Methodology for Ranking the 2008 IW 1000

The 13th annual IW 1000 includes publicly traded manufacturing companies from 46 countries and the Chinese province of Taiwan. IndustryWeek partnered with Mergent Inc. to create the list. Led by project manager Ricardo Angel, Mergent's global databases were used to identify all publicly held manufacturing firms meeting IndustryWeek's selection criteria. Erik L. Fine, a Charlotte, N.C.-based information consultant, oversaw the analysis and data-collection effort.

The actual cutoff for inclusion on this year's list was US$2.5 billion. Because all publicly traded manufacturing companies are eligible, a number of subsidiaries and associate companies that are publicly traded separately from their parent company made the list along with the parent.

Mergent collected the financial data elements directly from reports distributed by the corporations in their native currencies as reported in their headquarter countries according to national accounting standards. To accurately reflect the companies' core businesses, only revenue numbers from continuing operations were used.

Currency valuations in U.S. dollars were made using exchange rates as of Dec. 31, 2007. For companies that have recently changed their fiscal-year end, the most recent 12-month figures have been used.