Ten Honda Manufacturing Facilities in North America Achieve Zero Waste Sent to Landfill

Honda Motor Co. said 10 of its North American plants now send no waste to landfills and four others in the region cut scrap and trash to “virtually” nothing as the carmaker seeks to curb manufacturing-related pollution.

Honda, which claimed in 2001 that its Alabama auto-assembly plant was first in the U.S. to send no trash to landfills, aims to lead the industry in waste reduction, Ed Miller, a spokesman for the Tokyo-based carmaker, said in a telephone interview. The company isn’t aware of a competitor that’s achieved a higher level, he said.

“We now have 10 of 14 facilities that are absolute zero, and for the four that still have some there are extenuating circumstances,” said Miller, who is based in Detroit.

Those include a lack of recycling options for cafeteria waste at Honda’s Mexican motorcycle and auto plant, and a byproduct material from painting aluminum hoods at its Ohio auto plants that can’t be recycled under U.S. rules, Miller said.

Honda, Japan’s third-largest automaker, in 2010 built more than 80 percent of cars and light trucks it sold in the U.S. at North American plants, the highest proportion among Asian and European-based companies. Honda’s U.S. headquarters are in Torrance, California.

Source;
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-14/honda-cuts-waste-at-10-north-american-plants-to-absolute-zero.html

Policies say a lot about Honda

It is very good news that Honda expects all its North American operations to be back to full speed by August and that includes its Lincoln plant where three of its most popular vehicles are assembled.

The March earthquake and tsunami in Japan severely hampered Honda’s supply chain and ended up costing the giant automaker months of production as it faced difficult and at times insurmountable obstacles to getting supplies from Japan to North America.

Without those supplies, cars could not be built.

As time passed, the supply chain opened up a bit, and then a little more. But not too long ago Honda officials (along with other Japanese automakers) were expecting a late fall date for full production to resume.

Last week, however, the company announced it wouldn’t take that long.“Honda will increase production volume at its North America automobile plants to a rate of 100 percent original production plan in August,” a company press release announced.

Honda’s employees in Lincoln met the news with enthusiasm.

“Today we announced to our associates in plant-wide meetings that we are planning to accelerate recovery of our production. …” said Mark Morrison, a company spokesman. “When we announced that the Odyssey and Pilot would reach 100 percent of their original production plan in August, our associates greeted the news with great applause,” he said.

That kind of reaction is what you would expect from Honda employees. The 4,000 people who work in the local plant are intensely loyal and, based on the plant’s expansion since opening, also are very productive.

That loyalty and productivity have been rewarded with a unique approach to the forced slowdown in production. Rather than lay off workers, Honda allowed them to work on maintenance chores, or to take earned vacation time to keep their paychecks coming. And after the April 27 tornadoes ripped through our area, Honda allowed its employees to take two days per week to volunteer at cleanup activities while getting paid as though they were at work.

Those policies say a lot about Honda and the kind of company it is. And they say a lot about Honda’s employees and the kind of people they are.

Honda made it through this parts crisis without laying off a single employee in their North American plants, the company said. Now that they are ready to ramp up production again, those employees are available and their morale should be high, since no one had to do with a reduced paycheck during the difficult times.

The Japanese automaker obviously enjoys great economic strength to be able to weather such a crisis without cutting employee paychecks. We commend Honda for its approach, we continue to wish the company a long and prosperous future in Lincoln and the rest of its North America plants.

Source: The Daily Home - Policies say a lot about Honda

Honda Builds More Cars Here Than There - News

Puts a new spin on buying domestic....What’s more, Camry and Accord are the most American of all.

In the second quarter of this year, Honda built 236,819 cars in the U.S., a dry bit of data until you realize that in the same time frame it built 236,559 cars back in Japan. It’s a tiny edge. It may not last for the whole year. But it’s the first time that Honda produced more cars here in the U.S. than at home.

The background is also compelling: Japan’s home market continues to shrink, while U.S. sales appear to have bottomed out and are experiencing a slow uptick. According to the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Assoc., which keeps tab of such things, its members now operate 31 U.S. manufacturing plants and have 34 major R&D facilities here.

Automakers are truly international businesses; all of them. For example, a Toyota and a Honda built here beat out the likes of Ford, GM and Chrysler in terms of domestic content. Top of the list compiled by Cars.com is the Toyota Camry built in Georgetown, Kentucky, and Lafayette, Indiana. Second is the Honda Accord, among those 236,819 cited above, built in Marysville, Ohio, and Lincoln, Alabama. First “domestic” nameplates are the Ford Escape and Focus in third and fourth place, then the Chevrolet Malibu and, further down the list, the Dodge Ram 1500 truck.
Domestic parts content information is posted along side the window sticker of all new cars; this, as part of the American Automobile Labeling Act of 1994. Identified is the percentage, by cost, of parts originating in the U.S. and Canada.

Source;
http://www.roadandtrack.com/auto-news/honda-builds-more-cars-here-than-there

Honda Builds Record 84% of 2009 U.S. Auto Sales in North America

Now, that argument about buying domestic....
Highest Total Since Honda Began Producing Autos in America in 1982

An all-time high of 83.8 percent of the Honda and Acura automobiles sold in the United States in 2009 were produced* at the company's plants in North America, American Honda Motor Co., Inc., announced today. American Honda has maintained a local production rate of approximately 75 percent or higher since 1996.

Honda operates seven automobile plants in North America - four in the U.S., two in Canada and one in Mexico, producing fifteen different models, including the Civic sedan, coupe and GX (natural gas vehicle), Accord sedan, coupe and Crosstour, Odyssey, Pilot, Ridgeline, CR-V and Element, as well as the Acura TL, ZDX, RDX and MDX models.

