Manufacturing
The Dream: Build Products Close to the Customers Who Buy Them
"People are always asking why Honda has been so successful. The answer is simple: our associates. Their involvement and teamwork to achieve the highest quality for our customers and improve our operations have continuously driven us forward to higher levels and greater achievements." -- Honda of America Mfg., Inc. President and CEO Akio Hamada.
The Joy of Creating
Many of Honda's most significant successes have sprung from our corporate philosophy celebrating "The Three Joys"--the joy of buying, the joy of selling, and the joy of creating. Honda's longstanding commitment to build products close to the customers who buy them is one such offshoot of this core mission.
Local production is efficient and thus better for the environment. Producing locally also creates more jobs in the U.S., boosting the economy. We recently marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of our first American auto plant in Marysville, Ohio, and we have a lot to celebrate.
Groundbreaking
The dream began in the 1970s when a small group within Honda began to analyze the possibility of local motorcycle and auto production in the biggest single Honda market in the world--the United States. Honda was broadening demand and changing the character of motorcycling in the U.S., and American demand for the cleaner, fuel-efficient Honda Civic fueled interest in local production of automobiles as well.
Ohio was chosen because of its quality workforce and abundant land, leading to an agreement that was signed in 1977. Simultaneous announcements of our plans were made in both Japan and the U.S. Honda of America Mfg., Inc. (HAM) was established in February of 1978, and by 1979, a simple, red CR250R dirt motorcycle had been completed by 64 proud Ohio workers at the Honda plant in Marysville. The day after that first motorcycle rolled off the production line, a fax came in from Japan reading, "'Go' on auto production!" And when the first Honda Accord rolled off the line at the Marysville Auto Plant on November 1, 1982, Honda became the first Japanese auto maker to build a car in America.
Honda has contributed exponentially to the local economy in Ohio by creating jobs inside the plant and stimulating employment among suppliers and other business partners within other areas of the community. Today, Honda employs more than 15,000 Ohioans in five plants, in major product development and engineering operations, and as the center of Honda's North American motor vehicle parts purchasing and logistics operations. Honda has become Ohio's largest auto maker, producing more than 700,000 cars and light trucks a year in the state.
The Honda Way
We stayed true to our company values of teamwork and associate involvement as we set up shop in Ohio. Our emphasis on employee commitment brought with it an inherent premium on quality. As a result, the Marysville plant infused the U.S. auto industry with new ideas and processes. In addition to involvement of associates in teams, these new concepts included just-in-time parts delivery, quick die changes in metal stamping, rolling model changes to launch new vehicles without stopping production, and a high level of model flexibility.
Today's Dream
Twenty-five years ago, no one could have possibly predicted just how far this dream of ours would extend, or how much it would benefit local U.S. communities. We began with one plant in Ohio. Now, more than 76 percent of all Honda and Acura vehicles sold in the U.S. are built at one of six auto plants in North America. We will start auto production in a seventh plant in Indiana in 2008.
For the first time, in 2007 Honda's total production of automobiles topped 1 million units in the U.S. at both our Ohio and Alabama plants. In that same year, with the addition of Honda of Canada Mfg. (HCM) and Honda de Mexico (HDM), our North American production totaled a record-setting 1,432,731 units.
Honda's new Indiana associates, nearly 2,000 of them, will soon become part of the Honda dream of local production in North America. The Indiana plant will use advanced methods of energy and emission reduction with the goal of becoming a "zero waste to landfill" factory, increasing efficiency and thereby reducing our overall carbon footprint.
Our continuing expansion is further evidence that the joy of creating, a spirit that is truly part of Honda's DNA, is alive and well in North America. As we grow our North American presence within local markets, we continue to dream big while honoring the teamwork that fuels innovation and the relationships that strengthen our local communities.