A speaker and like manufactured item manufacturing system, apparatus and method for aligning speaker components regardless of feature size to a common centering datum for placement. A speaker motor assembly may be aligned based on datum of a basket/washer subassembly, wherein remaining components are coupled, aligned and adhered according to the same datum, thus increasing concentricity, alignment, and orthogonality among components and installations. Speaker suspension components may likewise be coupled using the same datum. Specialized alignment mechanisms, such as a centering collet and a mechanical gripper, may be also be provided to align speaker components for placement and adhesion, and adhesives may be robotically controlled based on the aforementioned datum.