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Going lean drives business success at E‐Z‐GO
Author(s) -
Stern Renée
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
global business and organizational excellence
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.227
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 1932-2062
pISSN - 1932-2054
DOI - 10.1002/joe.20374
Subject(s) - operational excellence , excellence , management , business , lean manufacturing , control (management) , power (physics) , operations management , marketing , process management , industrial organization , engineering , economics , political science , physics , quantum mechanics , law
What happens when an aging command‐and‐control vehicle manufacturer company facing diminishing business embarks on a course guided by lean manufacturing and business processes? For E‐Z‐GO of Augusta, Georgia, the result was a 200‐percent jump in profits in five years and systemwide improvement across all business functions that led the company to earn the first enterprise‐level Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence. This article details the continuous improvement roadmap that helped steer the organization on its journey of transformation, the bumps encountered along the way, and the widespread employee engagement designed to power E‐Z‐GO's efforts toward excellence in the future. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.