Early in January we introduced the "Superfactory 20", the top twenty lean manufacturing public companies according to the poll we ran last year. The page on the Superfactory website tracks the stock performance of those companies, updated hourly, and ranks each company and the aggregate versus the S&P 500.
January was a tough month for stocks in general, even after a very positive final week, but the Superfactory 20 beat the S&P 500 for the month… barely. It actually trailed the index for most of the month and only pulled ahead with two days remaining, to end "higher" at a -4.17% performance versus -4.74% for the S&P. For all of 2007 the Superfactory 20 beat the S&P by about 20%.
Performance for January is in the table below. For current performance, updated hourly, see the Superfactory 20 page on Superfactory.
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January 2008 Performance
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|---|---|---|
| Name | Price | Performance |
| STANLEY WORKS (SWK) | 51.36 | 10.31 % |
| VENTANA MEDICAL SYSTEMS (VMSI) | 89.05 | 4.81 % |
| WABTEC CORP (WAB) | 34.29 | 2.08 % |
| TOYOTA MOTOR (TM) | 108.32 | 1.75 % |
| ABBOTT LABORATORIES (ABT) | 56.18 | 1.21 % |
| CATERPILLAR INC (CAT) | 70.99 | 1.08 % |
| NIKE INC (NKE) | 61.68 | -2.53 % |
| DEERE CO (DE) | 87.56 | -2.93 % |
| ILLINOIS TOOL WORKS (ITW) | 50.42 | -3.35 % |
| BOEING CO (BA) | 83.18 | -3.97 % |
| SUPERFACTORY 20 AVERAGE | -4.17 % | |
| S&P 500 INDEX | 1378.55 | -4.74 % |
| HONDA MOTOR CO (HMC) | 31.48 | -4.84 % |
| NEWELL RUBBERMAID (NWL) | 24.05 | -4.87 % |
| PARKER HANNIFIN (PH) | 67.61 | -5.15 % |
| STEELCASE INC (SCS) | 15.33 | -6.41 % |
| PENTAIR INC (PNR) | 31.74 | -6.56 % |
| HILLENBRAND IND (HB) | 51.82 | -6.63 % |
| TESCO PLC (TSCO.L) | 417.00 | -11.61 % |
| DANAHER CORP (DHR) | 74.96 | -13.01 % |
| TEXTRON INC (TXT) | 56.11 | -16.02 % |
| INTEL CORP (INTC) | 21.10 | -16.77 % |
As a final note, Ventana Medical Systems won the AME Excellence Award in 2007 and there’s an AME workshop at the company in March. If you’re interested in a great implementation of lean in a regulated medical device company no less, which is creating financial success (100% stock return in 2007), you might want to check it out.