It's an anniversary year for the IndustryWeek Best Plants competition, our annual salute to manufacturing excellence.
Begun in 1990 as a way to recognize the great manufacturing efforts that occur across North America, the IW Best Plants program for 24 years has been honored to share the stories of great teams and inspirational leaders working together to deliver performance excellence.
The honor remains ours, and North American manufacturing excellence continues to deserve accolades. So, without further ado, IndustryWeek is pleased to present the 2014 IndustryWeek Best Plants winners. They represent our 25th consecutive -- and Silver Anniversary -- class of IW Best Plants honorees.
Read their stories. They tell the tales of manufacturing plants both large and small, producing products from aircraft parts and rail technologies to medical devices, forklift trucks, industrial cables, and foodservice and plumbing equipment.
Their operational challenges may vary but their means to meet those challenges show similarities: Leadership and associates work together; they try and sometimes fail; they encourage and value the opinion of every workforce member -- and they don't rest on today's performance.
Most importantly, they achieve outstanding performances. Be inspired by their efforts. Use them to inspire excellence within your operations.
Congratulations to the 2014 IndustryWeek Best Plants winners.
2014 IW Best Plants WinnersBoston Scientific Maple Grove Cessna Mexico
General Cable Corp.
L.B. Foster Rail
Technologies Corp.
The Raymond Corp.
T&S Brass and Bronze Works
Click on each plant's name to read its story. |
Meet the Winners In Charlotte
Representatives of the 2014 winners will present their stories at the annual IW Best Plants conference, scheduled for May 4-6, 2015, in Charlotte. View continuing updates at the IW Best Plants conference website.
Applications for 2015 Competition
IndustryWeek is accepting application requests for the 2015 IndustryWeek Best Plants competition. Manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada and Mexico are eligible. To request an application, fill out the online form on the IW Best Plants competition site.
How the Winners were Selected
Industryweek began accepting application requests for the 2014 Best Plants awards early last year. A panel of IW editors reviewed the completed applications, which reported management practices and plant performance in such areas as quality, customer and supplier relations, employee involvement, productivity, cost containment, manufacturing flexibility and responsiveness, inventory management, environmental and safety performance, and market results.
Selection of the winners from a list of finalists was aided by several outside experts, including Larry Fast, president of Pathways to Manufacturing Excellence, and John Dyer, JD&A – Process Innovation Co. Their evaluations, along with additional information provided by the finalists, were considered in the final stage of judging. The selections did not become final until site visits by IW editors to validate the performance data and management practices reported in the applications.
