All scheduled production at Koga Plant to begin early in the new year. Large-sized engine plant is up and running at the Nitta Plant.

Hino Motors, Ltd. (Hino) is moving forward with optimizing its global production and supply structures, and is reorganizing and streamlining its domestic processes. As part of these initiatives, we are continuing our phased relocation from the Hino Plant in Tokyo to the Koga Plant in Ibaraki, with cabin production scheduled to begin at the Koga Plant early in the new year.

With the startup of cabin production at the Koga Plant, all scheduled plants will now be in operation, including the KD, axle, vehicle assembly and frame plants that have already been up and running at the Koga Plant. Moving forward, we will be switching production from the Hino Plant to the Koga Plant in phases of different vehicle types, and plan to relocate production of all medium to heavy-duty vehicles to the Koga Plant in 2017.

The Koga Plant is where we will be realizing Hino’s manufacturing reforms, which call for producing commercial vehicles, which are high-mix low-volume products, with shorter lead times. To this end, we have been actively introducing innovative production technologies and lines to achieve not only high efficiency, but also the flexibility to respond to fluctuations in demand with respect to volume and vehicle types. Also, as the mother plant for medium to heavy-duty vehicle production, the plant will be responsible for internalizing new technologies and manufacturing methods, and making these available to plants overseas.

With the Koga Plant playing the role of mother plant for medium to heavy-duty vehicle production, the Nitta Plant in Gunma will become our mother plant for unit production. We started up the large-sized engine plant here in December 2016 based on our plans to consolidate the engine, transmission and differential production processes and achieve vertical production of these units at the Nitta Plant to ultimately supply these units to the Koga Plant and other plants in Japan.

Moving forward, we will be switching engine production in phases of different engine types from the Hino Plant to the Nitta Plant. Our aim with the new large-sized engine plant will not only be to improve production efficiencies, but also to develop versatile lines that will be capable of manufacturing medium engines as well. Just like the Koga Plant, the Nitta Plant will also have the flexibility to respond to fluctuations in demand with respect to volume and vehicle types.

Through these efforts to optimize our production and supply structures, Hino will continue to improve productivity and flexibility, as well as improve logistical efficiencies through reorganization and streamlining. Combined with the development of “best-fit products” that center around modularization, Hino will supply customers with “best-fit products” that satisfy their diverse needs with even shorter lead times. Through “best-fit products” and “Total Support” we will work to contribute to our customers’ businesses and grow together with our customers.

Overview of new plants built at the Koga and Nitta Plants

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(Reference) Primary roles of domestic plants

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* 1　Excluding head office area
* 2　Relocation from Hino Plant to Koga Plant underway
* 3　Relocation from Hino Plant to Nitta Plant underway (large-sized engine production)