IndustryWeek never tires of celebrating manufacturing excellence and applauding the people, places and processes that make it happen. This year proves no exception as we reveal our four IW Best Plants Award winners for 2022.
In a manufacturing landscape still not quite back to normal, this quartet of fantastic factories demonstrates that excellence on the plant floor is achievable in less-than-perfect operating conditions and without clear visibility ahead.
These four facilities performed, nevertheless, and brilliantly.
The 2022 IW Best Plants Award winners comprise the 32nd class of honorees. They join an IW Best Plants community that dates to 1990 (the first year of the annual competition) and share many traits: strong, participative leadership; smart, team-oriented workforces; keen understanding of plant-floor and supply chain operations; and an unswerving desire to always do better. Moreover, members of this IW Best Plants community never forget they can do better, that excellence today does not guarantee excellence tomorrow.
It is our pleasure to introduce the 2022 winners, in alphabetical order:
NOV Texas Oil Tools Conroe, Texas
Protolabs Injection Molding Facility Plymouth, Minnesota
The Raymond Corporation Greene, New York
Sandvik Coromant PU Westminster Westminster, South Carolina
“Things were supposed to be better in 2021. We went into the year thinking that supply chains would normalize, and we could all get back to business as usual. Instead, it’s still incredibly difficult to get materials into plants and finished goods out. The IW Best Plants class of 2022 suffered along with their peers, but they also rededicated themselves to manufacturing excellence, delivering clear wins in a rough market," says Robert Schoenberger, IndustryWeek editor-in-chief.
"I’m also excited by how diverse this group of winners is—a great assortment of large, medium and small producers with a blend of low-mix and high-mix production. This year’s winners clearly show that being the best isn’t about size or resources, it’s about creating and maintaining a pursuit of excellence.”
IndustryWeek is excited to share the stories of the 2022 IW Best Plants winners, both in the fall print edition and online at www.industryweek.com. The individual stories of the IW Best Plants winners will begin posting online in early September.
As you read about 2022 honorees, we urge you to learn from their efforts. Borrow ideas that make sense for your manufacturing operation. Gain insights from their mistakes. Let their pursuit of excellence spur your own.
Meet the Winners in Cleveland
IndustryWeek also will celebrate the 2022 IW Best Plants Award winners during an awards ceremony at the 2022 Manufacturing & Technology Show, an IndustryWeek leadership event, www.mfgtechshow.com, which will be held October 18-20 in Cleveland. Come see and hear from the winners at this show.
About the IW Best Plants Awards
The IndustryWeek Best Plants Awards program annually recognizes North American manufacturing plants that are on the leading edge of efforts to increase competitiveness, enhance customer satisfaction, and create stimulating and rewarding work environments.Winners are selected following a rigorous review of applications by a panel of IndustryWeek editors, who may be aided by independent evaluations from manufacturing experts and other knowledgeable persons. The panel looks for evidence of a comprehensive effort to achieve world-class manufacturing capability, including in such areas as quality, employee involvement, supplier partnerships, technology implementation, production systems and more. The winners must demonstrate improved performance metrics as a result of their efforts.
Selections are not finalized until site visits.
