Today we visited Honda Power and Equipment in Swepsonville, NC. Honda’s mission is to produce the highest quality of prices at reasonable prices. Honda also has 2 main beliefs. The first one is to always have respect for individuals. While the second one is the three joys: buying, selling, and creating. The management policy of Honda is to proceed with ambition and youthfulness at all times. Honda’s customer is anybody that is in need of purchasing a lawnmower, snow thrower, string cutter, pressure washer, or generator. These are necessary products that are important in helping keep your home functioning. Honda also sells its engines to its competitors as strange as that may sound. Honda’s customers’ value the quality of their products. They are always of the highest quality and are designed to last. Our presenter David talked about how his neighbors have had Honda mowers that are about 15 years old and are still working. While before he switched to using Honda products he had to get a new one about every 3 years. Honda has experienced tremendous success in their business ventures so far. Honda excels at getting their products out quickly and efficiently. Honda has also never lain off an employee. Honda’s plan for the future is to continue with what they are doing now, but only to do it better. Honda also isn’t afraid to more factories or start producing a product in a new place if it will help make more money.

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Today our class visited the Honda Power Equipment factory in Swepsonville, North Carolina. The Honda plant was established in 1953 and since then it has manufactured over 40 million power products worldwide. Currently Honda is the leader of developing fuel efficient, low emission, and environmentally friendly engines for power equipments including lawn mowers, snow throwers, and other. The Honda Power Equipment is headquartered out of Alpharetta, Georgia. Honda Power Equipment or HPE offers more than 60 models in six major product families, including, generators, lawn mowers, pumps, snow blowers, tillers, and trimmers.

Hond Power Equipment did not have a very specific mission but David Werden, our guide during the tour, put a lot of emphasis on respect between all the employees and their three joys which were; buying, selling, and creating.  As a company they do not believe in laying off their employees. Their assembly lines are very schedule driven, they try to make as many engines as they need, no extra. Our guide mentioned that everyone is moving in the assembly line, he compared it to an ant farm. Also another important value Honda believes in is safety and David Werden stated that it rarely ever happens that a factory worker gets seriously injured.

The Honda Power costumers include their stores and Home Depot stores. Home Depot is by far they’re largest customer but Honda Power Equipment also serves single product customers in their own stores. Also HPE sells generators to some of their competitors in the lawn mower business. David Werden mentioned that it was “a unique situation” when he was talking about selling to their competitors. Honda Power Equipment customers value getting cutting edge or top of the line equipment with exceptional quality. Also Punctuality is very important to their customers especially Home Depot who always needs a specific amount usually they want more of a surplus but they just don’t want to run out of lawn mowers.

Honda Power Equipment’s results are extraordinarily high, in the year of 2013 they had just under 300 million dollars in sales. Consumer Reports even rated the Honda Power Equipment lawn mowers the number one lawn mower on the market for nine straight years. HPE contains ten manufacturing facilities around the globe not including the United States. HPE’s plan for the future is to keep doing what they’re doing because they have been extremely successful over the past couple of years. Also HPE is trying to move their products that are manufactured where the demand is the highest to cut down costs. Moving their generators from Japan to the United States will help them do this. Overall I really enjoyed the visit and the presentation that David Werden gave us was very informative. Also I was very impressed at how clean their factory was compared to other factories.

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Honda Power Equipment is a leader in the development of low-emission, fuel efficient, environmentally friendly 4-stroke engines for use in generators, water pumps, lawn mowers, outboard motors, and many other power equipment applications.

HPE does not have a mission statement per say but they do have a principle of maintaining a global view point. HPE is dedicated to supplying products of the highest quality yet at a reasonable price for worldwide customer satisfaction. In addition, as a business, Honda does not believe in laying anyone off. Once an employee has a job at Honda, they have a job for life.

HPE only sells its products at its own stores and at Home Depot. Therefore, Home Depot is their biggest customer. From there, the people who buy HPE’s products are typically new home owners or people looking to replace/buy new engines. Interestingly, another major customer of HPE products is the competition.

HPE’s customers value high-quality products that will last a long time. The main thing that Honda has over its competitors is the high-quality of its engines. Our presenter emphasized the fact that most of his neighbors have had their Honda engine lawn mowers for 15 years. Most other lawn mowers need to be replaced after at least 3-5 years.

HPE has been very successful with results. It has been in production for 30 years. Plus, in 2013, sales were $284 million. People look to HPE to provide high-quality engines with a long lifetime.

The future plan for HPE is always to upgrade its products, develop new features that people care about, and to generally make products nicer and more user-friendly. Another goal is to reduce production costs and to increase revenue.

Today’s visit was eye opening because I have seen lawn mowers but I have never seen the work that goes into making them. I couldn’t believe the number of people that were needed in an assembly line to create the engines. Prior to visiting HPE, I assumed most of the assembly was done by machines. Seeing all of the workers in the assembly line, I’m appreciative of their dedication to working long hours while standing, doing the same motion every 12 or so seconds. The resulting quality is very high, making HPE successful.

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What is Honda’s mission?

