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New Stockton plant will feed Fremont's NUMMI
By Bruce Spence
The (Stockton) Record
May 13, 2008
STOCKTON -- Grand-opening ribbons were cut and kudos were meted out freely at a congratulatory ceremony Monday in south Stockton for another in the growing number of San Joaquin County plants supplying parts for the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant in Fremont.
Kyoho Manufacturing California, the 10th auto parts supplier site for the NUMMI plant to open in the county since the mid-1980s, has been well into production of pressed and welded parts -- mostly body segments and fittings -- since January.
The 260,000-square-foot plant has 206 employees making nearly 11,000 auto parts a day in two shifts for Toyota Corollas and Pontiac Vibes being produced at the NUMMI plant, which is a joint manufacturing effort between Toyota and General Motors.
Monday's celebration with company officials, politicos and community leaders focused not just on how auto parts production near the Fremont plant is important to improved efficiencies and competitiveness, but also on the speed at which the Kyoho plant was developed.
Speakers over and again lauded the collaboration among Kyoho managers, contractors, the San Joaquin Partnership economic development group and local governments.
Ground was broken in March 2007. The plant, on 37 acres southeast of Highway 99 and Farmington Road, opened for equipment installation, testing and new employee training in September. Parts production was launched in January.
Stockton Mayor Edward Chavez called it a "flagship project" for efficient development.
NUMMI President Kunihiko Ogura said that Kyoho has been a consistent and reliable supplier of excellent parts and that he was pleased at the quick construction and production start of the new plant.
"It was truly an amazing feat," he said.
He said he hoped other parts suppliers would follow Kyoho's lead and locate plants close to the NUMMI plant.
Kyoho Manufacturing California is the first U.S. subsidiary of Kyoho Machine Works Ltd., itself a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corp.
The Stockton plant is a "just-in-time" manufacturer that each day supplies body parts for the next day's production at the NUMMI plant. This means parts production and then immediate trucking to Fremont with no storage at all in the Stockton plant.
Bill Borton, the plant's manager and vice president, said that's very cost-efficient for both the NUMMI plant and Kyoho, which before the Stockton plant opened supplied NUMMI with parts from Southern California, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Canada.
Eight days' worth of inventory would be sitting on rail lines to supply the NUMMI plant before the nearby Stockton plant opened, he said.
"It saves an unbelievable amount of money," Borton said.
The plant certainly has proved to be a money-saver for Bridgette Irons of Manteca, who was out in the dusty wind Monday afternoon but was nonetheless enjoying the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Irons, a production team leader, got a job at the plant in August, thus ending a 121/2 -year run of commuting to a warehouse job in the Bay Area.
No surprise: She really likes it.
"A 10-minute drive? With the price of gas?" she said. "Yes! I wouldn't take anything for it."
Contact reporter Bruce Spence at (209) 943-8581 or bspence@recordnet.com .
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