Strategic Manufacturing Awards 2008

Europes most senior heads of manufacturing & production gather to recognise outstanding achievements at this years Strategic Manufacturing Awards.

The evening of the second day at the European Manufacturing Strategies Summit 2008 played host to the Strategic Manufacturing Awards as over 300 of the continents leading manufacturing professionals gathered for last Wednesdays ceremony which took place in conjunction with Manufacturing Business Technology magazine and Rockwell Automation as lead ceremony sponsor.

Rewarding and celebrating excellence in vital disciplines including Green, Skills and IT in manufacturing over the past twelve months, the Awards recognised this years most pre-eminent enterprises for their success in delivering world-class performance in their chosen category.

The judging panel included some of the industrys most respected thought leaders such as Pierfrancesco Manenti, Research Director EMEA at IDC Manufacturing Insights and Mark Graban, Lean Manufacturing Coach and International Author, who spent the preceding three weeks sifting through a plethora of over 100 high quality entries with the unenviable task of deciding upon the shortlist and, more importantly, the winners.

Laurence Allen, Marketing Director for the ceremony commented. This evening is the culmination of months of hard work by the Awards creators, our sponsors and supporters in developing and delivering a formula to reinforce the strength of the manufacturing industry in challenging economic times. Everyone should be proud of their achievements.

With speculation prevalent throughout the entire day as to who would win an award, the evening began with a ceremonial drinks reception, followed by a short walk down the red carpet into the grand Diana Saal room at the Swisstel, where attendees were able to network as they sat down to a sumptuous three-course meal.

As coffee was served, the lights were dimmed as the well respected British broadcaster Peter Hobday, took to the stage as host for the evening. After a short introduction, a number of key industry leaders including Jordi Andreu, President EMEA at Rockwell Automation and Anne Fitzsimmons, Senior Vice President for Global Manufacturing Markets at Atos Origin, presented the awards:
 

THE WINNERS

Manufacturing IT, sponsored by Rockwell Automation Diageo
Innovation Award, sponsored by Microsoft Fatronik Tecnalia
Green Manufacturing Award, sponsored by Autodesk IDEKO S. Coop
Operational Excellence Award, sponsored by Atos Origin Danfoss
Skills in Manufacturing PA Consulting
Demand-Driven Manufacturer of the Year Autoglym

The awards concluded with IDEKO S. Coop scooping much-anticipated winner of winners Manufacturer of the Year award, sponsored by the Manufacturing Alumni, the Worlds first online community for manufacturing decision makers, with the celebrations continuing into the night.

The awards winners were certainly surprised and overwhelmed to be held in such esteem with Chris Molamphy, C.I Process team leader at Diageo commenting: To be shortlisted for the award for Manufacturing IT is, in itself, ample recognition that you are on our way to achieving Manufacturing Excellence. To then be judged the winner in this very competitive category, and recognised by your peers as delivering real value to the business through the use of IT is an honour and an unexpected accolade we were delighted to receive on the night

Bendt J. Jrgensen, Vice President of Danfoss Business Systems, on receiving their accolade stated: Over the past four to five years, we have aimed to set up a shared business system across Danfoss to improve the companys profitable growth rates and make us even more competitive. We have come far and all of the employees that have been involved have made a huge effort to make this happen. Winning this Operational Excellence Award is a clear recognition of this effort of which we are very proud. We will make positive use of it in our future work to create more continuous improvements.

Paul Phillips Director of Autoglym added: We are very pleased and with our win and privileged to be at the ceremony in the company of so many established manufacturing organisations

For more information about the Strategic Manufacturing Awards, please go to www.manufacturing-awards.com