Ranking Methodology

IndustryWeek partnered with Thomson Financial to produce this year's IW 1000, our seventh annual ranking of the world's largest publicly held manufacturing companies. Thomson Financial's global databases were used to identify all publicly held manufacturing firms meeting IW's SIC code criteria. The actual cutoff for inclusion on the IW 1000 list was $1.575 billion in revenues. Thomson Financial obtained the latest financial information on these companies. This process was supplemented with Internet-based research. Erik L. Fine, a Charlotte, N.C.-based information consultant, managed the data project. Editorial Research Director David Drickhamer supervised the project and gave editorial direction. Manufacturing companies were defined according to criteria established by IW. They included: companies with a majority of their business in a manufacturing industry; companies that generated less than 50% of revenues from manufacturing, but more revenue from manufacturing than the lowest-revenue-producing companies on last year's list; computer software companies whose primary business is the manufacture of software programs; oil and gas companies that derive approximately 50% of their revenues from the refining of oil and gas products; and companies that derive approximately 50% of their revenues from the manufacture of mined materials. Because all publicly held manufacturing companies were eligible, a number of subsidiaries or associate companies that are publicly traded separately from their parent company made the list along with the parent. The data elements are based on information obtained directly from publications distributed by the corporations. To more accurately reflect a company's core business, revenue numbers from continuing operations only were used. Currency valuations in U.S. dollars were made using exchange rates as of Dec. 31, 2001. Where 2001 data are not available, 2000 data are provided. An asterisk next to the company name on the IW 1000 list indicates that 2000 data were used. Where 2000 figures are given, revenue growth is for 1999-2000. An "NA" appears in cases where data were not available. Accounting standards and terminology vary from country to country. Direct comparison of figures, even when terms appear to be the same, can be misleading.