At 7:30 a.m., Toshihide Saeki, 55, President of AAT, arrives at the company. "Sawat di khrap (good morning)," he says to the Thai employees as he heads for his office. The countdown figure in the compound tells him how many days are left before the scheduled beginning of the operation on May 29. The entire plant is in a tense atmosphere.
Mr. Saeki is busy attending meetings one after another to discuss a number of issues including quality improvement and final arrangement of the schedule in the run-up to mass production. The top priority issue on his mind is product quality. "Can we maintain the high quality we are currently achieving even after the plant start-up?" he wonders. While they are currently manufacturing prototypes at the rate of only 15 units per day, the number will increase to dozens and even to hundreds after the beginning of mass production.
The basic policy of AAT is to employ workers and also to source parts locally. Eighty percent of all parts for the one-ton-class small trucks produced at the plant are purchased from outside. "Unlike the case in Japan and the United States, Thai suppliers have only a short history." Mr. Saeki, who was also involved in the start-up of Mazda Motor Manufacturing (USA) Corporation (MMUC), cannot stop worrying, although he didn't feel that way in a similar job in the United States. Now, he is also faced with the new problem of localization.
Mr. Saeki worked in the United States for some seven years beginning in the summer of 1986. After serving as Vice-President in charge of production at MMUC, he was installed as the Executive Vice-President of AAT after the company was reorganized into a joint venture with Ford. "MMUC started out on the assumption that the company would be run by Japanese indefinitely. It was not necessarily successful," Mr. Saeki chooses his words carefully when talking about MMUC.
Mr. Saeki, who had a bitter experience in the United States, was instructed by Wayne Booker, 63, Vice-Chairman of Ford, who concurrently serves as AAT Chairman, "After the plant starts up, I would like you to expedite localization as quickly as possible." This means to advance the return of people on loan from Mazda and Ford who are playing a central role in both production and management operations, in order to establish operation of the company by Thai employees.
Mr. Saeki regards this as a plausible approach. Automakers from around the world are building plants in Thailand one after another, resulting in even harsher competition against each other. "If Japanese and Westerners stay here to manage the company, cost competitiveness will be undermined," he thinks. Reorganization of the auto industry suddenly started gaining speed as companies began taking moves to guarantee their own survival, such as the merger between Daimler Benz and Chrysler. Against such a backdrop, AAT, which aspires to export its products, cannot avoid cutthroat competition.
Personnel on loan from Mazda and Ford unintentionally mention "the intention of the Head Office". It is highly probable that such an attitude could stand in the way of nurturing among Thai employees the sense that AAT is their own company. "Turn your face to AAT," Mr. Saeki repeats to vice-presidents at every management conference and other meetings. He believes that what is required most is for personnel on loan from parent companies to take the lead in promoting the attitude that AAT is an independent company.
Once a month, Mr. Saeki attends a meeting of about 50 companies from various countries operating in the Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate. "Let us build a good relationship as companies in the same neighborhood," he says addressing the participants. They are studying the Thai language and local labor management practices together. At the same time they are cooperating with a nearby university in accepting trainees for training in skills and founding a scholarship system. They are also willing to accept requests to give lectures. "In order to establish ourselves as good corporate citizens," he explains.
The new venture in Thailand run jointly by Mazda and Ford will roll out its first product eleven days from today. Ahead of the currently most important task of achieving localization, another challenge awaits them: megacompetition growing ever harsher with the global reorganization of the auto industry.
