In business circles they use a medical analogy to describe the benefits of two measures that are transforming the way many manufacturing companies operate in Ireland.

Benchmarking, where companies learn about the practices of their competitors and implement any relevant procedures in their own operation is described as the diagnosis. World Class Business (WCB), a manufacturing philosophy aimed at doing things "quicker, better, cheaper ... together" is seen as the medicine.

Over the past two years Mr Richard Keegan and his team at Enterprise Ireland have been introducing Irish companies to these measures. In his book, Benchmarking Facts A European Perspective, Mr Keegan writes that the concepts were created by Rank Xerox in America when it discovered that its Japanese competitors were selling copiers at Rank Xerox's manufacturing cost price.

The Americans then visited Japan to learn about the practices of their competitors. "They then worked to improve their own practices relative to the Japanese," said Mr Keegan. "This investigation and learning process has come to be known as benchmarking and the operational practices they saw in Japan are now known as World Class Manufacturing or, as it has been called lately, business."

According to Mr Keegan, Irish companies are particularly well placed to benefit from what he calls "this new thrust in business practice".

"We have ready access to many of the best manufacturers in the world through the high number of multinationals located here. We have very little traditional manufacturing baggage, our managEment and workers are flexibly minded and very capable of taking on board new concepts," he said.

With this in mind, Enterprise Ireland introduced the first Irish World Class Business Cluster in 1997. The aim was to identify a set of WCB tools suitable for companies employing up to 150 staff.

Each year the companies involved avail of the consultancy services of Enterprise Ireland. The programme involves implementing principals such as Just In Time (JIT) manufacturing where companies identify and reduce wastes in the production environment. Total Quality Management (TQM) provides the tools and techniques to identify the causes of wastes within the manufacturing operation.

Another important aspect of WCB is employee involvement, which aims to encourage workers to become an integral part of the problem solving ability of the company. The empowerment concept, explored in an earlier article, comes into play here. According to Mr Keegan, employees in a World Class Business should "think as well as do".

Two companies that were involved in the first WCB Cluster run by Enterprise Ireland are Richard Keenan and Co in Co Carlow and Erin Foods in Thurles. Both companies say that the process of implementing benchmarking and WCB into their operations has and continues to be extremely beneficial.

A manufacturer of lifestock feeding systems, Keenans employ around 200 people at its headquarters in Borris, Co Carlow. In addition, it has subsidiaries in Britain, Germany, Sweden and Denmark.

It got involved in the Enterprise Ireland WCB Cluster programme, said Mr Jim Greene, its chief executive, "because we are living in an increasingly competitive world and we needed to benchmark ourselves against our competitors".

The company executives had been approached regarding these kinds of concepts before but Mr Greene said that they had never had enough confidence in the consultants to go ahead with it before.

The cluster programme was different: "First of all, we did a self diagnostic exercise where we looked at our strengths and weaknesses. Then we looked at critical areas of attention and, this time last year, the area we needed to do most work in was sales," he said.

Improvement measures were then set up, a sales manual put together, courses in selling skills and sales training were conducted. Since then, there has been a 25 per cent improvement in sales "which we can only attribute to our new approach", said Mr Greene.

He said that the tangible benefits of the cluster programme can be seen in how it initiated a focus on reducing waste in the company. "It is cost cutting essentially but it does not mean shedding jobs or reducing salaries . . . it is more about streamlining your operation".

Mr Michael Curtin, of Erin Foods in Thurles, part of the Greencore group, is equally enthusiastic about the benefits of benchmarking and WCB. The company, which produces dry foodstuffs such as mixes for soups, sauces and snack meals, had "a very traditional workforce".

"We looked at streamlining the way equipment was laid out in the factory and also at our relationship with suppliers. We went to other companies to see their best practices and implemented what we thought would work in our operation," he said.

The work with employees was also important and Erin Foods involved SIPTU in trying to get people to have a different approach.

"In the old days they just came to work and did what they were told. These days we ask them to bring their brains to work as well as their bodies," he said.

According to Mr Keegan of Enterprise Ireland, the whole programme is like a tool kit. "It allows businesses to identify what is wrong and then provides them with their own tools to fix the problems," he said. The result is a huge increase in productivity, happier customers and a reduction in waste.

Traditionally, it has been the larger operations that have availed of WCB and benchmarking. A spokeswoman from Smithkline Beecham, one of the world's leading health care firms, said that "teamwork is pivotal in creating an integrated, streamlined and efficient manufacturing network".

She added that a recently completed global manufacturing review in its plant in Dungarvan, where it is taking over manufacture of Panadol, taught them important lessons.

"Business implications, regulatory processes and customer relationship, involved in the transfer of products are just as vital as the construction of new space and the physical moving of equipment," he said.

"Once these measures (WCB and benchmarking) are implemented, the potential for improvement is mind boggling," said Mr Jim Greene, of Richard Keenan and Co.