Congratulations to the following companies that were successful in the following specialist categories for the Strategic Manufacturing Awards 2009

Operational Excellence Innovation Green Manufacturing

Manufacturing I.T Demand-Driven Manufacturer of the Year Manufacturer of the Year Special Mentions

Operational Excellence

This award was judged by Kevin Duggan from the Institute of Operational Excellence and Henk Eertink of TPM Solutions

IAC Group , Netezza, PDD Group / Belron and Michelin made the final four in this hotly contested category as the judging panel examined closely which companies demonstrated continuous improvement, minimised waste across their manufacturing processes while simultaneously maximising customer value. For accelerating progress 78 plants by being people orientated, defining production system tools and covering the progress fields of safety, ergonomics, quality, maintenance and productivity, Michelin won this year’s prize

Jean Christophe Guerin, Industrial Performance Director for Michelin, on picking up the Operational Excellence prize, commented:

“It is a pleasure to receive this award. Behind it there are 70-80,000 people working in the manufacturing plants and this is recognition for all the work they have done in making these tyres”.

View more information on all short listed companies

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Innovation

This category was judged by Pierfranceso Manenti of Manufacturing Insights

The judging criteria meant that the short listed companies needed to demonstrate significant progress in designing, developing and delivering a blockbuster product concept. With PDD Group/ Belron, Bio-Rad Verdot, Ascamm and Neobotix contesting this category, the stand out entry for their “InPlace Column Project” was Bio-Rad Verdot. This ergonomic and time-saving solution to packing purification columns improves the way biopharmaceuticals are manufactured through lean techniques and means a reduction in material costs.

Production Manager Maurice Agee was certainly overwhelmed and surprised when receiving the trophy, stating:

“The union of our expertise transformed the initial idea into a real product useful to our customers.”

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Green Manufacturing

This award was judged by Henk Eertink of TPM Solutions

Reinhausen Plasma, DSM, Boston Retail and Impahla Clothing scored the most points in this category as the judges were looking for solid evidence of maximising energy efficiency levels, compliance with environmental regulations and minimising waste from the production process.

DSM were the proud winners as their “3C’s”concept of competition, collaboration and cooperation developed at their Toansa plant in India gained the most attention. With its own water management facility, utilities and power station, their holistic approach has helped them in realising green initiatives

Rajesh Salwan, Site Director for the facility in Toansa, India talked of “the journey we have travelled for the last nine years”. He added:

“We have focused on green technologies and working towards sustainable compliance, working on a ‘triple P’ approach of People, Planet and Profit; cutting organic compounds, carbon dioxides and sulphur dioxides. At the start of the evening this ceremony was talked about as the manufacturing “Oscars”, so we did something out of this world and back home it will be seen as a proud moment”.

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Manufacturing IT

This category was judged by Pierfranceso Manenti of Manufacturing Insights

The winner of this award was able to demonstrate unrivalled progress and success in designing and executing an IT infrastucuture covering multiple processes and disciplines, resulting in evident ROI.

ASML came ahead of the other short listed candidates which included Draeger Medical, Zebra Enterprise Solutions and Platform Computing as using the secureWISE Saas managed service application has meant their customers are benefitting from the remote services initiative through increased equipment productivity, lower operating expenses and improved quality and response times.

“We’re very pleased of course to win”, commented Christian Op ‘t Root, Service Manager Remote Diagnostics at ASML, continuing “We have set company and industry standards with our way of connectivity and it is nice to be recognised by our customers but also the manufacturing industry”.

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Demand-Driven Manufacturer of the Year

This award was judged by Kevin Duggan from the Institute of Operational Excellence.

With a more succinct short list of three companies that included MTI Whirlpools, Draeger Medical and Bio-Rad Verdot, the key to this award was being able to demonstrate a demand driven doctrine into the company culture, to adopt Just –In-Time (JIT) principles across the supply chain to manage short lead times and meet customer demand.

For developing a manufacturing process to enable the consumer to have unparalleled flexibility not only in adding options, but in making actual changes to elements such as jet placement, pump location and equipment specification, MTI Whirlpools were the victors.

Not only was it necessary to structure the plant to be flexible but the hand assembly of units means this nimble manufacturing allows an unparalleled degree of customisation.

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Manufacturer of the Year

The criteria for this award was judged on which company scored the most points in the previous five categories.

Recognising a “winner of winners” this award represents the pinnacle in manufacturing excellence today, acknowledging the outstanding achievements of a single manufacturing enterprise that has successfully realised corporate growth and take their business to the next level.

Having already been presented with the Innovation Award, Bio-Rad Verdot made their way to the stage once more.

Research and Development Manager Philippe Vernot explained:

“It was a happy surprise. Two awards! It is fanstastic! We believe that it is a big encouragement to continue in this way. My first thought was for our customers as their technical comments showed us how we could progress. My second thought was for our management, in France and the US; they have all believed that our know-how and application would allow us to succeed and they sustained us”.

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Special Mentions

For coming close in at least two of the evening’s categories for Demand-Driven and Manufacturing IT, Draeger Medical picked up a special bottle of champagne as recognition for their efforts in the entries they put forward this year. View more information on all short listed companies

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