Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.’s manufacturing plant in Americana, Brazil, has won The Shingo Prize, a prestigious honors for manufacturers and called "the Nobel prize of manufacturing" by Businessweek magazine, the tiremaker said.
Americana is the second Goodyear facility to be recognized by The Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence. The company’s Lawton, Okla., plant received a Shingo Silver Medallion in 2010.
“Earning The Shingo Prize is quite an honor and confirmation of Americana’s pursuit of excellence through continuous improvement culture. Our associates in Americana don’t just talk about operational excellence, they live it, breathe it and put it into action every day,” said Rich Kramer, Goodyear’s chairman and CEO.
The Shingo Prize was established in 1988 to educate, assess and recognize world-class organizations for creating a culture of continuous improvement through employee-empowerment and effective leadership. It is administered by the John M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University and named for Japanese industrial engineer Shigeo Shingo, who distinguished himself as one of the world’s leading experts in improving manufacturing processes, Goodyear said.
The Americana plant, built in 1971, produces passenger, light truck, commercial truck, farm and OTR tires and employs approximately 2,000.