubai World, especially in view of the holding company's global expansion and diversification. The training scheme is in line with Dubai World’s vision to establish itself as the world’s foremost holding company that is driven by corporate excellence. Continuous Improvement is at the core of the Business Excellence Center’s work.”
Harrington Middle East is providing the specialist training package, using its well-known Six Sigma methodology, for the first time in the Middle East. Six Sigma is the latest improvement approach focused on the use of simple statistical methods to analyze, measure, and improve the performance of all the processes throughout the organization. All employees are trained to understand the Six Sigma principles and to successfully apply the core strategies to their processes.
Patrick Donnally, Managing Director of Harrington Middle East, said: “It is an honor to be associated with Dubai World in their pursuit of Continuous Improvement through a total involvement of their people. What is truly exciting about this initiative is the drive to involve large numbers of employees, working in teams, from every segment of the organization. By providing these employees with a basic set of improvement tools that can be used with any work process, Dubai World has opened the door to fantastic improvement in performance across its entire corporate spectrum.”
The training is open to Dubai World employees and the initial program is designed for 150 employees of DP World, the Group’s flagship global ports operator.
At the end of the course, the participants are given the certificate of Green Belt – as part of a grading system that leads to an advanced Black Belt qualification. BEC’s Group Continuous Improvement Framework is founded on the EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) model to deliver enhanced corporate performance.
Harrington Middle East is a joint venture between the Bin Zayed Group and Harrington Institute (USA), provides management, technology, education and knowledge solutions. It has a reputation for creative thinking and an outstanding professional staff providing superb services to clients.
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