GLOBAL designer and builder of offshore rigs Keppel FELS has been crowned the overall winner of Maxa 2008, a manufacturing excellence award which recognises outstanding Singapore-based firms that have achieved world-class standards.

Maxa winners are typically industry leaders which have differentiated themselves through innovation, operations and sustainability.

Keppel FELS was the only offshore mega-structure firm among six award finalists that included firms from the electronics, semi-conductor and bio-medical sectors.

It is also the first local enterprise that has won the overall award.

Jointly organised by the Economic Development Board (EDB), McKinsey & Company and the Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA), Maxa winners are selected after a rigorous judging process.

Maxa candidates are closely scrutinised and assessed by a panel of judges that comprised leaders in academia and industry.

The judges will look for firms, which have continuously based their successes on innovation to remain competitive globally and possess a robust operating system to ensure its practices are sustainable.

This year's sub-category winners also include Panasonic Factory Solutions, which won the Innovation Award, while United Microelectronics Corporation was awarded the Operational Excellence award.

A new category - the Excellence in Environmental Management has been introduced this year and GlaxoSmithKline is the inaugral winner for showing a systematic process in managing their impact on the environment.

Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security Professor S Jayakumar will present the awards to the winners at a lunch ceremony on Friday.