Honoring Manufacturing in the Region

On Thursday June 24,2010 the Centralina Economic Development Commission hosted the first annual Advanced Manufacturing Awards event at the Embassy Suites in Concord. Over 100 attendees participated in the ceremony to honor the nominees and winners of this regional awards competition for advanced manufacturing. Twenty other local businesses and organizations that support manufacturing in the region joined to promote this competition and were on hand to honor the winners at the ceremony." After a warm welcome from EDC Chair George Dunlap,EDC Vice-Chair Bill Thunberg began the festivities. Dr. Brigid Mullany from the Charlotte Research Institute at UNC-Charlotte was the keynote speaker.

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The awards recognized excellence in manufacturing in three separate categories: Process Improvement,Innovation,and Green Process Improvement." Teams of judges who were experienced practitioners or subject matter experts were used in each of the categories." Each category was judged by a separate team of judges." Applications were reviewed for content using specific judging criteria.

The 2010 Advanced Manufacturing Awards winners are:

Polymer Group Inc. of Mooresville (Iredell County), Best Green Process

Clearwater Manufacturing of Huntersville,Innovation Award for employee size 1-49

Livingston & Haven,LLC,Charlotte, Innovation Award for employee size 100-499

Advanced Machine & Fabrication of Denver (Lincoln County), Best Process Improvement for employee size 1-49

PGT Industries and Performance Fibers Operations both of Salisbury (Rowan County) tied for Best Process Improvement,Company size 100-499

Polymer Group Inc.,Advanced Machine & Fabrication,PGT Industries and Performance Fibers Operations all have received Incumbent Worker Grant funding from the Centralina Workforce Development Board." These grants have provided funding for Lean Manufacturing,Process Improvement,ISO certification,and/or Teaming Building skills training. The training offerings have made these companies more efficient and more productive.

The Centralina Workforce Development Board was proud to be a Gold Sponsor of this event and congratulates the fine companies for the excellent work that they do.

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David Hollars,Executive Director of the Centralina WDB said "It was great to have companies represented from all around the region but we were especially happy to see firms we’ve worked with being honored for their outstanding commitment to excellence in manufacturing." These are the companies that will be here to employ the great workforce we are building."

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Laura Mundell,Director of the Centralina EDC,said,"The awards give us a chance to highlight the advanced levels of manufacturing in our region." While the numbers of people employed in manufacturing has declined the technical aspect of producing quality products has grown tremendously." Most of the manufacturing in the Greater Charlotte Region is done by small and medium sized businesses."

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"Firms that have upgraded technology,trained their workforce and made process improvements are seeing their productivity soar," Mundell said.

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To find out more about the awards and advanced manufacturing in our region please log on to www.mindsthatmanufacture.com or www.centralinaworkforce.com."" For more information about the event please contact Vail Carter at (704) 348-2710 or by email at vcarter@centralina.org.

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Vail Carter,Business Services Representative (Left) and David Hollars,Executive Director,(Right) Join Elizabeth Barr,President of Advanced Machine & Fabrication and Mike Barr,Operations Manager 2010 winners of the Best Process Improvement Award for companies sized 1-49 employees.

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Joe Peters (right) Plant Manager at PGI in Mooresville,joins James Jean,Reliability Manager (left) and Jeff Ward,Reliability Engineer (center) to accept the 2010 Best Green Process Award.

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