Can your business become a world class performer? That was the challenge set by Hampshire Economic Partnership (HEP) and EEF South, the engineering employers' association in the south east.

City Technology in Portsmouth was the latest venue for a 'Best Practice and Diversification in Technology' workshop an event designed to help local companies take a step towards becoming 'world class' organisations.

City Technology is part of the First Technology Group, and is a world leader in the research, design and manufacture of Gas Sensors for a variety of applications.

Founded in 1977 by four London University Lecturers, the company has expanded and kept ahead of its competitors by continuously researching and developing their production processes using 'Lean Manufacturing' techniques in both Production and their Supply Chain.

EEF South's world class performance consultants, Mark Eaton and Annie Pearson introduced delegates to some key concepts for improvement including 5S, Kanban, supplier positioning and supply chain clusters, before going on to see how these techniques have been used within City Technology.

Delegates heard how City Technology has reduced its non-value adding activities (including travel distance, transport waste and inefficient production processes) and improved their control flow of work by establishing cellular working, introducing techniques to control work in progress and implementing a visual workplace.

Stephen Boulton, programme manager at D & R Technical Solutions, said, "I found the visit to City Technology to be very interesting. It was evident that the Kanban manufacturing processes in place were key to a significant increase in efficiency."

"With small teams having full responsibility for the manufacture of the product from assembly and test, through to delivery to the despatch department, we could see that the multi-skilled team process operatives found the work varied and interesting."

City Technology's Colin Arlott said, "Thanks to EEF South's support we have augmented our world class status and helped increase and strengthen our market share. We have also reduced our production processes and now use the minimum amount of resources in the quickest way possible, resulting in shorter lead times."