What does Boon Inc. have in common with Celestica Inc.? At first glance, not much. Celestica, an $8.8 billion company in the highly competitive global electronics manufacturing services business, produces complex products sold worldwide. Boon, on the other hand, is a 3-year-old, eight-person manufacturer of bath toy holder Frog Pod and other baby products.

But dig a bit deeper and it becomes clear that Celestica and Boon share plenty. Both are thriving in rapidly changing industries. And both have proven able to stay at least a step ahead of the competition by using information technology to quickly transform critical business processes. Celestica, for example, recently put in place a supplier e-collaboration platform that has allowed the company to implement lean principles across its supply network. And Boon has deployed a series of Web portals for partners, enabling it to streamline ordering, replenishment, and other processes and keep up with 2,000% growth from 2005 to 2006.

Boon and Celestica have one other thing in common: For their achievements, they have been selected as two of Managing Automation's Progressive Manufacturing 50 for 2007. They join 48 other Progressive Manufacturing 50 winners — listed below — representing automotive, high tech, medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, and other manufacturing vertical industries. Each of the PM 50 winners was named to the list by a group of eight distinguished judges, who evaluated a record number of nominations describing a mind-boggling array of impressive transformation projects.

All of the companies on the PM 50 list have distinguished themselves by their accomplishments. However, a few achievements stand out. The judges have identified nine PM 50 High Achievers — one in each of the eight core mastery categories that define Progressive Manufacturing and one Progressive Manufacturer of the Year. These High Achievers will be announced at the Progressive Manufacturing Summit event June 12-14 in Las Vegas. The entire summit will be Webcast on June 13-14.

Our congratulations to the winners, and our thanks to the judges. Now it's on to Las Vegas!

The Winners

• Airflow Research

• Avago Technologies Ltd.

• Avaya Inc.