HOFU, JAPAN: Mazda says it came up with innovations in nearly every step of auto manufacturing for a super- efficient assembly line that rolls off vehicles at a stunning rate of one every 54 seconds.
The revamped Hofu plant in southwestern Japan, shown to reporters last week, underlines how Mazda Motor Corp. has defied skeptics who predicted the automaker’s demise after Ford Motor Co. 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 gas-sipping models such as the Miata roadster without a single gas-electric hybrid in its lineup. The Hofu plant can barely keep up with demand. Its pace betters that of Toyota, which can roll out a vehicle at paces varying from 57 seconds to 115 seconds.
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 in basic ways is the same car. After its partnership with Ford ended three years ago, Mazda needed a new approach.
Mazda says it took the process a step further and unified platforms and parts at the design and development stage. It believes it has elevated the standard for an assembly line that can produce multiple size vehicles to a new level of efficiency.
Mazda officials said it will 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 next year.
The Hofu plant, first opened in 1981, recently rolled out its 10 millionth car, a Mazda6 sedan.
“We see this as one step toward further growth,” said President Masamichi Kogai at a roll-off celebration.
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 U.S., gradually pulled out. The U.S. automaker, based in Dearborn, Mich., gave up its top stakeholder position in Mazda in 2010.
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 Mazda vulnerable in periods when the yen is strong in foreign currency exchange.
But the unfavorable rate has changed course since last year, providing an unexpected lift. Mazda is planning to raise overseas production to 50 percent of total output by the 2015 fiscal year.
It is also aiming to increase annual global sales to 1.7 million vehicles by 2017, up from the current 1.2 million.
It is well on its way to achieving its profit forecasts for the fiscal year ending March 2014 at 70 billion yen ($700 million), according to Mazda.
Some analysts say Mazda still faces an uphill battle because it lacks scale, through which automakers can cut costs. That means Mazda has to become almost an upscale brand that can command a higher price. Kogai said the automaker will not resort to price-cutting to woo buyers as it tended to do in the past.