IW Best Plants Winners: Lessons from Lean Leaders [VIDEO GALLERY]

May 7, 2014

The annual IndustryWeek Best Plants Conference celebrates manufacturing companies for significant achievements in continuous improvement, and the winners of the 2013 competition are emblematic of that drive for operational excellence. In the video gallery that follows, you'll learn what inspires and motivates lean leadership at several of these Best Plants companies. While the products that they make might be very different from each other, all the Best Plants winners share a common trait: a desire to be better tomorrow than they are today.

You can check out the rest of our coverage of the 2014 IW Best Plants Conference at the links below:

Continuous Improvement Caught on Video at IW Best Plants 2014

Nick Pinchuk: The Challenge of Choice in Continuous Improvement [EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW]

Excellence Up Close: IW Best Plants Conference

Smarter, Safer Robots Coming to US Manufacturing

Toyota's Success With Integrating Technology With Lean Manufacturing

Kennametal CEO: Debunking Manufacturing Myths

Secrets of Successful Onboarding: Michelin's Sherie Burdett on Employee Retention

Flextronics

IndustryWeek's Pat Panchak talks to Flextronics' Zahid Hussain and Anand Pradhan about the work that went into their Milpitas, Calif., facility becoming a 2013 IW Best Plants winner. Product innovation drives the energy and passion of the entire Flextronics team on their continuing lean and Six Sigma journeys.

General Cable

Joe Brown, plant manager at General Cable's Jackson, Tenn., plant, outlines for IndustryWeek's Jill Jusko the changes that needed to be made in order to be a profitable company and to become a Best Plants Winner. Brown's facility, which produces 25 million conductor feet of cable per day, focuses its continuous improvement efforts on its "All In" program--a culture shift focused on workforce engagement.

Thermo Fisher Scientific

Removing waste from processes is one of the hallmarks of lean manufacturing, and Thermo Fisher Scientific is particularly proud of its success in reducing landfill waste. Tim Hamel, manager, practical process improvement / lean enterprise at Thermo Fisher Scientific's Asheville, N.C., plant, tells IndustryWeek's Andy Friedman how his facility (a manufacturer of scientific instruments, including freezers, lab furnaces and centrifuges) reduced waste to landfill by 90% while focusing relentlessly on practical process improvements.

About the Author

Dave Blanchard | Senior Director of Content

Focus: Supply Chain

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During his career Dave Blanchard has led the editorial management of many of Endeavor Business Media's best-known brands, including IndustryWeek, EHS Today, Material Handling & Logistics, Logistics Today, Supply Chain Technology News, and Business Finance. He also serves as senior content director of the annual Safety Leadership Conference. With over 30 years of B2B media experience, Dave literally wrote the book on supply chain management, Supply Chain Management Best Practices (John Wiley & Sons, 2010), which has been translated into several languages and is currently in its second edition. He is a frequent speaker and moderator at major trade shows and conferences, and has won numerous awards for writing and editing. He is a voting member of the jury of the Logistics Hall of Fame, and is a graduate of Northern Illinois University.