Tania takes out Four Principles' Kaizen Award for Lean transformation

Tania Bottled Drinking Water Company has taken home the second annual Four Principles Kaizen Award for lean transformation at a ceremony in Riyadh.

Established in Saudi Arabia in 2004 and now one of the biggest water bottling companies in the Middle East, Tania Bottled Drinking Water Company has added its name to the honours list at the second annual Kaizen Awards hosted by dedicated lean management consultancy Four Principles. Tania follows Sulaiman Al-Habib Medical Group as the inaugural recipient of the Lean Transformation award.

Hosted at the Faisaliah Hotel in Riyadh last week, the Four Principles’ Kaizen Awards recognises companies which have demonstrated tangible business improvements through the adoption of kaizen principles – a business philosophy first pioneered in the automotive industry of Japan – in areas such as customer satisfaction, business efficiency, increased agility, reduced waste and stronger profitability.

“Our goal at Four Principles is to spread the Japanese Lean Management philosophy in the Middle East, demonstrating that it is not merely a management toolkit, but a profound change of corporate culture – from the bottom of the organisation to the very top,” said Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Four Principles Seif Shieshakly, who previously spent time at Toyota in Japan – the birthplace of Kaizen.

In addition to the awards – and a major prize which includes a five-day tailored trip to Japan to experience the implementation of Lean practices first-hand at pioneering local firms – guests at the ceremony were treated to an address from Joachim Raber, Global Director of Product & Licenses, Porsche Design Group, who spoke on how lean philosophy continues to drive the strategy and operations of its business.

The other winner on the night was the Saudi-government owned National Water Company in the Continuous Improvement Award, which recognises organisations for any small scope project showing analysis, solution design and implementation with demonstrable results, while IKEA Saudi Arabia & Bahrain and Abdul Latif Jameel United Finance were announced as the respective runners-up in each category.

Meanwhile, the major Lean Transformation award is given to companies which have embarked on a lean project containing smaller projects that have impacted an entire organisation over a longer period of time, with Four Principles having partnered with Tania Bottled Drinking Water since the beginning of last year to help implement Lean methodologies across the company and its distribution system in Saudi Arabia.

“Our mission is to establish a distinguished position in the regional and global water industry for Tania, based on the principle of “Quality First”, said Tania CEO Showimy Alktab, who was present at the ceremony. “By partnering with Four Principles to optimise our operational processes, we are confident that we will continue to deliver the very highest quality water solutions to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

For the lean project, Four Principles provided Tania with advisory, implementation, and training services – the latter of which will soon be offered off-site. Speaking further of the consultancy’s mission to spread the Kaizen word across the MENA region, Shieshakly added; “The awards tonight is only one part of that, and we will shortly be announcing further details on a new kaizen training academy in the heart of Riyadh.”