Mazda, the longtime also-ran of Japanese automakers, has come up with innovations in nearly every step of manufacturing on a super-efficient assembly line that rolls off cars at a stunning rate of one every 54 seconds.
The revamped Hofu plant in Yamaguchi Prefecture, southwestern Japan, shown to reporters on Tuesday, underlines how Mazda has defied sceptics who predicted its demise after Ford ended a long partnership.
Contrary to expectations, Mazda was not bought by a Chinese competitor, nor did it collapse under the burden of a soaring yen that made Japanese cars more expensive abroad.
Mazda is still riding on its reputation for producing cool, fuel-efficient cars such as the Miata roadster without a single petrol-electric hybrid in its lineup. The Hofu plant can barely keep up with demand, even as its output betters that of Toyota, the world's top automaker, which can roll out a car every 57 - 115 seconds, depending on the plant.
MAKING THINGS
The key to what Mazda calls its innovation in “monozukuri,” or “making things,” apparent at the Hofu plant, was using a common platform, the main structure on which a car is built, and common parts. Platform-sharing is a standard profit-boosting device in the auto industry, but is even more crucial for a smaller player such as Mazda, allowing it to create several distinct models from what is fundametally the same car.
After its partnership with Ford ended three years ago, Mazda needed a new approach.
It took the process a step further and unified platforms and parts at the design and development stage, raising the bar for an assembly line that can produce different size vehicles to a new level of leanness and efficiency.
Mazda staffers said it would introduce all the innovations it came up with for the Hofu plant they call “the mother plant” at its new plant in Mexico, set to go into production ibn 2014.
The Hofu plant, first opened in 1981, rolled out its 10 millionth car, a Mazda6 sedan, on Tuesday.
“We see this as one step toward further growth,” said president Masamichi Kogai at a roll-off celebration where workers set off party crackers and shouted, “Go for it”.
The Hofu plant produced 350 000 vehicles in 2012, down from its peak of more than 500 000 in 2007, but that's recover this year to about 400 000 vehicles.
Still, Mazda has gone through hard times.
Ford, which had owned a third of Mazda and was its main partner for three decades, including in key markets such as Thailand, China and the US, gradually pulled out, giving up its top stakeholder position in Mazda in 2010.
HELD HOSTAGE BY EXCHANGE RATES
At a time when Japanese rivals are moving production abroad, Mazda still produces 60 percent of its vehicles in Japan. Of the vehicles produced at Hofu, 94 percent are exports. That has left the company vulnerable in periods when the yen is strong.
Mazda is planning to raise overseas production to 50 percent of total output by the 2015 fiscal year, and prove wrong the critics who once insisted that high production volume of at least four million vehicles a year was needed to achieve profitability - once seen as the common-sense wisdom in the auto industry.
Some analysts say Mazda still faces an uphill battle because it lacks scale, which means it has to become almost an upscale brand that can command a higher price. For instance, Mazda charges an extra ¥50 000 (R5400) in Japan for its models with a special paint job called “soul red,” a deep lustrous ruby shade, created by duplicating an expensive 13-coat lustre with just three layers, by adding a special coating of reflective paint and adjusting the spray patterns. - Sapa-AP