Saint-Gobain, one of the world’s largest building materials companies and manufacturer of innovative material solutions, recognized for excellence in manufacturing leadership

Malvern, PA., July 10, 2019 – Saint-Gobain, one of the world’s largest building materials companies and manufacturer of innovative material solutions, has been recognized for excellence in manufacturing leadership in two categories by the Manufacturing Leadership Council, a division of the National Association of Manufacturers. Now in its 15th year, the Manufacturing Leadership (ML) Awards program honors organizations and individuals that are shaping the future of global manufacturing.

“On behalf of everyone at Saint-Gobain, we are honored to receive this distinguished recognition as manufacturing industry leaders,” said Mark Rayfield, President and CEO of Saint-Gobain Corporation. “This is a true testament to the company's vision for leading manufacturing growth and excellence and is a direct reflection of the excellent work being done by our more than 15,500 employees who are pushing boundaries each and every day to realize that vision.”

Saint-Gobain North America was recognized during this year’s Manufacturing Leadership Summit awards gala, held on Thursday, June 13, 2019 with the first designation in Engineering and Production Technology Leadership for the Saint-Gobain North America Stellar Factory initiative. Conceived by Saint-Gobain North America Chairman Tom Kinisky, who is Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer of the company globally, the Stellar Factory initiative was designed to create spaces where the company can trial new technologies and create the roadmap for others to more quickly implement and improve. 

“With over 135 Saint-Gobain manufacturing locations in North America, represented by multiple business units, many plants are working on transformational projects; however, we were missing the opportunity to leverage our combined strengths and were not improving at the same pace as some of our other regional operations,” said Regan Gallo, Operations Director and Industry 4.0 Project Lead, CertainTeed Corporation, Saint-Gobain North America. “The Stellar Factory initiative was designed to provide the resources and communication needed to bring together Saint-Gobain’s manufacturing and business endeavors across North America to become a more unified team, embrace Manufacturing 4.0 technologies, realize greater operational efficiencies and improve the employee experience.”

Winners in the Engineering and Production Technology Leadership category embrace new design and production approaches to drive game-changing process improvements. In addition, the winning projects highlighted in this category must improve efficiency and quality, increase responsiveness, and reduce costs.

Saint-Gobain was awarded in a second category recognizing Talent Management Leadership for its Essentials of Manufacturing Early Career Development Program. Through this program, Saint-Gobain North America launched centralized sourcing for critical skills in order to build a pipeline of talent in manufacturing for generations to come. The new Essentials of Manufacturing (EOM) action learning early career program was developed in an effort to train the future manufacturing leaders for the company’s factories and target the emerging roles required to succeed in the industry. The program also provides a platform to attract and retain top talent who possess the competencies, curiosity, and growth mindset necessary to be catalysts in Saint-Gobain’s Industry 4.0 transformation. Winners in this category nurture and develop a new generation of leaders for the Manufacturing 4.0 era. They recruit bright new minds and find creative ways to build an innovative, engaged, and diverse workforce for the future.

Saint-Gobain is recognized among 80 projects and individual winners that represent small and large enterprises in a wide range of manufacturing markets. Each honoree leverages best-in-class processes, technologies and engaged teams to set themselves apart from the competition. In addition to Saint-Gobain, 2019 winners include Ford, IBM, Cisco Systems, Merck, The Dow Chemical Company, and Northrop Grumman.

 “Saint-Gobain is honored to be among such distinguished leaders in the manufacturing industry and to be recognized in two categories that give a great representation of our company’s mission,” said Carolyn Kelley, Vice President, Talent Management, Saint-Gobain North America. “Saint-Gobain’s efforts remain true to our principles and encourage us to push the boundaries of how we can always be better for our people, our communities and the environment – in the manufacturing world and beyond.”

Entries were submitted in 11 categories with nominations evaluated and scored by a panel of expert judges. Nine categories involved outstanding projects by a manufacturing company. Project categories included Artificial Intelligence and Analytics Leadership, Industrial Internet of Things Leadership, Operational Excellence Leadership and Talent Management Leadership. Two categories, Visionary Leadership and Next-Generation Leadership, recognized the achievements of individual manufacturing leaders.

“Congratulations to all of the 2019 Manufacturing Leadership Awards winners,” said Manufacturing Leadership Council Co-Founder, Vice President and Executive Director David R. Brousell. “By embracing new technologies and bold ideas, these teams and individual leaders are redefining the meaning of manufacturing excellence and demonstrating the transformative power of Manufacturing 4.0.”

Founded in 2008, and now a division of the National Association of Manufacturers, the Manufacturing Leadership Council’s mission is to inspire and support manufacturing executives to achieve transformational growth for themselves, their companies and the industry at large through enlightened leadership. The ML Summit, where the award ceremony gala took place, is a one-of-kind interactive gathering of manufacturing leaders from around the world. The theme for the 2019 Summit was “Manufacturing 4.0: Going for Gold—Strategies to Identify and Deliver Business Value from the Digital Revolution’s Next Phase.”

To see the list of the 2019 Manufacturing Leadership Awards winners, click here.

About Saint-Gobain in North America

Saint-Gobain, one of the world’s largest building materials companies and manufacturer of innovative material solutions, helps create great living spaces by combining comfort and sustainability. For more than three-and-a-half centuries, Saint-Gobain has been enhancing the wellbeing of people everywhere, whether it’s by addressing climate change, delivering true sustainable development, advancing the information revolution, participating in medical breakthroughs or playing a vital role in space exploration.

In North America, Saint-Gobain has approximately 160 locations and more than 15,500 employees. In the United States and Canada, Saint-Gobain reported sales of approximately $6.5 billion in 2018. Learn more about Saint-Gobain North America by visiting www.saint-gobain-northamerica.com and connect with Saint-Gobain North America on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.