MARYSVILLE – Honda has announced plans to combine all of its automobile manufacturing facilities in the U.S. related to frame, engine, transmission, and related engineering and purchasing operations into one new company, to be named Honda Development & Manufacturing of America, LLC (HDMA). The new company also will integrate the automobile product development operations of Honda R&D Americas, LLC (HRA). The unification of Honda’s manufacturing operations and merger with auto product development will be effective April 1, 2021.

“Today, we are announcing a number of changes to our business operations that continue the journey we began last year, to become a more lean, nimble and unified company in North America,” said Shinji Aoyama, chief officer of North American Regional Operations of Honda Motor Co., Ltd., and president and CEO of American Honda. “Each change is vital to our ongoing effort to make Honda in America stronger and more responsive to the customer, better able to invest in advanced technology, and prepared to meet future market needs.”

In addition, with the move of auto product development functions to the new HDMA company, the automobile product design and certain market research functions currently part of the HRA Los Angeles Center will be integrated into the Regional Operations of American Honda Motor Co. Inc., based in Torrance, Calif.

HDMA

Honda will unite all auto creation functions into HDMA with a focus on achieving seamless development of new products with improved efficiency and quality, thus positioning its North American operations for the future. These changes will effectively bring all auto development, planning, purchasing, strategy and manufacturing into one company, thus strengthening what Honda calls a “one-floor” approach to the product development process.

This includes:

• Centralizing key business functions to become more efficient and eliminate redundancies;

• Executing new product development with increased speed and accuracy; and

• Improving manufacturing characteristics with a focus on quality, cost competitiveness and the ability to deliver vehicles that appeal to customers in a timely manner.