by Arianne Anderson

MARYVILLE and ATHENS, TN — Walking into the Denso manufacturing plants in Tennessee, all the typical sounds can be heard: moving belts, air compressors, fork lifts, beeping and buzzing. But, you also hear random jingles of classical music and other types of video game-like music, a by-product of the influence of Denso’s Japanese origins. Denso, a global supplier of automotive technology, systems and components truly embraces what it means to be global, by bringing the Japanese culture to its North American plants and vice versa.

As the second largest automotive supplier in the world, operating in 32 countries, Denso lives by the concept of the Japanese term for continuous improvement, or “kaizen.”

Babcox editors were exposed to this “kaizen” philosophy at a recent visit to Denso’s Maryville and Athens, TN, plants. The Maryville plant, Denso Manufacturing Tennessee, Inc., resides on 154 acres with 2,500 associates working in the facility. The sprawling facility has three manufacturing divisions: Electronics, Instrument Cluster and Starter/Alternator. It features an education and development center for training and leadership courses and also includes an employee fitness center. The Athens plant, Denso Manufacturing Athens, TN, Inc., manufactures oxygen sensors, fuel injectors, air flow meters, ignition coils, spark plugs and monolithic carriers. This facility sits on 138 acres and includes 1,000 employees. In all, Denso employs more than 106,000 associates around the globe.

 Both of these facilities showcased Denso’s strict quality control measures, rigorous testing procedures, strong work ethic and advanced technology, including the use of robots in the Athens, TN, plant. According to its Web site, Denso is “aiming to create ideal plants in which people and machines work together, to deliver high-quality products, on time and without fail, to customers around the world.”

They are also dedicated to keeping associates happy and always functioning to the best of their abilities. Denso offers a full-service health clinic attached to the Athens plant, where associates and their families can go, free of a co-pay, when needed. In addition, there are always incentives for associates who share their ideas and initiate cost-saving suggestions.

For example, in the Maryville plant there is a Global Technology Adaptation Concept Activity Area where mock-ups of assembly lines are made using cardboard and wood. Associates “practice” on the line and take ownership of it in an effort to remove waste and time out of the production process. With a product coming off the line every six seconds, it’s extremely important to have smooth-running lines. There are also other various learning and development stations around both plants that contribute to “kaizen.”

There are numerous visual and audio aids that serve as a constant reminder of “kaizen” and the global nature of the company. Above all workstations, electronic performance boards hang, showing the productivity rate of the line in which it represents. Numbers shown in green indicate that the line is running smoothly. Numbers in red show that the productivity rate is down. Other lines contain a lighting and sound system in which lights illuminate either green, red or yellow depending on the status of the line. If the line needs attention, the light will shine red or yellow and music, a jingle that the associates can create on their own, will alert them of a problem. The system, called "ANDON," is used in all Denso plants.

The effort to continually improve can be seen in the successes Denso has achieved, including savings of $286,416 a year through a copper scrap reclamation process at the Maryville plant and 26 months of no customer returns on starters, making 1.8 million spark plugs a month at the Athens plant and staying true to the commitment of delivering “First Time Fit” to the marketplace.

Perhaps the most important factor that reflects the true global nature of Denso is its collaboration between Japan and the United States. Associates from the Tennessee plants will spend a couple of years in Denso’s Japan facilities and Japan associates will go to North America. This gives associates the chance to share ideas and improve upon specific tasks. It creates a diverse environment, one that is filled with understanding and different points of view and promotes clean, organized and productive facilities. And from what was seen in the Tennessee plants, this collaboration reflects the Denso spirit of foresight, credibility and collaboration among associates and customers.