Alcoa Wheel & Forged Products' European Plant Wins Hungary Quality Award

PITTSBURGH--Dec. 4, 2003--Alcoa Inc. is pleased to announce that the Hungarian wheels plant of its Alcoa Wheel & Forged Products (AWFP) business unit has been awarded the 2003 IIASA-Shiba Award. Located in Szekesfehervar, Hungary, the plant received this award for total quality management. The IIASA-Shiba Award was created by the International Institute for Applied System Analysis based in Austria and by Professor Shoji Shiba, who introduced TQM to industry in Hungary. This award is mirrored after the U.S. Malcolm Baldridge and the European Foundation for Quality Management awards.

"We are honored that Alcoa has been recognized for its manufacturing and business excellence, and we are delighted that the Institute has acknowledged the value Alcoa brings to Hungary in exhibiting quality and excellence in our core activity: manufacturing performance," says Laszlo Veres, plant manager of Alcoa's wheel & forged products plant in Hungary. "The processes built on thoroughly planned and executed quality system elements, and the results of the Alcoa Business System implementation clearly distinguished AWFP from the other applicants."

Those qualifying for the IIASA-Shiba award must exhibit significant results in the implementation of total quality management systems related to business processes and systems integration. In addition, companies must undergo rigorous on-site audits aligned with the criteria for the European Foundation for Quality Management and finalists must present their results to a jury of quality management experts before a decision is made.

Alcoa Wheel & Forged Products is the world's leading producer of forged aluminum wheels for the commercial transportation, market. AWFP serves commercial transportation, automotive, aerospace and industrial markets with forged aluminum, titanium and nickel-based alloy parts. Alcoa Inc. has more than 5,000 employees in Hungary at five plants. These facilities produce extrusions and rolling ingots, flat rolled products, automotive structures, truck bodies, plastic closures, wire harnesses, and wheels for trucks, trailers and buses. Alcoa is the world's leading producer of primary aluminum, fabricated aluminum, and alumina. It has 127,000 employees in 41 countries.

About Professor Shoji Shiba - Professor Shoji Shiba is the Visiting Professor at the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at the Sloane School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the recipient of the 2002 Deming prize for Individuals, one of the highest awards for Total Quality Management in the world. He was honored with the award because of his dedication to developing the globalization of TQM. He was instrumental in introducing TQM to industry in Hungary. The IIASA-Shiba awards program was initiated in 1987 when Professor Shoji Shiba studied quality control in Europe while working as an IIASA researcher.

About IIASA - The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is a non-governmental research organization located in Austria. The institute conducts inter-disciplinary scientific studies on environmental, economic, technological and social issues in the context of human dimensions of global change.