Inalum Continues to Develop Innovations to Improve Aluminium Efficiency
Medan, North Sumatra (ANTARA) – PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Persero), or Inalum, is continuing to develop technological innovations to improve the efficiency and productivity of the national aluminium industry.
Inalum President Director Melati Sarnita said the company’s efforts involved innovations focused on optimising smelting processes, using digital technology and strengthening operational efficiency.
“These innovations form part of the 2026 Transformation and Improvement Summit (TIS), which brought together 119 innovation projects from 273 innovators across the Inalum Group,” Melati said in a statement in Medan, North Sumatra, on Thursday.
She said the 119 entries assessed by the judging panel comprised 39 in the Technical Implementation category, 40 in Technical Conceptual, 13 in Non-Technical, and 27 in Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG).
The 2026 summit expanded the competition from two categories to four: Technical Implementation, Technical Conceptual, Non-Technical, and HSE and ESG. This year’s theme was “Innovate to Elevate: Harnessing Technology in Continuous Improvement”.
“The expanded categories provide greater scope for employees from different functions to participate and develop solutions that meet operational and business needs,” she said.
The event also involved Inalum subsidiaries, including staff from PT Borneo Alumina Indonesia (BAI) and PT Indonesia Aluminium Alloy (IAA). One part of the programme, TIS Goes to Borneo, held innovation judging at BAI in Mempawah Regency, West Kalimantan.
Following the selection process, 12 projects were chosen for an innovation poster exhibition, while eight competed in the TIS 2026 Grand Final in Kuala Tanjung, North Sumatra, on 3 November 2026.
Melati said the number of entries rose by about 63 per cent from the previous year, reflecting broader employee contributions to solutions that support operational performance and the company’s competitiveness.
One innovation highlighted at TIS 2026 involved optimising batch parameters in the aluminium smelting process to improve production control. Another focused on optimising the angle of an eccentric counterweight to address cracking in anodes, a component used in aluminium production.
Innovation is also being developed beyond the production floor, including through the use of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in corporate financial modelling, as well as ideas related to energy and sustainability.
“These innovations show that efforts to improve efficiency are not limited to technical process improvements; they also involve strengthening business processes and the management of company resources,” Melati said.
She added that the innovations developed must deliver tangible and lasting benefits to the company.
“True success in innovation is not when a project wins a competition, but when it delivers sustainable benefits. We must not allow our best ideas to remain merely documents,” she said.