Mercredi 5 Avril 2017
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On April 5th, we went to Honda Manufacturing, which is located in Ormes. It was a visit organized for our “English class euro” by Mrs Faraus, our management teacher, and Mrs Mucini, our English teacher. We were only six students, since there was three absents; so we did the ride in our professors’ cars and it was more enjoyable than the bus.
We arrived around 9am and we met Françoise, with whom Mrs Faraus fixed a date for the visit. She gave to each of us shoes protections and a jacket. We took a photo in front of the entrance, which will be post on our high school’s net site with a short article about this morning.
Next, we met Sylvain Brissaire, he gave us earplugs and we entered into the production site for an English visit. He presented to us each part of the site with their functions, so now we know each step of lawnmowers production.
In fact, in the middle of the company, there is two sides: one is for stocking all the components coming from all over the world (for instance, aluminum coming from Italia, others components coming from USA, China...), and the other side is for the production.
Besides, there is several process concerning the lawnmower fabrication: the components assembly, the washing process, the degassing process, the painting…We saw the fabrication step by step.
The machine for the assembly of the component is moving and the workers have few operations to do and always the same. They are not moving and if they ask for help, they call the line leader and he comes: this is calledTaylorism (rigid organization of work). The final process of the fabrication is the test: they put some oil in the engine for testing: they check the speed of the engine, its functioning… Depending to products they want to test, there is one or two inspectors. If the machine is okay, they can pack it (packing with protection and glue). There is an automatic process for taping up the packing. They produce one unit in 45 seconds.
However, he company doesn’t product only lawnmowers. In fact, they also manufacture brush cutters. Mr. Brissaire told that the process is very simple, since they need 50 seconds for producing a brush cutter. Depending to the quantity they want to product, they have one, two or three peoples. This day, they had two peoples for 300 units. Like the lawnmower, they package the product after the assembly. They put also some equipment in the packaging, like glasses… When they finish the package they have to wait for the light, they have a light system (if the light is red, it means that it’s not good (too heavy for instance), and the green light means that it’s good).
We also saw the painting line and we finished with the robotic mowers, which are recent and quite expensive, since the price is starting for 2,000€. This robot cut garden’s grass, o it’s a new technology. It is for big garden and it’s competing with tractors.They starting this production in 2012, whereas it exist since 10 years, and they were looking for an isolated area. They have 1 to 12 people in this side and they are limited all around, because of the electric static.
Furthermore, Honda Manufacturing send product every day for all Europe, USA, and they send Robotic for Japan. The most selled product is the “easy lawnmower”, since it is the cheaper Honda’s product. In fact, 99% of the companies are using this lawnmower.
In addition, after this visit, we went to the room where we left our bags before entering to the site production. There, we met Olivier Race, the accounting, who did an oral presentation of the company with a slide show. When he finished we interrogated him about questions we have prepared in class, but a lot of them have been answer during his presentation.
In fact, Honda was created in June 1985 28th. Its capital come to 5 million and there is 66 factories all over the world. It is a Japanese company and the Europe headquarter is located in the UK, so they work with Japanese and this is why they have to speak English very well. They product lawnmower, brush cutters, power generators and robotic mower. Also, the company has 2 production seasons: a high season (from November to March) and a low season. Concerning the raw materials, they have local suppliers since they need flexibility.
Moreover, Honda has many principles, which are necessary for driving its business all over the world, like the respect of the individual, always proceeding with ambition, be ever mindful… Concerning the Leadership style, they always deal with their local staff, so it’s rather a consultative system. Nevertheless, Japanese companies are less fully free to manage. In addition, their goal for the following years is to succeed in their business transition, because it’s not as big as some Japan companies are, for instance.
In a word, the visit was very instructive and we are lucky to did an English visit since it will be good for our exam at the end of the year. Personally, I really enjoy this time and to my mind, the best moment was the visit of the site production, since we discover something new. Our guide was very pleasant and they had rich English vocabulary.So we have to thank Mrs Faraus, since she did her best for we could visit a company.
lham BOUTARBOUCH- TT2- Classe Euro DNL Management
