Now, in its seventh year, the Manufacturing Excellence Awards seeks to accentuate the top performers in a highly complex and varied industry.
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The WBJ newsroom gives out six awards every year, such as 40 Under Forty, Outstanding Women in Business, and Business Leader of the Year. Of those annual honors, only one is set to highlight a specific industry: manufacturing.
Now, in its seventh year, the Manufacturing Excellence Awards seeks to accentuate the top performers in a highly complex and varied industry, which includes biotech firms, cannabis growers, medical equipment makers, machinery, breweries, food processors, and furniture makers. Selecting the best of the best each year is becoming increasingly difficult, as so many companies with very different but mostly equal accomplishments and initiatives are doing great work.
The Manufacturer of the Year for 2022 is Catania Oils, a company blending four generations of family values with modern solutions in food manufacturing. Two Fortune 1000 companies whose reach spreads across the globe while they maintain significant local operations – Bristol Myers Squibb and Waters Corp. – showcase the ways manufacturers are working to solve the workforce shortage while providing opportunities to disadvantaged groups.
Two companies less than 10 years old – Solvus Global and Ascend Elements, both started out of technology developed at Worcester Polytechnic Institute – have already made their mark on the industry, providing solutions to a range of the world’s problems. Burkart-Phelan, Inc. has spent 40 years crafting the perfect musical instruments, often alongside and by the hands of musicians.
This year’s Manufacturing Champion, Jeannie Hebert, has dedicated her career to helping the industry find the workers it so desperately needs, by setting up programs to provide training and making sure potential employees know about the salary and satisfaction a manufacturing career can provide.
In addition to the profiles linked below, WBJ will honor these six companies and one individual as part of its Central Mass Manufacturing Summit & Awards, to be held May 10 at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester. We invite you to come learn more about this important industry, from some of the best companies in the region.
2022 Manufacturing Excellence Awards
- Manufacturer of the Year: Catania Oils
- Top Product Design & Innovation: Burkart-Phelan, Inc.
- Workforce Development Award: Bristol Myers Squibb
- Green Manufacturing Award: Ascend Elements, Inc.
- Best Collaboration Award: Waters Corp.
- Manufacturing Champion: Jeannie Hebert
- Rising Star: Solvus Global
