Automotive News - July 13, 2015 - Supplement - (Page 64)

64 * JULY 13, 2015 CAM DRIVE CHAIN, TIMING CHAIN TENSIONER U.S. Tsubaki Suppliers to the 2016 Nissan Maxima HOOD GAS SPRING Stabilus WINDSHIELD Vitro HVAC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM ABC Group WIRELESS CHARGER [CENTER CONSOLE] Leggett & Platt PILLAR FABRIC COMPOSITE Shawmut HOOD INSULATOR UGN SEAT TOPPER SEALING FOAM Plastomer PANORAMA HEATED STEERING ROOF Webasto WHEEL ELEMENT IGB Automotive SEAT DAMPER TrelleborgVibracoustic SIDEVIEW MIRROR Mirror Controls International NVH MASTIC [ALL CLOSURE PANELS, ROOF BOWS] Uniseal FEEDER CABLE ELECTRIC HINGED LEVER ARM [ANTENNA] [REAR WINDOW BLIND] Harada BOS Automotive BACKLITE Carlex FUEL FILLER BASE ASSEMBLY Narmco CYLINDER HEAD Nemak WIRE HARNESS Yazaki EXTERIOR REARWHEEL LINERS Janesville Products VALVE TRAIN COATED TAPPETS INA SHOCK ABSORBERS ZF AIR CLEANER Mahle REAR BUMPER AND STAYS Shape ELECTRIC HYDRAULIC POWER PACK [ELECTRIC PUMP] JTEKT EXHAUST TIP Valor Hong Kong ACCESSORY DRIVE SERPENTINE BELT Bando REAR SUSPENSION COIL SPRING Nasco SONAR SENSOR Mitsubishi Electric BRAKE PADS ITT HEAT SHIELD FASTENERS ITW BRAKE DISC COATING Magni HEAT SHIELDS Federal-Mogul STAINLESS STEEL CAPPED WHEEL FASTENER MacLean-Fogg DAMPER PACKAGE UGN HALOGEN HEADLAMP North American Lighting CONTINUOUSLY VARIABLE TRANSMISSION Jatco FRONT SIDESHAFTS GKN POWER STEERING FEED TUBES Yokohama HALOGEN FOG LAMP HELLA BRAKE FLUID Dow Automotive INTERMEDIATE SHAFT ThyssenKrupp Presta Steering BRAKE AND FUEL BUNDLES TI Automotive FOOT PEDAL PARKING EXHAUST BRAKE INSULATION Otscon Bay Fabrication UPPER DOOR PANEL Haartz FUEL LINES Fraenkische SUPPLIERS WANTED: If you are a supplier and have questions or want your information considered for our car cutaways, contact Supplier Business at: automotivenews@supplierbusiness.com Source: SupplierBusiness REAR STABILIZER BAR New Mather Metals FUEL TANK SYSTEM Plastic Omnium SupplierBusiness Honda to make English official work language by 2020 Hans Greimel hgreimel@crain.com TOKYO - In 2010, then-Honda Motor Co. CEO Takanobu Ito famously said it was "stupid" to make English the official work language of a Japanese company. These days, however, Japan's No. 3 carmaker is changing its tune. In an annual sustainability report issued June 29, Honda said English will be the official language for all inter-regional communications at the Tokyo automaker by 2020. HONDA Company to spend more time on r&d continued from Page 4 rassing recalls of the redesigned Honda Fit small car in Japan forced Ito to delay several product launches and overhaul r&d strategy. Meanwhile, Ito expanded worldwide capacity to chase his goal of 6 million sales globally in the fiscal year that ends March 31, 2017 - even as demand failed to keep pace. Honda sold just 4.4 million vehicles in the fiscal year that ended March 31. Speaking last week at his first news conference since taking office, Hachigo set two main strategies for fixing the company: 1. Better integrate Honda's six global operating centers. 2. Regain focus on innovative and exciting vehicles. "I plan to create a new Honda," Hachigo said. The move is part of a global human resources management plan meant to cultivate an international work force that better represents the company's far-flung and diverse customer base and production operations. Honda now builds 81 percent of its vehicles outside Japan. "While Japanese associates [expatriates] led management at Honda's sites in each region in the past, we have now shifted to a system of management by local associates," Honda's report said. "It is vital to de- velop an environment that achieves close communication between associates in six regions worldwide." By 2020, employees working across regions - such as a Japanese engineer from Tokyo speaking with an American plant manager in Ohio, or a local engineer in Thailand on a conference call with a Japanese executive in Brazil - will have to conduct their business in English. English also will be the lingua franca for documents shared internationally, as well as presenta- tions and interoffice queries. To make sure everyone is up to the task - especially the outnumbered Japanese employees in the home country - Honda said it will step up its language training and make English proficiency a requirement for promotion to the management level. Japanese employees account for 32 percent of Honda's global work force of 204,730. That share is shrinking. Last year, Honda hired only 719 full-time employees in Japan. In North America, it added 4,778. The new English policy was actually implemented internally by Ito in 2013. His earlier "stupid" comment applied to a Japanese retailer, Rakuten Inc., which wanted to use English for internal communications. His point: Forcing Japanese engineers to speak English to one another is not a recipe for success. But being open to outsiders is. Now, as Takahiro Hachigo, who has worked on three continents, takes the reins, Honda is ready to embrace English internationally. c "Rather than focusing on numbers, it is important to come up with products that carry dreams and satisfy our customers," he said. "We will focus on the development of innovative products." Last month, Honda restated its earnings to notch a 19 percent drop in operating profit for the fiscal year that ended March 31. Honda took the hit after booking larger-thanexpected costs to handle expanding recalls of Takata airbags. and high-performance Civic Type R from its assembly plant in England to global markets. It will also ship the CR-V crossover to new markets from its plant in Canada. Finally, instead of sourcing the European-spec Jazz compact locally, it will ship that car from Japan. Honda, the first Japanese carmaker to build vehicles in the U.S., now makes 81 percent of its vehicles outside Japan. In the first five months of this year, Honda's exports from Japan plunged 27 percent to just 9,620 vehicles. North America alone accounts for 40 percent of its global sales. Hachigo was vague on details for much of his product plan. But he said the company will spend more time on r&d to develop better products more attuned to market trends. The guiding principle, he said, will be products that deploy innovative technology that has yet to be marketed. Hachigo cited the S660 mini sports roadster, sold only in Japan, and Honda's commuter jet business as examples of the new spirit he wants to see in Honda's products. Also on tap: A redesigned Civic small car, expected in Japan this fall and the U.S. next spring, that will get a new platform and downsized, turbocharged engine. Those technologies will be deployed to other nameplates, Hachigo said. "My first priority should be coming up with Honda-original products," he said. "That will be the most important pillar." any plans for his company's struggling America-centric luxury brand. Hachigo, despite touting "Honda-unique" technologies, even failed to use the opportunity to trumpet the unique three-motor hybrid system it will deploy in the upcoming Acura NSX halo car. "It was just mentioned vanishingly," Richter said of the Acura business. "It isn't a priority, and it needs to be." Overall, though, Hachigo's approach emulates that of Toyota's Toyoda, who took over his family's namesake automaker just as it was booking its first operating loss in seven decades. Toyota was soon hit by its own recall crisis. The problems prompted Toyota to halt new factory construction, maximize the use of existing capacity, redouble its focus on quality and adopt "fun to drive" as its guiding maxim. Toyoda's remedy worked. Toyota now expects its third-straight year of record profits in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2016. c Global woes At Honda, rampant expansion to create six global production and r&d hubs led to overcapacity that is also undermining profits, Hachigo said. "We want to make best use of these sites on a global basis, so the regions can supplement each other," the new CEO said. "That is the next step." From now on, Honda increasingly will use production sites outside Japan as global export hubs, he said. For example, Honda will ship the five-door Honda Civic hatchback Acura MIA In one important way, Hachigo does not seem to be following Toyota's playbook, noted Chris Richter, an auto analyst at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets in Tokyo. Toyota effectively stepped up its positioning of its high-margin Lexus luxury brand as a global profit engine. In contrast, Hachigo uttered the word "Acura" only as a brief aside in his hourlong press conference, entirely glossing over

