Toyoda Gosei Co will enlarge its Seto plant, located near its main customer in Japan, to strengthen the company’s competitiveness through more efficient manufacturing in interior and exterior products.
The automobile industry today is moving toward concurrent manufacturing of different types of automobiles, including hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) and battery electric vehicles (BEV). For large painted products such as front grilles and back door garnishes, this demands higher functionality with simple appearance as well as a wider range of variations to satisfy the design needs of customers.
To meet these market needs, the productivity will be enhanced in the Seto Plant. This includes optimisation of the production layout, the introduction of highly efficient, large moulding machines and painting booths, and use of collaborative robots, automated inspection machines, automated product carriers, and IoT systems that consolidate management of production lines. Further reductions in CO2 emissions also will be achieved with electrification of facilities.
After expansion the plant will be expanded from 45,000 to 51,000 sq m by December 2023.