Shah Alam, 14 Jul 2010 - UMW Toyota Motor Sdn Bhd (UMW Toyota Motor), distributor of Toyota vehicles in Malaysia, held a media visit to its manufacturing facility to give an insight of the company’s initiatives to deliver quality vehicles.
Commenting on the company's commitment, Mr. Kuah Kock Heng, President of UMW Toyota Motor Sdn Bhd, said, “Stringent quality measures, procedures coupled with comprehensive quality inspection are being implemented throughout the operation processes. From the manufacturing process such as logistic, welding, painting, assembly, to the stockyard and Toyota Sales and After-sales outlets are required to abide by the strict Toyota guidelines."
“Following the spirit of Kaizen - Continuous Improvement, we are constantly improving our quality standards and we will raise the quality bar. We will continue to ensure that the high quality aspects are adhered to, and it is extended beyond the assembly plant to our business partners, such as our suppliers and authorized dealers," said Mr. Kuah.
The media was taken on a tour around the plant to witness how Toyota vehicles were assembled. They also learnt about the "Quality in the process" in making the vehicles. Accompanying the media were Mr. Takashi Hibi, Deputy Chairman, UMW Toyota Motor Sdn Bhd; Mr. Kuah Kock Heng, President of UMW Toyota Motor Sdn Bhd; and Hideki Omae, Plant Director, Assembly Services Sdn. Bhd.
UMW Toyota Motor has invested close to RM290 million in the past 5 years to develop its manufacturing facilities. The investments were channeled to improve vehicle quality, productivity, cost efficiency and delivery, which contribute towards customer satisfaction.
“To live up to our customers’ expectation and deliver high standards, we will invest more than RM170 million to further develop ASSB for the next 3 years. We will channel it to enhance Toyota quality, further improve automation and productivity,” added Mr.Kuah.
UMW Toyota Motor also gives great precedence to vendor development, as they do not compromise on the quality of the parts that are produced.
"We also encourage our local vendors to acquire technical collaboration with Toyota's Global suppliers to enhance their products and expand their export business. Hence, this will spur on the automotive industry and contribute to the Malaysian economy,” commented Mr. Kuah.
With the development of local vendors, we can ensure consistency in quality that is expected and at the same time to be cost-efficient. Currently, UMW Toyota Motor has 65 vendors, which are the highest among the non-national car makes. This is also in response to the government’s call for automotive players to use more local contents to produce vehicles in the country.
Mr Kuah continued to say, “Our most popular model, Toyota Vios is being assembled with 40% local content and for the next generation, we intend to increase the content to 50%. As for the other models, we will gradually increase the local content as our vendors are further developed to meet the higher quality standards.”
To further ensure consistency in Toyota brand quality, great emphasis is placed in the stockyard that houses the new vehicles prior to the delivery to Toyota outlets.
A further investment of about RM200 million has been allocated to build a new centralized stockyard in Bukit Raja, which will also accommodate other facilities such as the accessory centre, test track, and a body and paint centre. The facility is scheduled to be in operation by mid 2011.
The company is committed to create a better driving experience for its customers. “We place great pride as we always listen to our customers’ feedback and suggestions to ensure we could produce better products in the future. This will enable us to deliver only the best quality vehicles and live up to customers’ expectations of the Toyota brand quality,” concluded Mr. Kuah.