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Thursday, August 25, 2011
Honda Motor Co. is making $355 million of upgrades at plants in Ohio where it opened its first U.S. wind tunnel, seeking productivity and fuel-economy gains for models designed and built in North America.
The Ohio projects for Japan’s first company to make cars in the U.S. include $166 million of improvements to its factory in East Liberty and a $64 million stamping press at its Marysville plant, said Ron Lietzke, spokesman for the company’s assembly unit. Honda wouldn’t provide the cost of the wind tunnel or other additions to its engineering center in Raymond.
“The driver of the projects is to improve all our characteristics,” Lietzke said in an interview, declining to say whether the changes will lead to greater output. “If we end up increasing production capacity as a result, that’s fine,” he said, without elaborating.
Honda is refurbishing factories as it prepares to restore full North American operations next month after parts shortages triggered by Japan’s March earthquake left Honda and Acura dealers short of models. The Tokyo-based company’s U.S. sales slipped 2.6 percent this year through July, and market share fell to 9.3 percent from 10.6 percent as industrywide deliveries rose 11 percent.
Output at Honda’s auto-assembly plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico plunged by 26 percent to 559,981 this year through July from 754,807 a year ago, according to company data.
Having opened Marysville in 1982, before Toyota, Nissan and other Asian companies began making cars in the U.S., Honda’s North America engineering and production units are among the region’s most sophisticated, said Jeffrey Liker, professor of engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Having opened Marysville in 1982, before Toyota, Nissan and other Asian companies began making cars in the U.S., Honda’s North America engineering and production units are among the region’s most sophisticated, said Jeffrey Liker, professor of engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
“By the most common productivity metrics, they’re among the most efficient,” said Liker, who studies automotive- assembly operations. “They have a history of developing exceptional people and actually keeping them. That allows them to accumulate knowledge and continue to learn.”
The Raymond engineering unit, near the Marysville and East Liberty plants, is Honda’s main vehicle-development center for the Americas.
It’s responsible for designing and engineering the Pilot and Acura MDX sport-utility vehicles, Ridgeline pickup, Acura ZDX wagon and TL sedan, and the North American version of the Odyssey minivan, all of which are built only in North America.
Boosting fuel-economy on those models to comply with tightening regulations is also the unit’s responsibility, said Frank Paluch, senior vice present of Honda R&D Americas, in an interview this month.
Boosting fuel-economy on those models to comply with tightening regulations is also the unit’s responsibility, said Frank Paluch, senior vice present of Honda R&D Americas, in an interview this month.
The Obama administration won an agreement from automakers in July to double the Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, to 54.5 mpg by 2025. The first phase for the industry is to reach an average of 35.5 mpg by 2016.
“We are very aware of those targets and where our responsibility is for CAFE within the lineup. There are set plans how to meet them,” Paluch said. “By the 2016 model introductions, we’ll target about an 18 percent improvement, specifically for our areas.”
Improvements will come through enhanced engine and transmission performance, lighter-weight materials, and smaller and more-efficient components, said Paluch.
Such “evolutionary” changes were used when Ohio engineers revamped the Odyssey last year, raising fuel economy 17 percent, he said. Hitting the 2025 goal is a “bit more gray,” and depends on customers, he said.
“If consumers are buying a lot more hybrids, we can easily meet those requirements,” Paluch said. “If consumers don’t buy a lot more hybrids or don’t buy more battery-electric vehicles, we’re going to have to think about other ways to meet those goals.”
Honda hasn’t previously acknowledged the Ohio wind tunnel that was built in late 2010. It will help engineers improve vehicle aerodynamics for further efficiency gains, said John Dirrig, a manager and chief engineer at the Raymond center.
“The ability to do that type of analysis as early as possible in the development phase of new vehicles is big deal,” he said.
“They’re very expensive, and you want to make sure they’re going to get a lot of use,” Brownlee said.Honda won’t say how much it’s invested in the Raymond R&D center, where more than 1,000 engineers work at desks in a central hall the length of 2.5 football fields, or at least 750 feet. Raymond also has a crash-test center and laboratories to test electromagnetic interference and the effect of heat, rain and cold on vehicles.
Along with the Ohio upgrades, Honda said in March it would spend $94 million to modify its Lincoln, Alabama, plant that builds Odyssey minivans and Pilot SUVs. The company said this month it will build an $800 million plant in central Mexico that will make 200,000 small cars a year after it opens in 2014.
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