3. Got a Problem? DENSO Associates Can, and Do, Help
Hitozukuri: “The best products are made by the best people.”
Through its 75 years in business, DENSO’s emphasis on its people is crystal clear: its associates are the company’s most important assets.
Together with its associates, the company has weathered seven decades filled with tough economic circumstances, global financial situations, supply chain disruptions, dangerous weather events, adverse business changes and customer emergencies.
And because DENSO’s people know their company is behind them, the associates reciprocate in times of adversity with ingenious problem-solving ideas and next-level actions to help get the company back on track.
From Global Disasters to One-Time Incidents “At Home”
Tom Cole, Senior Manager, Production Control at DENSO Manufacturing Tennessee (DMTN), thought he had seen it all. In his nearly 30 years at DENSO, he’s guided his department in dealing with the aftereffects of tsunamis hitting Japan’s shores, floods in the Philippines and other adverse multinational situations. So he wasn’t surprised to see that same DENSO spirit when, closer to home, a 2011 Saturday morning water line break flooded Building 201 in Maryville, Tennessee. Cole said he witnessed an inspirational amount of “all hands on deck” problem solving from his coworkers.
“When I arrived, we opened the back dock doors and the water was pouring out. Our associates spread the word quickly that we needed help, and they texted their co-workers and soon we had more than 100 associates showing up to help clear out the water, using everything they could grab… brooms, squeegees, you name it,” he said. “We didn’t call anybody to ask them to come in when it wasn’t on their work schedule… they just came, and it was on a weekend.”
“More than 100 hundred associates came on a Saturday afternoon to support us, to support the company. Due to that large response, we had no impact to the customer and we got the plant back up and running in the most timely way. That was an amazing display of teamwork,” Cole said.
COVID: Unprecedented Situations Pose New Challenges
Then, in early 2020 came COVID, the worldwide pandemic. And DENSO’s people came through there, too, when more than 300 containers of parts “flooded” the U.S. shores, ready for the Maryville workforce to assemble as usual at the plant.
“The U.S. economy and our customers were shutting down. Our folks were sent home. I recognized we had over 300 containers of parts already on the ocean and what were we going to do with them? It was a scary time. There are a lot of parts in 300 containers,” Cole said.
“Nobody had thought about that scenario before, because we’d never had THAT happen before. Globally, when a country would shut down, you couldn’t get parts. So we had the opposite problem with a lot of parts coming our way. We were in uncharted waters,” he explained.
Cole said that when a problem or crisis occurs at DMTN, “we pull together and act as one team. In this instance, we hustled to find a large enough rental warehouse space in a neighboring county to hold that inventory.”
“And it took a long time for us to use the 300 containers of parts, because the customer kept shutting down. But as a result, our customer later remarked how impressed they were with the way we quickly navigated through the situation,” he said.
He also applauded DENSO management’s attitude toward keeping its skilled workforce intact in difficult times, such as when the 2008-2009 cascading financial effects of the Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy hamstrung the major automakers, who then curtailed their orders to DENSO.
“Yet, DENSO didn’t fire anyone. Everyone was paid. I saw associates doing landscaping, sweeping floors and painting inside and outside. I even saw engineers painting yellow out on the curbs,” he said.
“DENSO came through for its people, taking care of our associates up until the day we went back to our manufacturing work,” Cole said. “That makes me feel proud, and I’m fortunate to work for a company with such integrity.”