Originally published at corporate.dow.com. Dow ranked No. 22 on The Fair360, formerly DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list in 2020.
Dow has been recognized with five Manufacturing Leadership Awards by the Manufacturing Leadership Council, a division of the National Association of Manufacturers. The awards are given to individuals and projects that have excelled in the advancement of manufacturing capabilities. Recipients are chosen by a panel of expert judges for results that have delivered outstanding examples of technology-driven leadership combined with a commitment to innovation and improvement.
“We are so proud of the many talented people at Dow who continue to make significant contributions towards innovation and continuous improvement every day,” said John Sampson, senior vice president, Operations. “This recognition is a true testament to those efforts as well as Dow’s constant pursuit of delivering greater value to all of our stakeholders.”
The Manufacturing Leadership Council has recognized Dow for three significant project awards.
- Dow’s Manufacturing 4.0 has received the Enterprise Integration and Technology Award. Dow Manufacturing 4.0 is a breakthrough initiative in Dow’s Operations strategy that is designed to improve productivity and competitiveness while driving continued growth and raising enterprise-wide performance. Digital is playing a critical role in helping Dow achieve its ambition to become the world’s most innovative, customer-centric, inclusive and sustainable materials science company. Dow is bringing together the best of Dow’s people, processes, technology and data to create a seamless, and well-harmonized and that delivers greater value to our customers, employees, shareholders, communities and the planet.
- The E2E Business Planning Program was awarded the Supply Chain Award. The E2E program was designed to drive simplification and optimization at the enterprise level. This included improvement efforts that span from how Dow engages with its suppliers through to its customers, improving and simplifying Dow’s business processes, systems, and organizations to enhance efficiency, deliver value, drive consistency and make it easy to do business with and within Dow.
- Accelerating Innovation in Instrumentation & Sensors at Dow Texas Operations received the Industrial Internet of Things Award. This project has accelerated the deployment of smart sensor technology across Dow’s largest site at Texas Operations in Freeport, Texas and has utilized smart sensors to monitor key equipment and process parameters as well as deployed mobile tools for Dow’s instrument and electrical personnel to use in the field. The smart sensor network better utilizes and digitalizes process information leading to improvements in reliability, productivity, asset utilization, and safety as well as has become a key component in connecting the digital thread of data flow.
Two members of Dow’s team were recognized with individual awards.
- Billy B. Bardin, global digitalization director, was selected for the Visionary Digital Leader award. Recipients of this award are among manufacturing’s most forward-thinking leaders. They are essential to ushering in manufacturing’s digital era and they serve as a role model for their peers.
Bardin began his career with Dow in 2000 and has been instrumental in implementing Dow’s digital journey. He has served in several research and manufacturing leadership roles, including most recently as global operations technology director and hydrocarbons, energy, and chemicals R&D director. Bardin has received past awards from the National Association of Manufacturers Manufacturing Leadership Council for work in talent development and advanced manufacturing. He was recently named as one of Smart Industry Magazine’s Top 50 Industrial Digital Transformation Leaders and serves as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors for MxD, a U.S. advanced manufacturing institute.
- Katherine Duggan, senior process automation engineer, was selected as a Rising Digital Star due to her work in the advancement and deployment of Dow’s mobile worker technology. Recipients of this award are among manufacturing’s brightest future stars and are leading the way for the possibilities of tomorrow.
Duggan joined Dow in 2013 as a Production Engineer at Dow’s Croydon, PA Coatings facility where she led efforts to maintain stable, reliable, and safe operations. Since then she has served in several leadership roles within M&E and has been widely recognized for her leadership and technical contributions across Dow. Duggan has received two Dow Technology Center Awards, the highest award for technical contribution and commercialization of technology at Dow.
