The largest missile manufacturing facility in the world, an appliance manufacturer and 10 automotive suppliers are 2004 recipients of the 2004 Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing.

Dubbed the "Nobel Prize of Manufacturing" by Business Week, the Shingo Prize focuses on lean manufacturing practices. The prize is named after Shigeo Shingo, who helped create the Toyota Production System and other manufacturing processes. Nine state-level awards and a public-sector category, primarily for military depots doing remanufacturing, have been implemented in recent months.

Three notable achievements of the 2004 recipients include:

• Seven of the 12 achieved product quality of less than 10 returned parts per million opportunities from the customer.
• Seven of the 12 have inventory turns of more than 25 per year (compared to a U.S. average of 8).
• Premium freight as a percent of production costs averaged 0.12 percent.

These data cover the full-year of 2003 and all are clear indicators of world-class manufacturing achievements.

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