Honda Power Equipment’s (HPE) goal is to provide its customers with the most user-friendly, highest quality motor it can produce at the lowest cost possible. Since the factory started producing in August 1984 until now, HPE has produced very high quality equipment and especially motors. Touring around the factory today with our guide David reinstated these goals by showing us just how high quality Honda motors are. While David admitted that while their motors may be among the most expensive in the industry, he said the quality of the motors was so high that they needed to cost that much. Honda’s motors are so well made that Honda actually sells its motors to competitors so they can use them in their products such as lawnmowers and snow throwers.

Who is their customer?

Honda Power Equipment’s customers vary incredibly both by location and who they are. At this facility specifically, the typical customer can range from average homeowners who are looking to buy a lawnmower or generator to a competitor of Honda who produces lawnmowers but wants to use the highest quality engine available, which is why they turn to Honda. In general, anyone who is looking for any lawn or yard equipment is a potential Honda customer because so many other brands use Honda engines to power their devices.

What does the customer value?

The customers of Honda Power Equipment value the very high quality products they purchase from HPE. While they know that the Honda engines are more expensive, they also know that this is because they are built very well and are built to last much longer without any deficiencies which over time will make up for the more expensive price tag.

What are their results?

The entire company of Honda has done extremely well since it first began. HPE has expanded from its first location in North Carolina to having factories and plants in five continents. Total 2013 sales were slightly over 284 million dollars, which was an increase from 2012. The HPE plant we went to have over 1,000 and is in constant contact with 144 different suppliers which it does business with.

What is our plan?

Honda’s plan is to continue to find ways to try and improve the already excellent quality of its products. There are not too many new plans for Honda to expand its locations but it does plan on researching and putting money into a whole new machine that is an automatic lawn mower. While it is currently being developed in Europe, Honda plans on bringing the lawn mower over to North America in the near future to try and advertise it as the easiest way to keep your lawn cut and neat.

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Honda’s mission is to provide a quality product for there customers. Honda can at times be pricier than their competitors but they have the highest quality goods. The customers of Honda value their quality. One example that was given to us today was that the Honda lawnmowers can last upwards of 15 years. This is just one example of the quality of their goods and how it affects their customers. The customers of Honda also value the service that they receive from the company. Honda has to make sure that their products are readily available and get delivered on time. On top of this when something goes wrong it is very important for Honda to fix it. An example given to us today was that in Europe Honda will refuse to stop until they fix every problem. They would even send somebody two hours out to somebody’s home to look at a product, take it apart and fix it. The results Honda has gotten is that they are one of the biggest, most well respected companies in the entire world. For the future I’m sure that Honda has many plans, but one of them is producing a lawn mower that mows itself. The mower will be charged electrically and when it starts to run out of battery it brings itself to the charging station to recharge.

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Ben Doster

What is Our Mission?

The mission statement of Honda is “Maintaining a global viewpoint, we are dedicated to supplying products of the highest quality, yet at a reasonable price for worldwide customer satisfaction”.  This was evident when we took a tour of the facility today.  Our tour guide kept stressing to us how important it was that the company continues producing high quality products at a fair price.  This prompted the question as to why they did not produce their products in an area with cheaper labor.  Our tour guide then explained that if that were the case, the products might not carry the same sense of quality that their customers demand from them.

Who is Our Customer?

The customers of Honda Power Equipment Manufacturing Inc. are homeowners all across the world.  Although many of their products are sold and used right here in the US, they make a product for just about everyone in every environment.  The reason why I say their customers are usually homeowners is because at this facility, they manufacture small engines that are used in lawnmowers, snow throwers, etc.  People trying to maintain their own property or the property of someone else more often than not use these products.

What Does Our Customer Value?

The customers of Honda Power Equipment Manufacturing Inc. value the quality behind the products that Honda produces.  According to our tour guide, Honda small engines are priced higher than many of their competitors due to the fact that they are built stronger in order to last longer.  It is for this reason that the customers of Honda are willing to pay a little more in order to obtain a more reliable and well-built piece of equipment.

What are the Results?

As a result of all this, the Swepsonville, NC plant of Honda Power Equipment Manufacturing has seen a great amount of business in the past few years.  As with any seasonal manufacturing job, they must employ some people for seasonal positions, however Honda Power Equipment has never laid anyone off in the North American division.  That is something that very few companies can say.  As of now, the plant we visited had a little over a thousand employees on the pay roll, making them the number one job provider in the area.

What is our Plan?

There are no immediate plans for this plant to change their current production habits.  As of now, the Honda Power Equipment Manufacturing Inc. is planning on continuing with the products that they are currently producing.  Our tour guide mentioned how their facility was currently behind on the quota so they will keep the seasonal employees on the pay roll for a little bit longer this year in order to catch up and produce as many engines as they originally planned on.

I was very impressed with our visit to the Honda Power Equipment Manufacturing Inc.  Considering that it was a plant that was responsible for a majority of the small engines that Honda produces, I was surprised that it was not any larger than it was.  Due to the nature of the company however, it is not some place that I would be too happy to work at.

