E-Z-GO, Augusta, Ga.
Employees: 608, Non-union
Total Square Footage: 672,047
Primary Product/market: Golf turf and utility vehicles
Start-up: 1954
Achievements: 90% increase in plant-level profitability in past three years; inventory turns improved by 30% between 2005 and 2008; more than 1 million hours without a lost-time injury
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| See the other winners of IW's 2009 Best Plants award and find out how they made the top ten. |
Thanks to lean manufacturing processes, Augusta, Ga., golf cart manufacturer E-Z-GO can take credit for bringing some previously outsourced work back to the United States. About six years ago, the company began a continuous-improvement initiative that included a detailed make vs. buy analysis.
Managers at the division of Textron Inc., a $14.2 billion diversified manufacturer, discovered they could fabricate certain components in-house for less than they could overseas. Machine shop team leader Greg Mims credits increased employee engagement for making E-Z-GO's fabrication department more competitive with outside suppliers. "Reality sank in that people can make it cheaper than us, so we all pulled together, and people started working smarter and coming up with ideas," he says.
For instance, the company relied on employees to improve flow in the machining area when it consolidated the fabrication department into one building about three years ago. The workers engaged in a "paper doll exercise" that entailed placing cut-out paper templates on the floor to determine ideal machine placement, Mims says.
The workers were able to nearly double productivity by situating the machines closer to materials. Now they can churn out as many as 700 brake drums in 10 hours compared with 350 prior to the transition, Mims says. The company also is saving about $500,000 by bringing brake-drum production that previously was outsourced to the Czech Republic back to its Augusta operations.
E-Z-GO's lean transformation has resulted in other significant improvements since 2003, when the business unit recorded an operating loss and was losing market share to competitors. Between 2005 and 2008, the company increased profitability by 200%, cut its supplier base by 60% and improved first-pass yield by 24%.
The manufacturing campus relies heavily on benchmarking data from other companies to implement its own best practices. The company built a new production line for its most recent product release, the RXV, using benchmarks from BMW and Harley-Davidson. (The company conducts up to a dozen benchmarking visits each year, says plant manager Darryl Heffline.)
The RXV golf cart is assembled on a highly automated paperless line that utilizes a manufacturing execution system to gather information and relay data displayed on an overhead LED screen to operators on a real-time basis. Fastening tools are integrated into the system and won't allow a vehicle to proceed if a component is installed using improper specifications, such as torque or angle.
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| George Wesley (foreground) installs the steering intermediate shaft on E-Z-GO's RXV golf cart line, while Derrick Thomas (background) installs the rear bumper. |
The line ramped up in record time after the company unveiled the product in October 2007. "We had demand from the market saying we need the product sooner," recalls E-Z-GO President Kevin Holleran. "In seven weeks we were in full production. We held on to orders because of that." Benchmarking with companies such as Honda, which released a product in six weeks, helped E-Z-GO meet the ambitious production schedule, says Ronald Draper, vice president, integrated supply chain.
"We needed to shape the vision of what really good plants are doing," Draper says.
Judging by E-Z-GO's progress, it won't be long before more plants are visiting its operations for their own benchmarking initiatives.
