A combination of world-class practices, advanced technologies and improvement strategies led to E-Z-GO’s World Headquarters in Augusta, GA being named one of IndustryWeek magazine’s 2009 Best Plants of the Year.
E-Z-GO golf cars, utility vehicles and light industrial vehicles are distributed across the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa, by Ransomes Jacobsen.
According to IndustryWeek, despite possibly the roughest economic conditions in many decades, the winning manufacturing facilities still pursued process and people improvements and achieved enviable performance metrics in numerous operational areas.
“In the face of challenging economic conditions, E-Z-GO has maintained a Lean corporate culture and has relentlessly pursued improvement and progress toward key company goals,” said David Withers, managing director of Ransomes Jacobsen. “The employees in Augusta have demonstrated energy, enthusiasm and diligence in driving E-Z-GO’s continuous improvement and are the principal reason why the company has achieved this important distinction.”
E-Z-GO was evaluated by a panel of IndustryWeek editors, who also solicited independent evaluations from manufacturing experts and other industry specialists.
The IndustryWeek recognition capped an excellent year in which E-Z-GO also received the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence – dubbed ‘the Nobel Prize of Manufacturing.’ E-Z-GO is the first and only company to receive the prize at the enterprise level, which means the company was recognized for world-class status at all of its geographic locations and across all business functions.
“E-Z-GO’s philosophy of continuous improvement and employment of Lean methodology and Six Sigma practices have led to eliminating wasteful practices and driving enhanced productivity and customer satisfaction”, Withers added.
E-Z-GO, a Textron Inc. company, is a leading manufacturer of golf cars and utility vehicles. E-Z-GO is the preferred golf car fleet provider for many of the world’s most revered golf courses, clubs and resorts. E-Z-GO is also the golf car of choice of nine of the nation’s 10 largest course-management companies. E-Z-GO boasts the largest sales and service network in the industry, with more factory branch locations and independent distributors than any other manufacturer.
E-Z-GO www.ezgo.com
Ransomes Jacobsen www.ransomesjacobsen.com