Ford's John Fleming, 3D printing pioneer Chuck Hull and GE receive top honors

CARLSBAD, Calif., June 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- This week at the 12th annual Manufacturing Leadership (ML) Awards, produced by Frost & Sullivan's Manufacturing Leadership Council, Ford Motor Company's recently-retired top manufacturing executive, John Fleming was named Manufacturing Leader of the Year, and General Electric (GE) received top honors as the Manufacturer of the Year, Large Enterprise.

Winners of the 2016 ML Awards, announced earlier this year, gathered at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. for a gala where they were recognized for their outstanding achievements. From among the 75 winners, the program's distinguished panel of expert judges selected Ford's Fleming as the Manufacturing Leader of the Year. Fleming was recognized for having led his team in the reengineering and rebuilding of manufacturing for Ford's F-150 truck in record time, thus, making the company's bold redesign of the all-aluminum-body truck a resounding success.

Selected as Manufacturer of the Year, Large Enterprise, GE developed the Industrial Internet Consortium. The Consortium is a 2-year-old initiative that is leveraging the power of 3,500 members and representing 250 organizations from 25 countries, to drive the Manufacturing 4.0 era by breaking down technology silos, improving machine-to-machine communications, and bringing the physical and digital worlds closer together.

"The ML Awards' top winners in 2016 are at the forefront of the Manufacturing 4.0 era, embracing emerging technologies and innovative business models to deliver greater value to customers," said David R. Brousell, Global Vice President & Editorial Director, Manufacturing Leadership Council. "I congratulate these manufacturers and the leadership teams that made their achievements possible."

Another winner, Chuck Hull, co-founder and chief technology officer of 3D Systems, was named the recipient of the Manufacturing Leadership Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his invention of stereolithography, the first commercial rapid prototyping technology commonly known as 3D printing. Senet Inc., a start-up enabling breakthrough Internet of Things applications, was also named Manufacturer of the Year, Small Enterprise.

Twelve recipients of ML High Achiever Awards were also announced. The High Achiever Awards are presented to a select group of ML Award-winning projects. These ML Award winners received the most votes from the judges in each of the 12 ML Award project categories. Winners of the High Achiever Awards were:

The Dow Chemical Company in the Big Data & Advanced Analytics Category for its Operations Analytics with Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence Project;
The Dow Chemical Company in the Customer Value Leadership Category for its Pack Studios Project;
Kostal of America, Inc. in the Engineering and Production Technology Leadership Category for its Advanced Manufacturing Assembly Lines Project;
Lexmark International, Inc. in the Enterprise Technology Leadership Category for its Enterprise Social Networking Project;
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in the Innovation Process Leadership Category for its Automated Drilling and Fastening Systems Integration Using Reverse Engineering Project;
AGCO Corporation in the Internet of Things in Manufacturing Leadership Category for its Wearable Technology in the Plant Project;
The Boeing Company in the Mobility in Manufacturing Leadership Category for its Go4Zero - One Day at a Time Project;
The Dow Chemical Company in the New Product Leadership Category for its Dow AgroSciences Arylex ™ Project;
General Motors Company in the Next-Generation Leadership Category for its Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education Project;
Peterbilt Motors Company in the Operational Excellence Leadership Category for the Truck Assembly Process Efficiency Project;
Cisco Systems, Inc. in the Supply Chain Leadership Category for its Supply Collaboration Platform Project;
Lexmark International, Inc. in the Sustainability Leadership Category for its TonerPave Project.
Winners of the ML Technology Partner Awards were also recognized. These technology providers played key roles in assisting many ML Award winners achieve an outstanding performance.

Winners of the Manufacturing Leadership Technology Partner Award were:

Cisco Systems, Inc., Demand Management, Inc., Epicor Software Corp., Librestream Technologies, Inc., Logility, Inc., Lucid Way E-Learning Group, Netsuite, Inc., Oracle Corp., Paper-Less, LLC, CADENAS PARTsolutions, Rockwell Automation, Inc., Siemens PLM Software, Smartware Group, Inc., Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., and Teradata Corp.

Nominations for the 2017 Manufacturing Leadership Summit will open in August 2015 at http://mlawards.gilcommunity.com/

About the Manufacturing Leadership Council

The Manufacturing Leadership Council, Frost & Sullivan, is the world's first member-driven, global business leadership network dedicated to senior executives in the manufacturing industry. The Manufacturing Leadership Council's mission is to help senior executives define and shape a better future for themselves, their organizations, and the industry at large. The Council produces 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 over 6,700 members worldwide; the Manufacturing Leadership Council, an invitation-only executive organization of over 260 members; the annual Manufacturing Leadership Summit; the Manufacturing Leadership Awards, celebrating industry achievement; and the thought-leading Manufacturing Leadership Journal. For more information, visit www.MLCouncil.com.

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