Press releases
ZF Lemforder UK Limited, based in Solihull, has won the inaugural Midlands Region Manufacturing Excellence Award.
ZF Lemforder, which assembles corner units - suspension, drive shaft and brake assemblies for three Land Rover models, won the award in recognition of the hugely successful work to prepare the facility to meet increased production requirements. The Midland Region runners up were Bridgnorth Aluminium and Building Adhesives.
The Award was presented to ZF Lemforder by the President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Patrick Kniveton, at a high profile ceremony in Birmingham on Friday 21 March.
Dr Colin Brown, Director of Engineering at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said:
“The fantastic enthusiasm and professionalism of the team at ZF Lemforder makes them very worthy winners of this inaugural award.
“These Awards not only give companies recognition, but also the opportunity to receive structured and valuable advice, free of charge, from world class experts. In a time of fierce competition in business, the feedback report provided through the Manufacturing Excellence Awards could make the difference between a company’s success and failure.
“After successfully piloting regional awards in the Midlands and Yorkshire/North East England, it is exciting to be able to now offer the Manufacturing Excellence Awards to the whole of the UK.
“The free, easy to use online assessment tool is available until Friday 9 May.”
Adrian Chell, Site Manager at ZF Lemforder said:
“The Manufacturing Excellence Awards offered us good constructive feedback on areas to improve and also areas of strength.
“Collecting the award at the Midlands Engineering Dinner was a fantastic feeling, the team and I were really proud to receive this level of recognition in such a grand arena of established engineers.
“We will continue and strive to achieve excellence in all areas of our business and we look forward to the exciting challenges ahead this year in supporting our customers increasing demands.”
In September 2013 two regional Manufacturing Excellence Awards were launched. On the 14 March Cummins was announced as the winning company for the Yorkshire/North East Award at a celebration in Sheffield. The runners up were Airedale Springs and Agfa Graphics.
The Manufacturing Excellence Awards have been helping UK manufacturing companies improve for over 30 years. Building on the success of the Regional Awards, this year marks the launch of a new National process, aimed at easing the path to gaining individually tailored expert advice.
The six steps are:
1) Register at: http://www.imeche.org/manufacturingexcellence and complete the company and financial profiles
2) Complete the online questionnaire, providing evidence for the answers you have selected
3) Receive instant personalised feedback for your business
4) Short-listed companies all receive a panel assessment visit to select the finalists
5) Finalists make a presentation at The Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London to an elite panel of judges
6) The National Manufacturing Excellence Awards Ceremony, where the winners are announced, will take place on Tuesday 30 September at WMG, part of Warwick University
The 2014 Manufacturing Excellence Awards is run in partnership with AESSEAL®, The ERA Foundation, Grant Thornton, Lombard, MAS (Manufacturing Advisory Service), NatWest and Renishaw. This year’s Sponsors are Hexagon and EPlan and Supporters are the Department for Business and Innovation, the MTC, Power Panels and WMG.
Notes to Editors
- The above photograph shows from left to right Gary Eustace, Production Manager (ZF Lemforder); Stevan Gill, Production Operator (ZF Lemforder); David Rumney, Engineering student (ZF Lemforder); Steve Shinton, Quality Manager (ZF Lemforder); Terry Somerfield, Managing Director (ZF Lemforder); Adrian Chell, Site Manager (ZF Lemforder); and Dr Brian Walker, Member of the Manufacturing Excellence Award Committee.