Yamaha shifts engine assembly lines
As part of its new business model and revised breakeven targets, the company is now consolidating its assembly and production linesYamaha Motor Co., Ltd. has completed the relocation of its motorcycle and snowmobile engine assembly lines from the marque’s Iwata South Factory to just up the road at the Iwata Main Factory. The change occurred at the end of August.
The relocation has consolidated what were formerly 12 engine assembly lines at the Iwata South Factory and nine complete vehicle assembly lines at the Iwata Main Factory (total of 21 lines) into four integrated engine-to-complete-vehicle-assembly lines and two small lot assembly lines (total of six lines) at the Iwata Main Factory.
With this move, the entire assembly process for motorcycles and snowmobiles is now completed in one location at the Iwata Main Factory.
Under its current three-year medium term management plan running through until 2012, Yamaha has been working to reorganise its manufacturing arrangement in Japan – in other words a shift from the previous “market sized-dependent” operating model to “breakeven point” operations. This reorganization is based on a business model in which the breakeven point is set at 200,000 units for motorcycles, 230,000 for outboard motors and 100,000 for ATV/SSV products.
Traditionally, the Yamaha’s manufacturing operations were conducted separately for motorcycles, outboard motors and the other product lines and the manufacturing layout was divided by function into separate parts manufacturing, engine assembly and complete vehicle assembly operations at specialised factories.
But the company believes this traditional type of manufacturing system had limitations in terms of overall productivity when applied to a breakeven point operating model.
Under the current plan to reorganise the manufacturing layout in Japan, the Company aims to improve the operating rate of production lines, the efficiency of logistics and production management and strengthen technical capabilities. In real terms, this will eventually involve aggregating and consolidating the original 12 factories/25 units into seven factories/14 units.
Tags
Please see our Editorial Guidelines & Code of Ethics (including for more information about sponsored content and paid events). The information published on this website is of a general nature only and doesn’t consider your particular circumstances or needs.
