Novelis North America, Cleveland, has introduced a new Supplier Rating System and Scorecard for aluminum used beverage cans (UBCs)
Novelis, which in North America recycles 24 billion UBCs annually at its can sheet ingot manufacturing plants, says the scorecard is being introduced to improve supplier quality.
The new system, which Novelis says is an addition to the company’s existing practice to provide feedback on individual loads, provides uniform standards with the goal of providing quality assurance in supply.
Novelis scores UBC quality based on four main criteria including financial impact of contaminants, alloy chemistry, productivity and safety. For Novelis, contaminants in UBC shipments such as paper, plastic, and other non-UBCs, if not carefully controlled, can cause significant production setbacks and compromise the safe work environments of its plants.
In addition, other metal contaminants can taint the alloy chemistry of aluminum sheet ingot production. Recent studies conducted by the company have revealed that poor quality UBC loads can affect production efficiency by up to 75 percent, increasing the cost to produce sheet ingot, according to a Novelis news release
The scorecard measures contaminants, moisture content, charge-backs, rejects and quality alerts per UBC load for suppliers. On a monthly basis, Novelis will rate suppliers based on all of their inspection qualities. Based on their performance, a UBC supplier will be categorized into one of the three rankings as a qualified, marginal or unacceptable supplier.
With the new rating system, Novelis will impose a financial penalty on unacceptable suppliers to encourage improvement, the company says.
Novelis Inc. operates in 11 countries, employing approximately 12,900 people and reporting annual revenue of more than $11 billion. The company supplies aluminum sheet and foil products to automotive, transportation, packaging, construction, industrial and printing markets throughout the world. It is a subsidiary of Hindalco Industries Limited of India. More information on Novelis can be found at www.novelis.com.