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Fast Track: Year-Old Unit of TGNA Expands Site
By Bruce Meyer
Rubber & Plastics News, Jan 13th, 2004
HOPKINSVILLE, Ky.--Toyoda Gosei North America Corporation is close to completing a major expansion at its Hopkinsville automotive body sealing plant just a year after starting production at the facility.
The company’s TG Automotive Sealing Kentucky operation expects to complete sometime in February a 25,000-sq.-ft. addition to the 120,000-sq.-ft. factory to accommodate two more rubber extrusion lines. TG didn’t release investment figures for the project.
The North American division of Toyoda Gosei Co. Ltd. employed 30 when it opened the plant with one extrusion line in January 2003 and will have increased that number to 240 when the expansion is completed. The firm anticipates boosting the plant’s work force further to between 300 and 400 over the next five years.
Customers for the body sealing systems manufactured in Kentucky include Toyota Motor Manufacturing of Indiana and Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.
"We’re right on plan," said Wayne Hodges, Toyoda Gosei North America Corporation general sales manager for body sealing. "Our future is also very optimistic. We happen to have some really great customers."
Hodges said a good part of TG’s success is the firm’s extremely strong manufacturing heritage--particularly in body sealing. He noted that Toyoda Gosei may be the only weatherstripping supplier to do business with all the leading car makers.
"It comes out of our philosophy that we look for and have experience in collaboration--especially with customers," he said.
Most of the time, these joint projects result in the offering of a product or service that is better than either partner could put forth on its own. He said that was the case with a joint venture Toyoda Gosei North America Corporation entered into last year with Tram Inc.--the North American unit of Tokai Rika Co. Ltd.--to open its TGR Technical Center in Plymouth, Mich. The venture provides full-service, in-house testing for automotive safety systems and components.
Toyoda Gosei North America Corporation also collaborates with the worldwide Toyoda Gosei group on certain projects. "Customers don’t care where resources exist," Hodges said. "They care about how they apply to their project. Our job is to go out and get resources and apply those to customer needs."
He said TG strives to be a market-driven company that must know what its customers want. To that end, the company listens to its customers, identifies needs, has flexible sourcing options and knows how to address problems and opportunities.
For example, most automotive suppliers look at the ongoing pressure on pricing as a problem, but TG sees it as a potential opening for firms that offer innovative systems, according to the TG sales manager.
That also helps explain why the company continues to invest capital in its North American manufacturing operations when many companies are looking for lower-cost production elsewhere on the globe.
"We’re a manufacturing company producing ongoing continuous improvement," he said. "It allows us to look at it as yes, a challenge, but really as an opportunity. What we feel we bring to the party is a pillar of success in flexible resources. That is key for us being able to succeed. There is a lot of pressure out there, but frankly we’re optimistic."
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