The world excellence awards recognize suppliers who not only achieve the highest levels of cost, quality and delivery, but who also embrace the vision to build on Ford's legacy of driving innovation to new heights. Mitutoyo's award was for recognition of achievement in new consumer-focused technology.

"Our world excellence award-winning suppliers are integral to our ability to address the needs of customers today and tomorrow," says Tony (Thomas K.) Brown, senior vice president, Ford global purchasing. "We are grateful for their ceaseless concentration on delivering value."

Yamamura says, "We at Mitutoyo are gratified to have achieved this level of recognition from one of the world's largest automakers. Over the past year, as a company, we have worked diligently to supply Ford Motor Co. with the most advanced form measurement technology. The result of Mitutoyo's effort was the selection of our SV-M3000 CNC form measuring machine by Ford for installation in multiple North American manufacturing facilities. Partnering with the staff at Ford in identifying this metrology solution was the culmination of a team effort within the Mitutoyo organization."

Initial Ford SV-M3000 applications will be in powertrain components, replacing manual measurement in cylinder head manufacturing cells. Eventually this technology also is expected to be applied in block, crank and cylinder manufacturing cells.