The Japanese corporation Honda produces, manufactures and distributes automobiles, motorcycles, marine engines and motor-driven machineries for the international market. Turning out a yearly average of 22 million motors, Honda is one of the most important engine manufacturers world-wide. At 124 plants in over 30 countries, Honda corporation employs over 179,000 individuals. In Italy, Honda manufactures different scooter and motorcycle models in Atessa (Central Italy).
Challenge
The Honda plant in Atessa (Italy) had been using IMDS since 2010. In order to ensure a well-functioning IMDS process, Honda formed an IMDS team that was responsible for incoming material data sheets. The team members needed to be adequately qualified in IMDS. In addition, the suppliers of Honda that were involved in the company’s IMDS process also needed to know the IMDS requirements and be able to fulfill them in the future.
Mission of imds professional:
Training
imds professional was commissioned with implementing the necessary steps. Therefore, imds professional developed for the Honda staff a basic IMDS training customized to OEM requirements as well as an introduction to IMDS for Honda’s suppliers. The trainings were conducted over a period of 4 days in Atessa (Central Italy).
Planning the 2-day training for the Honda staff, the imds professional team with its international focus accounted in particular for Honda’s role as end user within the supply chain. The first training day provided an introduction to IMDS and its requirements and guidelines. The participants became acquainted with notions and definitions of IMDS and the implementation of IMDS processes was outlined. The second day focused on practice as well as the most important IMDS functions. At the end of the training, imds professional provided in a separate meeting an overview on the most important facts about IMDS for the Honda management.
The two following days, two 1-day IMDS events for approximately 70 suppliers were organized. The invitees received a general introduction to IMDS and the creation of material data sheets, the IMDS requirements, and their application within the supply chain was explained. Here, it was given particular attention to the specific supplier requirements of Honda regarding the data to be delivered in IMDS.
Consulting
As part of its commission, the imds-professional team advised Honda on how to optimize their IMDS process: the Honda team learned about possible ways to establish the process in their company and how the necessary resources could be divided more efficiently.
To this end, imds professional performed in a first step an internal assessment by recording and classifying the existing processes. To assess quality and performance, the imds professional team defined in a second step adequate “key performance indicators” that were then evaluated in cooperation with the Honda team.
Result
After the training, Honda‘s IMDS team felt more confident when working with IMDS and mastered its important functions. The team knew the rules and routines for checking incoming material data sheets and was able to rapidly check the sheets for correctness. In addition, it was ensured that Honda’s suppliers know how to create material data sheets correctly and which Honda specific guidelines need to be considered. For Honda, this increased efficiency and quality of data acquisition, making it less time-consuming both for Honda and its suppliers, and let to improved cooperation.
