The AME Excellence Award recognizes North American manufacturing or health care organizations that have demonstrated excellence in manufacturing and business operations. The Excellence Award recognizes a single plant or operating unit, including “maintenance, repair and overhaul” operations or a hospital in either the public or private sector. The AME Excellence Award criteria details a lean systems model for enterprise excellence. The primary focus of the award is to acknowledge continuous improvement, best practices, creativity and innovation. This award supports AME’s mission of inspiring commitment to enterprise excellence by identifying “Pearls of Excellence” or best practices to share with other AME members.
The primary focus of a site visit is to support your improvement efforts. The feedback report from the assessors has proven its use in helping previous applicants to get better at getting better. The award process also supports AME’s mission of inspiring commitment to enterprise excellence by identifying “Pearls of Excellence” (e.g., continuous improvement, best practices, creativity and innovation) to share with other AME members.
"Final feedback about the site visit…gives us the opportunity to have a professional and different point of view about our overall improvement journey. The auditors were constructive and focused on the people, and how people interact and live in our WCM [world class manufacturing] environment."
— 2018 AME Excellence Award Recipient
Application Requirements
To apply for the AME Excellence award, begin by completing the Intent to Apply and Plant Profile. Send the completed information to excellenceaward@ame.org.
AME has moved to a rolling application process — moving from batch to flow. Please utilize the forms below for details and to apply for the AME Excellence Award.
Your entire application consists of the:
- Intent to Apply
- Plant Profile
- Self-assessment (AME Lean Sensei® score or Self-Assessment AME Lean Sensei® for Hospitals) score
- Achievement Report using the AME Achievement Report Template
Contact excellenceaward@ame.org to request more information
AME Lean Sensei®
We suggest applicants gather their team and review the AME Lean Sensei® questions. Keep in mind the AME Excellence Award criteria as you reach consensus scores on the AME Lean Sensei® questions. Once you have gained consensus, complete the self-assessment using the Excel version of the AME Lean Sensei®. The AME Lean Sensei® is a members-only tool. If you are not yet a member and are interested in applying for the AME Excellence Award, please contact excellenceaward@ame.org to request access.
Achievement Report
You support the scores in the Sensei with a written Achievement Report using the AME Power Point template. Use descriptions and pictures to provide evidence to support your self-assessment score. Please use the Achievement Report template.
Download the Achievement Report template
AME Excellence Awards: Guidelines, eligibility, fees, timeline, & benefits to apply
Download the Guidelines to Apply
2024 AME Excellence Award Recipients
2023 AME Excellence Award Recipients
2022 AME Excellence Award Recipients
About the Awards
Selection Process
The AME Excellence Award may recognize multiple North American recipients who demonstrate excellence against the award guidelines and evaluation criteria. Any applicant that submits the required materials will be considered for an award. A company’s achievement report will be evaluated by the AME Award Evaluation Team. For companies that score high enough in this achievement report review, a site visit will be completed. A site visit will generally last 1.5 to 2 days. Recipients of the Excellence Award will be selected based on the combined results of the achievement report review and site visit feedback.
