Cost-saving project gains points on home ground as well as overseas
Project BF4 - Reduction of fuel consumption at the blast furnaces + increase in combined proceeds – further improvement against the year 2014 from the workshop of the Košice steelmakers' team under the leadership of General Manager Primary Joseph H. Morey has not only brought the Company outstanding savings and for that the first place among the best U. S. Steel Košice projects in 2015 aimed at reducing costs, but it has also won the U. S. Steel Corporation President's prize for the best project in the Corporation. The information about this was presented by President and CEO United States Steel Corporation Mario Longhi during his visit to USSK on March 18 of this year.
"I am delighted to announce that the winner of the CEO's prize for Leading the Carnegie Way in the year 2015 is the project from U. S. Steel Košice," he stated in his e-mail report sent to Company employees last week. "USSK's project was the winner of one of five categories announced towards the end of January. These five teams presented their projects before the jury consisting of the representatives of last year's winners. The jurors assessed that USSK's project best mastered the two key issues. In the first place, effective utilization of the Carnegie Way method for creation of values. And in the second place, it was the most successful project in terms of the decisive priorities: Safety, Profitability, Customer, Operational Excellence and High-efficiency Organization," M. Longhi said.
"USSK's project was aimed at reducing specific fuel consumption at the blast furnaces and at increasing the combined proceeds of the Primary Division plants. The team was acknowledged for the distinct improvements that contributed to their record performance in 2014. They clearly expressed their commitment to applying the Carnegie Way method to decisive priorities. I can mention only some of the benefits from this project: improvement in performance in the field of occupational safety which contributed to USSK's record numbers for one year; improvement in utilization of resources; record quality; lower cost of mineral raw materials; better engagement of employees; and another 11 million dollars to add to the 31 million dollars saved in 2014," said the President of the U. S. Steel Corporation.
Further significant Corporation appreciation, the prize of CEO Safety Excellence Award (CEO's cup for performance in the field of occupational safety) for the year 2015 belongs to the Wheeling Machine Products team (operation of shaping machines). "Last year this team made big progress in the field of occupational safety. They were successful in achieving zero recordable as well as registered injuries, which is a significant improvement in comparison with previous years," said M. Longhi commenting on these results, and he also appreciated their approach to safety discussions, monitoring of sustainability of all recommendations based on incidents and overfulfilment of set targets in the projects of hazard identification and risk assessment.
