A TEAM of factory workers have been rewarded for their ideas to improve performance at their plant, with a trip to Japan.

The staff at Komatsu UK in Birtley, won an in-house competition, which looks at pooling the ideas of staff to identify areas which could be improved upon.

The "Adjust and Repair" team developed their winning idea over a period of seven months during weekly lunch-time meetings. Initially the team carried out a full assessment of a Komatsu UK excavator, looking for areas that could be improved.

One of the team Graeme McFall said: "Winning this event means a lot. We have worked hard to develop our idea and are extremely proud that it will be implemented at the factory and go on to represent Komatsu UK at international level."

The winners will join colleagues from around the world in Tokyo in November