The 2021 winners of the Manufacturing Leadership Awards were honored at the 17th annual Manufacturing Leadership Awards Gala, hosted by the National Association of Manufacturers’ Manufacturing Leadership Council. For the second year in a row, the gala took place as a virtual event.
Dow was named the Large Enterprise Manufacturer of the Year for its enterprise-wide digital transformation encompassing manufacturing, logistics and operations. Hologic was named the Small/Medium Enterprise Manufacturer of the Year for its workforce cultural transformation, which has positioned the company to take advantage of advanced manufacturing technologies, such as data analytics, 3D printing and machine learning.
Through innovation, “we’ve made great strides in defeating COVID-19 and creating the manufacturing workforce of the future,” said MLC co-founder, Vice President and Executive Director David R. Brousell in a statement. He added, “The past year was possibly the most challenging in modern history for manufacturing operations. But we also saw how critical modern manufacturing is to our society and to our quality of life.”
This year, the MLC also unveiled its Creators Respond Honor Roll, an acknowledgement of all nominations that were directly tied to pandemic response. The honorees included:
- ALOM Technologies
- Anheuser-Busch InBev
- Bridge Publications Inc.
- Dow Inc.
- Flex
- IBM
- Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals
- Merck & Co., Inc.
- Roche and Genentech
- Smithfield Foods
Also announced at the gala were this year’s High Achievers, the projects with the highest scores in each
- Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Analytics Leadership: IBM for Manufacturing Quality Inspection with AI and Edge Computing
- Collaborative Innovation Leadership: Roche and Genentech for Rapid Technical Transfer
- Engineering and Production Technology Leadership: Anheuser-Busch InBev for Project Segue and General Motors for GM Additive Industrialization Center (tie)
- Enterprise Integration and Technology Leadership: Dow for Dow Manufacturing 4.0
- Industrial Internet of Things Leadership: Intertape Polymer Group for Operational Excellence Through Digital Transformation
- Operational Excellence Leadership: Aircraft Optical Network Diagnostic System
- Supply Chain Leadership: Corning for Global Supply Management Transformation
- Sustainability Leadership: Owens Corning for Foamular NGX
- Talent Management Leadership: Hologic for Building a Talent Management System for a 4.0 Medical Device Company in Costa Rica
A complete list of 2021 winners is available here.
