Peterbilt Motors Company and its parent company PACCAR Inc won four prestigious Manufacturing Leadership Awards as selected by Frost & Sullivan’s Manufacturing Leadership Council, and took top honors in the categories of Workplace Leadership and Engineering and Product Technology Leadership.
The top awards, called High Achiever Awards, were announced during the Manufacturing Leadership Summit in Palm Beach, Fla., at an event attended by hundreds of executives throughout various industries and markets.
“It’s an honor to be recognized for our ongoing efforts to innovate in all areas of our operations, particularly from among such a diverse and worthy field of candidates as those selected by Frost & Sullivan,” said Darrin Siver, Peterbilt General Manager and PACCAR Vice President. “Our design, engineering and manufacturing initiatives lead not only the trucking industry, but set new standards for quality, efficiency and technological leadership across all industries.”
Peterbilt won the High Achiever Award in the Workplace Leadership category for its Human Centered Design program used throughout all areas of its operations, including during its product design and testing.
Peterbilt’s Human Centered Design initiatives use a diverse, cross-departmental selection of company employees, as well as customers and individuals from other industries altogether (such as aerospace, law enforcement, telecommunications, etc.), to brainstorm, test and evaluate company processes, as well as in the development of new product introductions. This program has helped guide some of the company’s most successful new product launches, such as the double-bunk design on the company’s newest on-highway truck – the Model 579 – and the clean rail package for the company’s newest medium-duty truck, the Model 220. In other areas, it has been applied to such diverse departments as accounting, human resources and quality assurance.
PACCAR won the High Achiever Award in the Engineering and Product Technology Leadership category for its Flexible Machining Line Production Process at its PACCAR Engine manufacturing facility. The PACCAR award for its Flexible Machining Line Production Process recognizes the plant’s highly automated processes to manufacture a wide range of PACCAR MX-13 Engines with zero variance in quality and efficiency.
Peterbilt also received a Manufacturing Leadership Award for its model line approach to Lean Manufacturing Management in the Operational Leadership category and PACCAR also received a Manufacturing Leadership Award in the Engineering and Product Technology Leadership category for the Non-Contact Axle Alignment System in place at Peterbilt’s Denton, Texas, manufacturing facility.
“Continual improvement in our manufacturing processes to deliver our customers the highest quality products that meets their exact needs drives everything we do,” said Leon Handt, Peterbilt’s Assistant General Manager of Operations. “Our production facilities feature highly trained employees, complemented by strategic areas of robotics and automation for a finished, custom-built truck that is second to none in the commercial vehicle industry.”