Celebrating Manufacturing Best Practice - Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, Chicago

Recognizing manufacturing best practice

The Manufacturer Awards 2007 will be announced during the conference lunch on May 30th, 2007 at The Manufacturer LIVE, Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, Chicago, Illinois.

The Awards are designed to recognize the world-class levels of manufacturing excellence being achieved in the United States. There are seven categories this year to reward particular industry sector success. The Awards are motivated by a mission to promote best practice in manufacturing.

The closing date for entries is March 30, 2007.

For more information, please contact:
Holly O'Connor
Tel: 978-299-1203
Email: hoconnor@usa.conquestbm.com

Awards in detail...

Manufacturer of the Year Award
The winner of this award will be chosen from the recipients of all award categories. This ‘winner of winners’ will be the company that demonstrates across the board progress towards manufacturing excellence, reflected in a healthy balance sheet and growing shareholder value.

Leadership & Strategy Award
This award will be given to the manufacturing company that best demonstrates the value of inspirational leadership and a universally communicated and practiced corporate strategy. One example may include recognizing and embracing a need for change and providing the kind of leadership, inspiration and discipline to see it through and view it as a continuous process.

Design & Innovation Award
This award sets out to recognize the company that shows how they have become and remain competitive by increasing their rate of innovation, anticipation and responsiveness to changing market conditions.

World Class Manufacturing Award
Reaching for world-class manufacturing standards means benchmarking and examining everything from lead times to customer returns, from work content to labor minutes per unit, and from inventory levels to cycle times. The winner of this award will be a company that has already made significant, sustained progress towards being world-class or a company that has made the commitment and got off to an impressive start.

Skills & Productivity Award
Ultimately, it is people that a company employs that dictate the success or failure of the enterprise. The company to win this award will show how through recruitment, training, labor relations, HR systems or educational initiatives it has increased productivity while improving employee conditions and contributing to improved public perception of manufacturing itself and the career opportunities it offers.

IT in Manufacturing Award
In a manufacturing environment, information technology and management are paramount among the facilities and services required across an entire enterprise. The winner of this award will have made significant progress towards the goal of having designed, implemented and managed a successful IT infrastructure spanning all its business processes and be able to show resulting favorable returns on the investment.

Logistics & Supply Chain Award
The key to lean manufacturing through inventory reduction is within the realm of logistics and supply chain management. This award recognizes the company that is making significant progress toward an integrated network of partners created to reduce cost and increase efficiency. The winning supply chain strategy spans the whole process from materials procurement to customer delivery.

Operations & Maintenance
This award will be given to a manufacturer that has a cohesive approach to its factory operations. This award winning company recognizes the interaction between machines, processing steps and the tasks to be performed. Its methodologies cater to operational adjustments necessary to meet shifting manufacturing and market scenarios.