- Manufacturing's Most Outstanding Leaders and Projects Receive Industry's Most Prestigious Awards

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, June 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Four manufacturing leaders who are driving the transformation of manufacturing as a sustainable, safe, and responsible source of global economic growth and innovation were recognized last night with top honors at the 10th annual Manufacturing Leadership Awards, presented by the Manufacturing Leadership Community, part of Frost & Sullivan.

At a gala awards ceremony at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, FL, attended by winners of the ML Awards, Dean Bartles, executive director of the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute, and Susan Lewis of The Dow Chemical Company, were named Manufacturing Leaders of the Year.

Also receiving top honors were The Boeing Company and Plastic Molding Technology, Inc. Named Manufacturers of the Year, both companies were recognized by the ML Awards distinguished panel of industry judges for having accomplished the most transformative projects of the year. Plastic Molding Technology was selected for having carried out the top overall project from among all 2014 ML Award winners with annual revenues of under $1 billion. Boeing was honored for accomplishing the top overall project from among all 2014 ML Award winners with annual revenues of more than $1 billion.

The Manufacturing Leadership Awards also announced its first-ever recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award, Richard E. Dauch, the late co-founder and  chairman of American Axle and Manufacturing and a force in the automotive manufacturing industry for nearly half a century. Dauch died last year. Dauch's family members, David C. Dauch, Richard Dauch, and Sandy Dauch, accepted the award posthumously.

Eleven winners of ML High Achiever Awards and one winner of the ML Editors' Choice Awards were also announced. The High Achiever Awards are presented to a select group of ML Award-winning projects announced earlier this year.  High Achievers received the most votes from the judges in each of the nine ML Award categories. Winners of the Editors' Choice Awards were selected by members of the Manufacturing Leadership Community editorial staff which found them to be projects that represented great potential and captured the spirit of the ML Awards.

Also honored were winners of the ML Technology Partner Awards and President's Awards. These technology providers played key roles in enabling ML Award winners to achieve outstanding performance.

"Once again this year, ML Award winners exemplify a rising spirit in the manufacturing industry to 'break the egg' – to re-think assumptions, transform business models, employ game-changing technologies, and aggressively move ahead to a better future," said David R. Brousell, Global Vice President & Editorial Director, Manufacturing Leadership Community. "Innovation has truly become the driving force in the industry today."

Bartles, a longtime leader in the defense manufacturing industry and a member of the Manufacturing Leadership Council, was recognized for his tireless advocacy for the education of manufacturing's future leaders and many other accomplishments.

Lewis was honored for her success in making environmental health and safety a number one priority at Dow and beyond.

Boeing was selected as the Large Manufacturer of the Year for its ThreatNavigator project, a system that taps into data feeds from around the globe to provide a real-time situational operating picture with visual analytics. Boeing uses ThreatNavigator to protect its supply chain and its most valuable asset: its people.

Plastic Molding Technology was honored as the Small/Medium Manufacturer of the Year for two transformational projects, a comprehensive lean continuous improvement initiative and a multi-dimensional, integrated sustainability project that, together, produced significant and ongoing savings and resulted in record earnings for PMT.

Other top 2014 ML Awards honors and their recipients were:

Editors' Choice Award:

• Otis Elevator Corporation for its Cloud Application Initiative;

High Achiever Awards:

• Procter & Gamble Company in the Customer Value Leadership Category for its Consumer Place Project;
• Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in the Sustainability Leadership Category for its Environmentally Conscious Aircraft Coatings Project (tie)
• BMW Manufacturing Company in the Sustainability Leadership Category for its Building Management System Project (tie);
• Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. in the Enterprise Technology Leadership Category for its Integrated Design-to-Manufacturing Project;
• PACCAR, Inc. in the Engineering and Production Technology Category for its Flexible Engine Machining Line Project;
• Card-Monroe Corp. in the Product Leadership Category for its ColorPoint Project;
• WMS Gaming in the Supply Chain Leadership Category for its Procurement Cost Management Transformation Project (tie);
• Oracle Corp. in the Supply Chain Leadership Category for its Logistics Supplier Collaboration Project;
• The Dow Chemical Company in the Operational Leadership Category for its Operational Excellence and Reliability Technologies Development Project;
• Peterbilt Motors Company in the Workplace Leadership Category for its Human-Centered Design Project;
• The Virginia Manufacturers Association in the Industry Advocacy Leadership Category for its Dream it. Do it. Virginia. Project.

Also honored at the ML Awards Gala event were Technology Partner and President's Award winners that helped winners achieve outstanding performance. Winners of the Technology Partner Award were:  AeroScout Industrial, AT&T, Inc., Autodesk, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., Dassault Systemes, Durr Assembly Products GmbH, E2open, Inc., Google, Inc., IBM Corporation, IQMS, Inc., Librestream Technologies, Inc., Mitsubishi Electric Automation, Inc., Motorola Solutions, Inc., Oracle Corp., PTC, Corp., Resolution Tube, Schenck RoTec Corporation, SheerTrans Solutions, Siemens PLM Software, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., and Teradata Corp.

Winners of the President's Award were honored for having enabled customers to win ML Awards for five years in a row. They are AT&T Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., and IQMS, Inc.

Nominations for the 2015 Manufacturing Leadership Summit will open in August 2014 at http://mlawards.gilcommunity.com/

About the Manufacturing Leadership Community 

The Manufacturing Leadership Community, Frost & Sullivan, is the world's first member-driven, global business leadership network dedicated to senior executives in the manufacturing industry. The Manufacturing Leadership Community's mission is to help senior executives define and shape a better future for themselves, their organizations, and the industry at large. The Community offers  an extensive portfolio of leadership networking, information and professional development products, programs, and services -- including the Manufacturing Leadership Community Website, an online global business network with 6,900 members around the world; the Manufacturing Leadership Council, an invitation-only executive organization of over 100 members; the annual Manufacturing Leadership Summit; the Manufacturing Leadership Awards, celebrating industry achievement; and the thought-leading Manufacturing Leadership Journal. For more information, please visit www.MLCouncil.com

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