The RXV is one of the many vehicles that roll off the Augusta production lines

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 is a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company

E-Z-GO golf cars, utility vehicles and light industrial vehicles are distributed across the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa, by Ransomes Jacobsen, also part of Textron Inc.

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.

Ransomes Jacobsen is a subsidiary of Textron Inc., a $12.6 billion multi-industry company operating in 28 countries with approximately 42,000 employees. The company leverages its global network of aircraft, defense and intelligence, industrial and finance businesses to provide customers with innovative solutions and services. Textron is known around the world for its powerful brands such as Bell Helicopter, Cessna Aircraft Company, E-Z-GO, Greenlee, Jacobsen, Kautex, Lycoming, Ransomes, Textron Systems and Textron Financial Corporation. More information is available at www.textron.com.