​Acknowledging its strong network of 5,000 Maintenance, Repair and Operational (MRO) suppliers, Honda is recognizing 11 top-performing companies for excellence at providing services to Honda plants in Ohio and Indiana. Honda also is honoring four suppliers with special recognition awards for outstanding initiatives.

Honda’s MRO suppliers provide a wide range of goods and services that support product manufacturing. Representing local as well as national companies, many have grown with Honda’s expanding manufacturing in the United States, and some have opened operations near new Honda plants.

“Today, we are acknowledging an outstanding group of suppliers that deliver the highest possible value to our customers through their quality products and services,” said Jan Gansheimer, purchasing division senior manager at Honda of America Mfg., Inc. “All of us at Honda appreciate their excellence at meeting the needs of their customers.”

The MRO Supplier of the Year awards go to the top companies in their business categories that support Honda’s automobile manufacturing in Ohio and Indiana. This year, seven award recipients reside in Ohio, three are in Indiana and one is in Portland, Oregon.

Four companies received Honda’s Special Recognition Award for outstanding innovations to increase the efficiency of business transactions and consolidate buying power among the various Honda manufacturing operations. Two operate in Ohio, with one each in Indiana and Connecticut.

Gansheimer thanked Honda’s entire network of MRO suppliers for their ongoing support of recovery efforts following the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake. “It has taken an extreme effort to manage the disruption of our businesses through a severe economic downturn and then a devastating earthquake and tsunami,” she said. “Working together, you have continued significant efforts to bring value to our operations that allow Honda to meet the needs of its customers.”

Honda’s five plants in the Central Region include Honda’s newest auto plant in Greensburg, Ind.; auto plants in Marysville and East Liberty, Ohio; a major engine plant in Anna, Ohio, and Honda Transmission Mfg. of America in Russells Point, Ohio.

“Ultimately, our MRO supply base helps assure the smooth operations of our factories and benefits the people who buy Honda products,” said Mike Wallace, senior manager of Honda’s Central Region MRO Procurement Group. Wallace added that companies receiving awards this year serve as important examples of how companies are implementing world-class business characteristics into their operations in an intensely competitive automobile industry.

To underscore the value they bring to its automobile manufacturing operations and involve their entire teams of associates, Honda will present the awards at each of the MRO supplier sites in August and September.