CEO Awards

The annual CEO Awards are the most prestigious awards in Corus. They recognise excellence and the outstanding contribution of employees to delivering our objectives.

There are three categories of CEO Awards: health and safety; best supplier to best customers; and world-class processes.

The judging panel looks for evidence of strategy deployment, employee engagement and commitment, as well as examples of how continuous improvement tools and techniques have been used to secure outstanding results.

The high standard of entries during 2007 is a reflection of the considerable progress that is being made across Corus, and sets a new benchmark for 2008. The 2007 winners and those who were highly commended were announced at our Group Senior Managers’ Conference in February 2008.

Health and safety

The winner of the health and safety award for 2007 was the HTD Maintenance Services team at Corus Strip Products, IJmuiden (see the case study earlier in this section). The judges agreed that the Partners in Safety programme is outstanding, a best in class example for other Corus Business Units on how to change the attitudes of employees towards safety and achieve a significant improvement in safety performance as a result.

Highly Commended awards were presented to Corus International New Zealand for its success in changing its safety culture resulting in the recordable case frequency significantly reducing from 31 in 2003 to 2 in 2007; and Corus Construction & Industrial and Corus Northern Engineering Services (see the case study earlier in this section) for the management of contractor health and safety over the duration of the Starsigns construction projects at Scunthorpe.

Best supplier to best customers

The winner of the best supplier to best customers award for 2007 was the team at Corus Packaging Plus, Trostre, for delighting customers and improving their competitive position by slashing lead times from two months to two weeks through the largest continuous improvement project – Two Week Lead – seen in the Company to date.

A Highly Commended award was presented to Kalzip, a Corus Distribution & Building Systems business, for its Approved Installer Scheme. Kalzip has created Teamkal, a worldwide partnership with more than 5,000 installers of its aluminium standing seam roofing, all of whom are committed to best practice, high standards of service, and improved quality.

World-class processes

The winner of the world-class processes award for 2007 was Thrybergh Combination Mill at Corus Engineering Steels, Rotherham, for outstanding improvements following the challenges of a EUR18m (£24.5m) investment to combine the hot processing of both straight and coiled bar at one facility. In addition, there was a reduction in LTIF from 11.0 in 2006 to 2.7 at the end of 2007.

A Highly Commended award was presented to Corus Distribution & Building Systems, Maastricht/Feijen Service Centre for the relocation of a cut-to-length line from Lackenby in the UK, and the excellent cross-Business Unit working to achieve an improved competitive position.