Honda's North American plants produced a total of more than one million vehicles in 2009, including those for export and currently in dealer inventory. Of the more than 1.15 million Honda and Acura automobiles sold in the U.S. in 2009, the 83.8 percent local production rate is the highest percentage in the company's 27-year history of making automobiles in the region and by far the highest percentage for any international automaker in 2009.

"As part of our long-standing commitment to build Honda and Acura products close to our customers, we have steadily deepened our automobile manufacturing roots in the U.S. and the North America region," said Tetsuo Iwamura, president & CEO of American Honda Motor Co., Inc. "Using our flexible manufacturing capacity, we plan to continue to maintain our local production levels at approximately 80 percent of our annual sales."

Honda began production of the fuel efficient Honda Civic sedan at its seventh North American auto plant, in Greensburg, Indiana, in October 2008. In 2009, the company added production of two new crossover vehicles - the Honda Accord Crosstour, manufactured in East Liberty, Ohio, and the Acura ZDX, manufactured in Alliston, Ontario - along with the addition of fuel-efficient four-cylinder engine production at a new engine plant in Ontario, Canada.

Honda has exported nearly 960,000 automobiles from its plants in North America to more than 100 countries around the world since 1987, including approximately 27,000 vehicles in 2009, as well as exporting more than 300,000 component parts last year to be used in the assembly of Honda products in other nations.In addition to automobile production, Honda operates three automobile engine plants in North America - two in the U.S. and one in Canada - along with two U.S. plants for the production of automatic transmissions and gear sets; a power equipment and small engine plant, in North Carolina; and a plant producing Honda all-terrain vehicles, in South Carolina.

Two additional new plants, for the production of the HondaJet advanced light jet and the GE Honda turbofan engine, are under construction in the communities of Greensboro and Burlington, North Carolina, respectively.

About Honda
Honda began operations in the U.S. in 1959 with the establishment of American Honda Motor Co., Inc. Honda began U.S. production of motorcycles in 1979 and automobiles in 1982. The company has invested more than $12.1 billion in its North American operations with employment of more than 25,000 associates and annual purchases of more than $17.5 billion in parts and materials from suppliers in North America.

Source;
http://www.honda.com/newsandviews/article.aspx?id=5354

Honda May Pass Chrysler in North America Production

May 12 (Bloomberg) -- Honda Motor Co., Japan’s second- biggest automaker, may build more vehicles than bankrupt Chrysler LLC in North America this year, further weakening Detroit’s grip on its home market.
Honda narrowed the gap to 17,011 vehicles at the end of April from 236,645 a year earlier, and with most Chrysler plants shut for as long as 60 days analysts expect the Japanese automaker to overtake its rival. Honda may also surpass Chrysler in U.S. sales to trail only bankruptcy-threatened General Motors Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and Ford Motor Co.
“There’s a sea change under way,” said Michael Robinet, an analyst at forecaster CSM Worldwide in Northville, Michigan. “This crisis with Chrysler and GM has acted as an accelerant to the systemic change that was already occurring.”
Toyota passed Chrysler in U.S. sales in 2006 and then Ford in 2007, as Japanese automakers lured customers with more fuel- efficient vehicles. The big three U.S. automakers’ market share has plunged to 44.4 percent this year, from more than 70 percent a decade ago, while overall sales have slumped to the lowest volume in about three decades.
Honda, fifth in the U.S. since 1988, has outsold Chrysler this year as of April. Its sales in the country slid 32 percent to 332,014, compared with a 46 percent drop for Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Chrysler to 323,890. Overall U.S. sales are down 37 percent through the first four months of the year.
Chrysler Plunge
“Market share isn’t something we target,” said David Iida, a spokesman for Honda’s U.S. unit, based in Torrance, California. “We’re very committed to local production, irrespective of what other companies are doing.”
The automaker fell 1.4 percent to 2,860 yen at the close of Tokyo trading. The stock has risen 50 percent this year.
Industrywide North American car and light-truck production plunged 49 percent through April, with Chrysler leading declines among major manufacturers, according to Haig Stoddard, an IHS Global Insight analyst. Chrysler’s production in the period fell 57 percent to 322,773, based on company figures.
Honda built 305,762 autos at assembly plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico through last month, down 40 percent from a year ago. The maker of Civic and Accord cars has U.S. plants in states including Ohio, Indiana and Alabama.
Chrysler, hoping to emerge from bankruptcy within 60 days as a new company led by Fiat SpA, halted work at most plants on May 4 while it reorganizes. The company also said it’s closing six factories that won’t be part of the Chrysler-Fiat deal.
Foreign Production Gains
“Honda and Toyota are both likely to outbuild Chrysler,” said John Sousanis, director of industry data for Ward’s Automotive Group. “We have each of them making 1 million vehicles or a bit more in North America this year, and Chrysler building just under 1 million -- and that’s before Chrysler announced its plan to shut down plants.”
Next year, Japanese, German and South Korean automakers will likely build more than half of the vehicles assembled in the U.S., outstripping local manufacturers for the first time, said CSM’s Robinet.
By 2011, Asian and European automakers will have more overall auto-assembly capacity in North America than U.S. competitors, said economist Kim Hill, with the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
“The market has matured,” said Hill. It “is moving away from the traditional Big 3 model to one that’s much more international.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles aohnsman@bloomberg.net Last Updated: May 12, 2009 06:40 EDT

Source;
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aDXqt5HGPyMY&refer=asia#