They have the title of being Polk County’s largest employer, they manufacture over 600 products and have a payroll of $20 million, and now, the Cedartown HON plant has won what Business Week terms as the Nobel Prize of manufacturing – the Shingo Prize.

The Shingo Prize recognizes companies, divisions and plants in the United States, Canada and Mexico for outstanding excellence in manufacturing and superior customer service and business performance.

Recipients of the Shingo are graded on five areas of distinction – management culture and infrastructure; core manufacturing strategy and system integration; business function and process integration; quality, cost and delivery service outputs and customer satisfaction and business outcomes.

General Manager of the Cedartown HON Company, Todd Murphy said the award came as no surprise to him.

“Receiving the Shingo Prize is an outstanding achievement and a result of our members’ dedication to continuos improvement and exceeding customer expectations, “ said Murphy.

Comprised of six manufacturing units, a distribution center, a customer service unit and other business offices, the 535,000 square foot facility is located among other factories in the Cedartown Industrial Park.

The Cedartown site is one of ten plants of the HON Company, based in Muscatine, Iowa and has been in production since 1969.

The distribution center located inside the plant is responsible for the preparation and shipment of an average of 35,000 HON products throughout the Southeastern United States.

“We are the first HON facility to achieve this and join an elite group of Shingo Prize winning companies such as Ford Motor Company, Delphi Automotive Systems and Lockheed,” explained Murphy.

An excerpt from the Shingo examiner report states, “at the Cedartown facility, people are the most important asset. From the beginning, founders chose to call those who worked for the company as ‘members’ rather than employees….each member is a shareholder in the company. This creates a strong culture of ownership, shared responsibility and member empowerment.”

The HON plant also excelled in environmental issues, according to the report.

There have been over 400,000 gallons of paint recycled over the past 15 years and the plant saves 70 million gallons of water by recycling their welding cooling water each year.

The HON management recently provided a catered luncheon for their members to demonstrate their appreciation and to congratulate them for their efforts in acquiring the Shingo Prize.

Joy Leifheight, a HON member for 22 years was in attendance at the luncheon. “This is a great accomplishment for this company and very beneficial for all HON companies in the US,” she stated.

As a HON member for 30 years, Gary Zimmerman said he took pride in being given this prize. “I’ve been here for a long time and I have been a part of every improvement effort the company has had.”

The Shingo Prize is named for Japanese industrial engineer Shigeo Shingo. Shingo has been described as an engineering genius and helped create the Toyota Production System.