Atlas wins big at Global Performance Excellence Awards
Atlas Axillia Co. has received three highly coveted awards at the Global Performance Excellence Awards (GPEA) 2019, which is conducted by the Asia Pacific Quality Organization (APQO). At GPEA 2019, Atlas Axillia Co. was honoured as the Winner of the Best in Class Award and was recognized a role model for its best-in-class performance. In addition to this award, the Company also won a Silver Award for Best Practices, which recognized Atlas Axillia’s creation of a powerful bottom-up culture stemming from its implementation of Lean and Kaizen. A further Silver Innovation Class Award was presented to the company in recognition of Atlas’s journey of innovation. The awards were presented to Atlas Axillia Co. at the 25thglobal Performance Excellence Awards, which was held recently at the Stones Hotel Legian, Bali, Indonesia. Asitha Samaraweera – Managing Director and Viraj Jayasooriya – Coo/director Operations represented the company at the event and accepted the awards. Atlas Axillia Co. was also the winner of the National Quality Award 2018 for Large Scale Manufacturing and it was this that paved the way for the Company to be recognized at the global level at the Global performance Excellence Awards 2019. Speaking about the awards, Asitha Samaraweera, Managing Director at Atlas Axilla Co. said, “It is a great pride and honour to have been recognized and rewarded on such a global platform as the Global Performance Excellence Awards. We were considered amongst other giants in the industry from the region and our sincere commitment to quality and operational excellence helped to set us apart. To be eligible for the GPEA 2019, each participant is required to have won the National Quality Award (NQA) in their respective countries and Atlas Axillia Co. received the Sri Lanka National Quality Award 2018, making the company eligible. The Global Performance Excellence Award aims to bring the NQA award winners of Asia Pacific countries together on a single platform, crossing national, cultural, geographic and economic boundaries. “The GPEA then judges the entrants based on a combination of the Malcolm Baldridge Criteria (the NQA of the USA) and the European Foundation of Quality Management (EFQM) criteria. Atlas was judged based upon these world class standards and chosen for these prestigious awards.” Viraj Jayasooriya, COO/ Director Operations added, “The process of assessment for the Global Performance Excellence Award was rigorous and conducted by an international panel of experienced assessors. Atlas was recognized for its bottom up, ‘everyday innovation’ culture and for setting an example as a home grown business that others can follow, both locally and globally. Thus, this is a significant victory for us as we celebrate 60 years and remain firmly committed to providing high quality tools for learning that are accessible to all Sri Lankans.” The Asia Pacific Quality Organization is an autonomous, non-political, non-profit, membership association that promotes, recognizes and rewards excellence in quality management amongst organizations in Asia and the Pacific Rim. Organizations from Australia, China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, UAE, USA and Vietnam competed for the awards. APQO seeks to encourage economic growth in the region through positive business transformation in terms of productivity and quality by creating a platform for leading organizations in the Asia Pacific region to interact with each other.