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 HPE’s Mission

Honda Power Equipment’s mission is to create a user friendly, environmentally sustainable motor with upmost emphasis placed upon the quality of the product.  David, our tour guide today kept stressing just how high of quality the products that they make at the plant and how that sets them apart from other companies.  At one point he said that just in his neighborhood, 50% of them owned Honda lawnmowers and four of them had owned their Honda lawnmower for over 15 years. This shows how high quality of a product Honda produces each and every day.  Honda also stresses the importance of Respect to all individuals. Whether you are at the top of the business or on the production line, everyone wears white suits.  Overall, they try to maintain a global viewpoint, while still maintaining the highest quality product at a reasonable price.

HPE’s Customers

HPE has an absolutely incredible array of customers.  They sell to a multitude of people and organizations for that matter.  First and most obviously they sell to the consumers at Honda dealerships all across the country.  As their slogan says, “Helping People Get Things Done,” consumers know that Honda products are of upmost quality and can trust the machine to get the job done.  Second, Honda sells their lawnmowers and other products from Home Depots.  But HPE also sells their motors to other lawnmower companies. That’s right, HPE sells its products directly to their competitors which is very strange.  Again, it shows how coveted the Honda motors are.

What do Customers of HPE value?

As previously mentioned, the customers of HPE value the level of quality of the products.  A great number of other products on the market today come nowhere close to the level of Honda.  Knowing that they will have their product for the next decade or more makes them that much more willing to buy from Honda.  Also, as a Honda lawnmower owner myself, I can personally say that I value how easy it is to use the products.  From simple startup, maintenance and comfortable grip points, the products all seem to be extremely well thought out so that the customer doesn’t have to mess around at all.  It helps get the job done without worrying whether or not it may start up or not.

What are HPE’s results?

Honda as a whole has done exceptionally well in numerous markets including automobiles, airplanes and lawn supplies. Specifically to what we visited today, the Honda Power Equipment has also done very well.  Pumping out a massive amount of engines per day, 2,800 to be exact, the plant has been a backbone of the Honda Power Equipment’s efforts in North America.  In its existence, the plant itself has produced 18-20 million units. “20 million of anything is pretty remarkable” as David said.

What is HPE’s plan?

This question came up in the information session with David actually.  As with any company, they are always in search of new and more efficient ways of producing their products.  And Honda is the same way.  But beyond the efforts to make their product better and more efficient, they are also investing in a whole new type of product; robotic lawnmowers.  Currently in research and development right now, the new product would revolutionize the lawn mowing business for everyone.  Following their current business model and strategy I am sure that Honda will continue to grow well into the future.

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Today we visited Honda Manufacturing in Swepsonville. They have a very busy and well-organized system for making their products. They make motors for lawnmowers, go-carts, leaf blowers, pressure washers and snow throwers. Honda is a global company and this one here in Swepsonville is the biggest, flowed by the Jialing-Honda and then the Thai Honda. Honda mass produces these motors and does so with the highest quality. Last year they had 6.12 million dollars in sales. Honda also built 1.5 million vehicles and they believe that will rise to 2 million in the next two years. To understand how fast they make an engine, every 6 seconds an engine is made and that correlates to roughly 2 million a year. The total sales last year for all of Honda were 284 million dollars, which goes to show how successful this company is.

Honda does not have a mission statement per say, but rather have some beliefs and a principle that they follow. Their beliefs are respect for the individual, and the three joys: buying, selling, and creating. The principle of Honda is maintaining a global viewpoint; they are dedicated to supplying products of the highest quality yet at a reasonable price for worldwide customer satisfaction. These just go to show how Honda knows exactly what it takes to be successful in a competitive market and still make the best product they can.

The customers of Honda are both the individual who purchases a product made by Honda or a product that uses a Honda engine, as well as the big companies such as Home Depot who buy their products and sell them. Honda sells to big chains like Home Depot, but also has its own Honda stores that allow a person to purchase a product and for a bond with someone who knows everything there is to know about that product.

The customer values a quality product that will last them for many years and not require constant servicing or replacement after a few years. Honda does sell their products for a little more than their competitors, but its like the saying says, you get what you pay for and with Honda you are getting the best lawnmowers on the market and the best engines for any product that uses them. The customer also values the fact that Honda Manufacturing has never laid off a person in all the American plants and have also had the number one spot on customer reports the past nine years, which shows how high of quality their products are.

The results of Honda start with their stellar track record of being number one on consumer reports nine years and still going. From this you can see the success of revenue at 284 million dollars last year. Another aspect that shows the results of what Honda has done is that they sell their engines to many of their competitors, which goes to show how much better the quality of their products are compared to the competition.

The plan for Honda is to keep working and innovation. They want to keep tweaking their products and to try and make them more user friendly. They also want to bring in some new products, such as a snow thrower that they plan to introduce with in the nest year. Then there is a self operating lawnmower that Honda is currently working on and testing over in Europe that they could end up bringing over to the US, but as of now would sell for around $1,000 for this lawnmower.

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