Achieving workpiece high accuracy at low cost is one of the greatest challenges in the manufacturing industry. A repetitive error measurement and compensation scheme to improve the workpiece diameter accuracy for machining centres is described. The scheme entails an on-machine measurement and error compensation technology between machining processes. The workpiece diameters are measured along the workpiece length by using a fine touch sensor. The workpiece diameters in the compensation program are modified for implementation of next pass error correction. The technology is realised on a CNC turning centre. This method works well in hard machining and turned workpieces with large length-diameter ratios where the machining process induced errors are significantly greater than errors from other sources. It demonstrates that the workpiece can obtain maximum possible machining accuracy by this repetitive measurement and compensation technique.