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News - July 13, 2015 - Supplement

What's driving the shift to crossovers
A lunch date, then a breakup
Tally: Fewer minority dealerships
Sign up for 40 Under 40 online hangout
How junk cars can slip through the cracks
Nissan will boost production by 100K units, add two variants
Kia seeks J.D. Power title to prove quality gains
CEO Hachigo taking Honda back to basics
For Odor Doctors, rotten food, roadkill are all in a day's work
Mitsubishi teases Montero Sport
Uconnect changes for '16 include 'Do Not Disturb' function
Lotus plans roadster for U.S., CEO says
High-tech touches for E class
Prius fastback spotted
Latest Greek drama threatens frail auto sales recovery in Europe
Overtime plan might impact dealers
Want a strong, successful millennial staff? Dealerships say it's all in the hiring
F&I positions mesh with millennial mindset
M-B's 2017 E class ups the ante on self-driving
Time to rethink Detroit 3-UAW ties
Self-driving cars make ethical choices
Both automakers and regulators can do better
Chrysler sees midsize car incentive war
With hydrogen, high pressure to get it right
FCA US out-retails Ford Motor in June; Hyundai-Kia soars
With new owner, TI Automotive weighs acquisitions
Dealers
Lease or buy, treat ultraluxury customers differently
Dealers confront GAP sold by major auto insurers
GMC uses Instagram to pitch premium lineup
Geofencing identifies shoppers' locations
Dodge's Morse code message: Engage
How to erase that odor: Clean, deodorize, sanitize
Path to positive equity grows, but don't panic
What's holding up e-contracting?
Honda to make English official work language by 2020
Painter: 'A very deliberate step on our part'
Inventory levels drift higher
Even Accord can't keep up with the CR-V
Like the others, Nardelli learned the hard way -- or did he?
Rearview camera was one of Jordan's nifty tricks in '56
The one man who could make Piech snap to attention

Automotive News - July 13, 2015 - Supplement