Industry Leaders Honored at 2025 Manufacturing Excellence Awards

LANSING (Nov. 21, 2025) — Manufacturers move Michigan forward as the centerpiece of the state’s economic strength, stability and prosperity. The industry’s innovation and resilience was on full display at the annual Manufacturing Excellence Awards gala held by the Michigan Manufacturers Association (MMA) on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025 in Lansing.  

The prestigious awards program celebrated the winners of the 2025 Manufacturing Excellence Awards and this year’s gala featured the announcement of the highly anticipated winners of six award categories.

The 2025 Manufacturing Innovation Excellence Award winner is Elite Mold and Engineering Inc. of Shelby Township. The Manufacturing Innovation Excellence award showcases a company that has brought an innovative concept to market.

Dearborn-based Goodwill Integrated Solutions has been named the 2025 Manufacturing Community Impact Award winner. The award recognizes a manufacturing business that has shown exemplary leadership in serving its community or state and is an example of the involved and giving nature of manufacturers.   

The 2025 Manufacturing Sustainability Award powered by Consumers Energy is presented to Hemlock Semiconductor LLC, located in Hemlock. This award recognizes a Michigan manufacturing company of any size that is planning and taking action to improve sustainability through regenerative solutions in an effort to make a revolutionary and lasting impact.

This year's Coolest Thing Made in Michigan Award powered by Rehmann winner is the PF1000 Prime Focus System manufactured by Adrian-based Observable Space. In 2018, MMA started the Coolest Thing Made in Michigan competition to call attention to the products being made by creative thinkers and doers right here in the Great Lakes State.

The 2025 Manufactured Export of the Year Award was created in partnership with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation to recognize export success. This year’s award winner is the One Way Clutch produced by Means Industries, an Amsted Automotive Company located in Saginaw.

Observable Space in Adrian, has been named the 2025 John G. Thodis Michigan Manufacturer of the Year – Small Tier Award winner. The award carries the name and the legacy of MMA’s longest serving president, John G. Thodis, whose lifetime of industry service is one that all deserving manufacturers strive to duplicate.

Previously announced winners were celebrated at the gala event co-hosted by MMA President & CEO John J. Walsh and Donna Kuhr, Director and Shareholder of PTM Corporation in Ira Township. 

Saginaw-based Amsted Automotive is the winner of the 2025 John G. Thodis Michigan Manufacturer of the Year – Large Tier Award, which has been presented since 1981 to honor the important, positive and tangible contributions individual manufacturers make to their employees, customers and communities.

The recipient of the 2025 Manufacturing Lifetime Achievement Award is Albion-based William H. Dobbins, President of Caster Concepts. The Manufacturing Lifetime Achievement award is given to a manufacturer who has excelled in the industry and inspires his or her peers, emerging leaders, lawmakers and educators to strive to make significant contributions to his or her company, industry and community. 

The Manufacturing Woman of the Year Award was created in 2019 to honor the roles that women play in manufacturing. For the 2025 Excellence Awards, MMA is proud to present two Manufacturing Woman of the Year Awards to Laurie Harbour, Partner at Wipfli, based in Southfield as well as Lisa Renee Conn, General Manager of Llink Technologies in Brown City.

The 2025 Manufacturing Talent Champion Award winner is the Bekum America Apprenticeship Program based in Williamston. The winner of the Manufacturing Talent Champion works to develop Michigan’s next generation workforce and bring attention to the industry’s variety of career options.  

The Manufacturing Emerging Leader Award is presented for noteworthy contributions to the industry and the potential for future accomplishments within Michigan manufacturing. For 2025, two Emerging Leader Awards were presented to Zackery Bishop, President of 4 Flutes Machining based in Vicksburg and Olivia Ostrander, Parts Sales Specialist at Powell Fabrication & Manufacturing LLC in St. Louis.

“Day after day, year after year, our industry addresses the needs of humankind in ways both well-known and hardly recognized but nevertheless appreciated,” said John J. Walsh, MMA President & CEO. “And all the while, owners, operators and employees keep creating, solving problems and taking risks in market conditions that can seem nearly overwhelming and daunting.”  

Walsh continued, “Manufacturing has provided individuals and their families with financial health and stability, strengthened communities and led Michigan and the entire nation to unimaginable financial success and stability. It is our honor to celebrate this industry that has propelled Michigan forward through the best of times and the worst of times.”

For more information or to schedule a call with the 2025 Manufacturing Excellence Awards winners, contact MMA’s Delaney McKinley at 517-303-3541 or mckinley@mimfg.org.

Learn more about the Manufacturing Excellence Awards at mimfg.org/excellence and the Coolest Thing Made in Michigan at micoolestthing.org.

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