UAE, Sweden discuss military cooperation

Lt. General HE Hamad Mohammed Thani Al Rumaithi, Chief of Staff of the UAE Armed Forces, received yesterday General Sverker John Olof Goranson, Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces.

The meeting reviewed adequate mechanisms of boosting joint military cooperation. A host of topics of mutual interest were also discussed.

Abdullah bin Zayed receives Canadian National Defence Minister

Foreign Minister HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, yesterday evening received the Honourable Peter MacKay, Canada's Minister of National Defence who is currently visiting the country. During the meeting, they reviewed cooperation between the two countries, especially in defence and military fields and ways of boosting them.

They also exchanged of views on the latest developments at regional and international arenas. The Canadian Defence Minister offered condolences and sympathy to Sheikh Abdullah on the death of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. He also highlighted his country's keenness to enhance the friendly relations and cooperation with the UAE in various fields.

Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies quality improvement initiative to boost revenues

Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT), a Mubadala-owned firm that provides Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul services, has embarked on a comprehensive performance and quality enhancement programme that will further hone its technical prowess and improve efficiency to boost revenues.

The programme further capitalises on the Lean Six Sigma and Continuous Improvement programme implemented over the past 12 months.

"The overall objectives of the programme are to provide a common methodology in the way ADAT works in order to facilitate sustainable improvements; to create a customer focused, productive, and result-driven organisation,” said Juergen Haacker, the Chief Operating Officer of Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies, in an interview with ‘Khaleej Times'.

It also aims to eliminate sources of variation in process quality to ensure meeting customers' specifications, The overarching objective of the campaign is to streamline processes, and increase efficiency.

"Over the past twelve months ADAT has undertaken a significant improvement program, which has led to changes in the level of quality and productivity that delights all their customers, stakeholders, and employees”, said Haacker.

"From a business process improvement standpoint, the initiative will be involved in significant process re-engineering. This will accelerates delivery times through streamlining internal processes,” said the COO.

On how the new quality enhancing programme will impact revenues and profitability, the Chief Operating Officer said:” ADAT expects more than full return of its investment, through higher efficiency that will have a positive impact on profitability”.

The COO said that ADAT has achieved very good business results in 2009, but also recognised the tightening market for the MRO's globally, due to the financial crisis.
While the airlines in the Middle East are still performing better than the rest of the world, other airlines have grounded a significant number of aircraft or delayed if not cancelled new aircraft orders.

Abu Dhabi's ADAT has positioned itself successfully as an MRO offering technical skills and expertise, high quality standards, production efficiency and highly competitive labour cost, he said.

The Chief Operating Officer said that ADAT is already working closely with Etihad Airways on a comprehensive Operational Cost Reduction Program targeting at least US$10 million cost reduction for 2010 alone. ADAT has developed these skills based on its successful Lean Six Sigma Program and expanded it into Business Management and Cost Reduction.

In order to expand its activities further in this regard, ADAT has signed the Strategic Partnership Program with the leading global airline organisation – IATA. Other plans in this area will be launched shortly, simultaneously to the introduction of the new IT Platform based on Oracle or cMRO and the completion of the new vast A380 hangar, to boost its capabilities,” Juergen Haacker said.