Worcester Business Journal

22 Worcester Business Journal | October 12, 2020 | wbjournal.com A Revolutionary partnership between employers, educators and workforce boards, geared towards making Massachusetts the epicenter of Americas manufacturing. TRAINING FOR TOMORROW Powering Today's Industrial Revolution remakema.com M A N U F A C T U R I N G E X C E L L E N C E A W A R D S Adaptability & loyalty Two of the winners this year, Web Industries, Inc. and Swissturn/USA, Inc., are employee-owned companies, as their executives have learned those firms owned by their workers tend to perform better. Beyond giving workers a slice of the pie, a common thread among all the winners is their commitment to the development of their employees, both from professional and personal standpoints. is loyalty translates to their relationships with their customers as well, as the manufacturers help their clients overcome problems and find solutions not readily apparent. And, of course, in the year 2020 where everyone has changed to new realities multiple times, the Manufacturing Excellence Award winners have found ways to not only survive the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, but to provide new products and services to the particular needs the pandemic is creating. is year, too, WBJ is introducing a new category to the Manufacturing Excellence Awards, given not to a company – like the other awards – but to an individual who has been a standard bearer for the industry: the Manufacturing Champion Award. In this inaugural year, the award goes to Kathie Mahoney, who helped small and midsize regional manufacturers for two decades at the Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership and has now gone on to a similar role in Rhode Island. ese awards, typically given in the spring, were delayed to the fall this year, as WBJ wanted to put on the accompanying Central Mass. Manufacturing Summit as an in-person event and hoped the six- month delay would create enough time for the coronavirus pandemic to get under control. at hasn't happened, unfortunately, so the summit will be virtual this year. But even without the in-person event, these winners show there is a lot about the industry to be celebrated. - Brad Kane, editor MANUFACTURING S U M M I T & EXCELLENCE AWARDS WBJ Worcester Business Journal I n the following pages, you will find the traits most shared between the eight WBJ Manufacturing Excellence Award winners for 2020 – who run the gamut of the industry's numerous subsectors – to be the ability to adapt to changing situations and strong advocacy for their employees and their customers. Overall Manufacturing Excellence, large company Dexter-Russell, Inc. Overall Manufacturing Excellence, small company Mercury Wire Products, Inc. Rising Star CommCan, Inc. Product Design & Innovation Award Web Industries, Inc. Workforce Development Award Swissturn/USA, Inc. Collaboration in Manufacturing Award The Neles Corp. Manufacturing Champion Award Kathie Mahoney, MassMEP Green Manufacturing Award Process Cooling Systems Inc. For more info and to register: www.wbjournal.com/diversity WBJ WEBCAST SERIES WBJ WEBCAST FORUMS WBJ WEBCAST FORUMS WBJ WEBCAST FORUMS WBJ WEBCAST SERIES A WBJ WEBCAST SERIES A With the national sea change of the last few months, business leaders are increasingly seeing that cultivating a diverse and inclusive workforce is not just the right thing to do, but also the smart thing to do for the future of their organization. Please join us for this special webcast in which we'll explore specific steps that large and small organizations can make to further promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Webcast Sponsors: Building a better business through Diversity and Inclusion WBJ WEBCAST SPECIAL FORUM

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