Word: honda
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Honda's rivals are only beginning to catch up. Nissan began building autos last year in Smyrna, Tenn., and Toyota is constructing a plant in Georgetown, Ky., that will start assembling vehicles in 1988. But Honda is not standing still either. The automaker began building engines at a separate plant near Marysville in July 1985. It is now gearing up a second Marysville assembly line that will increase the factory's U.S. production to 360,000 cars annually...
...Honda owes its jackrabbit start in the U.S. market at least partly to a corporate culture that fosters flexibility and innovation. The company operates with an openness that is rare in the world of Japanese business, where consensus and conformity are the rule. To boost communication, Honda has done away with executive lunch rooms and private offices. At Marysville, for example, egalitarianism prevails: all Honda employees, right up to Shoichiro Irimajiri, president of Honda's American manufacturing division, wear white coveralls with their names stitched in red lettering above the right breast pocket...
...Honda's Marysville operations are helping to revolutionize the way that American autoworkers view their jobs. The 3,263 workers at the plant are divided into only two job classifications -- assembly and maintenance -- compared with as many as 100 in some unionized U.S. factories. This leaves Honda workers free to perform many different functions, as dictated by the ebb and flow of the assembly line. While their $12.25 hourly wage is about $1 below the United Auto Workers average, employees and their families enjoy unusual benefits, including access to the company's gym and pool...
...U.A.W. has so far been unsuccessful in its attempts to unionize the Honda plant. A few workers at Marysville complain about the company's "almost military" adherence to schedules and procedures. But, says Roger Hammonds, a 41-year-old production coordinator, "this is the best place I've ever worked. It's the kind of job we idealized in high school. The philosophy, the job satisfaction -- it never came true for me until I came to work for Honda...
...Honda's obsession with quality is famed. Auto-industry experts point to the company's knack for designing compact, reliable engines, a legacy of its long experience with motorcycles. Honda quickly corrected a few problems on its early auto models, notably rust-prone bumpers and fenders on early Civics, and brakes that tended to fade on the first Accords. J. David Power, head of the California consulting firm that bears his name, lauds Honda's attention to owners' needs in designing its cars. He recalls one Honda design team that spent several days at a California shopping mall interviewing drivers...