Dana Corporation Executive to Speak at Manufacturing Conference

Toledo, Ohio -- May 18, 2004 -- Saurabh Singh, division general manager of Dana Corporation’s structures facility in Owensboro, Ky., will be among the featured speakers at a conference this month highlighting the winners of IndustryWeek magazine’s search for outstanding manufacturing operations in North America.

The Owensboro facility, which patterned its operations after the “lean”
manufacturing techniques and philosophies derived from the Toyota
Production System, was selected as one of the 10 Best Plants in the
magazine’s 2003 awards competition. The facility manufactures
full-perimeter frames for all Toyota Sequoia and Tundra models produced
in the United States.

Production flexibility, product sequencing, and error-proofing are among the plant’s key capabilities.  Although it embraced lean principles from the start, the Owensboro facility managed to reduce costs by $1.8 million in 2002 and increased its output by 96 percent over a three-year period while slashing total inventory by half.

The facility is directly linked with Toyota's production plant in Princeton,
Ind. The facility’s just-in-time production process allows it to keep only a
limited inventory on hand. It also has almost no change-over time between
models – needing only three seconds to switch between platforms.

The Best Plants conference, jointly sponsored by IndustryWeek and the Association for Manufacturing Excellence, will take place May 18-20 at the Sheraton Cleveland hotel in Cleveland, Ohio. 

In addition to presentations by representatives of each the 10 winning plants, the conference will include keynote addresses by W.R. “Tim” Timken, Jr., chairman of The Timken Co. of Canton, Ohio; Patricia Panchak, editor-in-chief of IndustryWeek; and Don Wainwright, chairman & CEO of Wainwright Industries and chairman of the U.S. Commerce Department’s newly created Manufacturing Council.           

Dana Corporation is a global leader in the design, engineering, and manufacture of value-added products and systems for automotive, commercial, and off-highway vehicles.  Delivering on a century of innovation, the company's continuing operations employ approximately 45,000 people worldwide dedicated to advancing the science of mobility.  Founded in 1904 and based in Toledo, Ohio, Dana operates technology, manufacturing, and customer-service facilities in 30 countries.  Sales from continuing operations totaled $7.9 billion in 2003.  Dana’s Internet address is www.dana.com.