Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Welcome Honda to Greensburg, Indiana!

I learned earlier today that Honda Motor Company has set a press conference for 10:30 am tomorrow in my hometown of Greensburg, Indiana to officially announce that Greensburg will be the new site for their latest North American car plant. It has been estimated that 1,500 jobs will be added to my community to build 200,000 cars annually by 2008. The investment of $400 million to open this plant will be a great shot in the arm locally. Honda is a world class operation with a strong lean manufacturing background that may help improve our quest to improve manufacturing in Indiana. Welcome Honda to Greensburg, Indiana!

2 comments:

Karl On Sea (twitter: @karlonsea) said...

What's particularly impressive about this is the SPEED of deployment. From a standing start to 200,000 units per annum in less than two years. If they do that Mike, I think you'll find yourself knee deep in industry tourists!

Obviously Honda thinks that the local economy can supply their needs, but what's your opinion on the supply chain? How will it cope with Honda's lean needs?

Karl.

Mike Wroblewski said...

Karl,

Good points. To go from farm fields to state-of-the-art automotive plant producing 200,000 units a year in a short 2 1/2 yr timeline will be very impressive to watch. Most companies in America would not even come close to pulling this off without major start up issues. The local economy with the support of our state/local governments will bend over backwards to help move Honda to full production. Not to mention all the growth moving into this area from enterprising businesses. From what I know of Honda's supply chain, the new plant in Greensburg is close enough to all their current major suppliers to continue daily deliveries. Overall, Honda will continue to successfully operate this new plant much like their other plants in the US.

Mike