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TOP > CSR > Economic Aspects > Top Message (Centering on economic aspects)
What were the key initiatives in FY2010 ?
In addition to making structural reforms, we developed and expanded sales of new products to create new growth.
In FY2010, we focused on structural reform initiatives with the aim of quickly returning to the black. In addition, the Group made a collective effort to develop and expand sales of new products to create new growth.
Key initiatives in FY2010
- Structural reform initiatives to ensure a firm foundation
- Extensive improvement in productivity: Raise operational availability*, reduce logistics costs, lower energy costs and curtail supplementary material costs
- Top-to-bottom rethinking of fixed costs: Pursue operational reform and lower capital investment
- Develop and expand sales of new products to create new growth
- Develop eco-friendly products
- Develop products that will create a safe and reliable car society
*Operational availability refers to the rate at which a piece of equipment will function normally when it is needed; it also represents the production maintainability and working efficiency of equipment.
1. Structural reform initiatives to ensure a firm foundation
AISIN achieved soaring growth through FY2008 as our clients boosted production. But we are now in a different age. Accordingly, we have endeavored to extensively improve productivity and rethink fixed costs from top to bottom with the aim of creating a streamlined, solid corporate structure capable of weathering production declines. This will allow us to prosper in the next era.
We formed a dedicated project team to address these extensive improvements to productivity. This team carried out a range of activities to make improvements in factories, from raising operational availability to reducing the cost of supplementary materials. Moreover, the entire Company joined in these efforts, starting with myself, including progress inspections carried out by executive officers through on-the-spot reports of the actual site and goods. We exhaustively reviewed fixed costs by promoting operational reform, fully reviewing work processes and methods and reducing capital spending. We encouraged the use of multi-purpose equipment capable of adapting to fluctuations in production volume and leading to lower investments, and also used our current equipment until it was worn out. In this way, we reviewed capital spending from every possible angle. We thoroughly debated the need for investments and only made investments after a rigorous selection process. As a result of these efforts, capital spending was reduced to ¥83.8 billion in FY2010, less than 40% of previous levels.
Capital expenditures
Onsite inspection by the president
2. The development and sales expansion of new products to create new growth
AISIN has pursued R&D focused on the environment, safety and comfort. In FY2010, we pursued higher productivity and fixed cost reductions, but also secured the necessary development costs to develop and expand sales of the new products that will bring new growth. At the same time, we worked proactively to develop eco-friendly products. The electric water pump for cooling the engine, which raises the fuel efficiency of hybrid vehicles, is a representative example of such products. In addition, we developed products that would create a safe and reliable car culture — the permanent mission of companies in the automobile industry. We endeavored to popularize Electronic Stability Control (ESC), a technology that can reduce traffic accidents and is the subject of a campaign in Europe and the US to make it a standard feature.
To ensure reliability, these parts and systems were installed in vehicles and tested and assessed in a variety of driving environments on three proving grounds with large-scale circumferential circuits.
Electric water pump for cooling the engine
