Dubai: Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has received the ISO 18404 certification for managing and measuring the development and improvement of lean operations and services. DEWA is the first government organisation in the world and the first organisation of any type outside the United Kingdom to receive this certificate. This followed a rigorous audit by the British Standards Institute (BSI) against the ISO 18404, ISO Annex SL, and the Royal Statistical Society (UK) standards.
DEWA’s ISO 18404 certification process also included the certification of a number of its staff in the RSS 18404, on the basis of their lean improvement competencies, where two staff have been certified as RSS 18404 expert and leader by the Royal Statistical Society UK, and six employees have been certified as lean practitioners.
HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA, was pleased with this certification as the first government organisation in the world. He noted that this certificate underlines DEWA’s commitment to its vision as a globally leading sustainable innovative corporation that has become a global role model for its operations and services. Al Tayer thanked the team at DEWA who worked on the submission to get this prestigious certification.
“We work in line with the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai to achieve the highest standards of excellence in all areas. We strive to achieve the Dubai Plan 2021, to make Dubai Government a pioneering and excellent government that is proactive and creative in meeting the needs of individuals and society as a whole. We are committed to developing effective solutions to the current and future challenges in energy. We also work to anticipate opportunities and promote innovation within a comprehensive system of integrated organisational work that puts excellence and good governance at the forefront of our priorities. This ensures the integration and sustainability of all our projects and services as well as enhances DEWA’s global competitiveness. We do this according to a vision that is based on innovation and creativity to improve the work system and ensure providing electricity and water services to over 900,000 customers in Dubai according to the highest levels of availability, reliability, quality and efficiency,” said Al Tayer.
"We are proud of this achievement, which confirms DEWA’s success in implementing the best global standards in managing and improving its operations and services. For us at DEWA, excellence is a never-ending journey. This certificate is a clear indication of the joint work of the different sectors and departments at DEWA to achieve the best results and the continuous pursuit of the highest levels of efficiency by adopting innovative mechanisms that improve the quality of services to make the life experience in Dubai the best in the world," said Marwan Bin Haidar, Executive Vice President of Innovation and the Future at DEWA.
The UAE, represented by DEWA, ranked first worldwide for the second consecutive year for Getting Electricity in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2019 report. This is another milestone in DEWA’s distinguished journey towards excellence, surpassing European and American utilities. DEWA reduced losses from electricity transmission and distribution networks to 3.3% compared to 6-7% in Europe and the US. Water network losses reduced to 6.5% in 2017, compared to 15% in North America, which is one of the best results in the world. DEWA also achieved the lowest customer minutes lost (CML) per year in the world of 2.39 minutes compared to 15 minutes by utilities in the European Union.
