DRIVEN BASE

DENSO’s Early Culture in Battle Creek, Michigan

  • Tooley

    Stan Tooley retired as senior vice president of Corporate Affairs on June 30, 2008 after 22 years of service.  Starting in 1985, Stan was the first American associate for DENSO in Battle Creek, Michigan.

The actual beginning of DENSO Manufacturing Michigan, Inc.’s (DMMI) “early days” has been debated back and forth for years, according to Stan Tooley, retired DENSO Senior Vice President for Corporate Affairs.

While it’s a fact that DENSO’s thermal manufacturing facility in Battle Creek was the first Nippondenso full-scale manufacturing startup in North America, the “actual start” of its culture took several forms, he said.

Tooley said that some team members consider a 1983 “incubator project” to be a precursor of the beginning, when 60 temporary Nippondenso Sales workers assembled car heaters for Honda in the Battle Creek Unlimited warehouse.

He said other early associates contend that “the beginning” was in April 1985 when DMMI’s first President, Michio “Henry” Ohiwa, took a golden shovel in hand, presiding over the Battle Creek groundbreaking. And Tooley said DMMI’s October 1986 Open House at the finished plant certainly was a red-letter day, when Ohiwa officially introduced the company to the U.S. auto industry.

    • 1986-BC-Distribution-Center

      DMMI’s earliest associates worked in a rented warehouse dubbed the “Nippondenso Sales Assembly Plant,” before the new plant opened in July 1986. Photo courtesy of Jeff Carl.

    • groundbreaking25

      Groundbreaking for DENSO Manufacturing in Battle Creek, Michigan was held Thursday, April 11, 1985.  Initially, the plant was expected to employ more than 100 associates and reach 500 by the end of the decade.  The facility now employs more than 2,200 people.

More than 1,000 guests were on hand at that October Open House, including suppliers, customers, politicians and then-Michigan Governor James Blanchard. Also in the crowd were those 60 temporary workers, who had become full-time employees when DMMI opened several months earlier.

Tooley said Ohiwa had personally spent hundreds of hours planning the Open House, which the president used to denote “a kind of beginning for the new company, a first spark of the new culture that would become DMMI.” Ohiwa’s philosophy was to build a hybrid management structure, using the best of Japanese and American workforce practices.

The merging of that culture was evident from the beginning, Tooley said, especially as Ohiwa uttered his famous words - “Excellent people make excellent companies.” In 1986, DMMI invested in its people when it sent 12 team leaders to Japan to learn their areas, understand its assembly line procedure and review Japanese management practices.

“When they came back to the U.S., we held a debrief to determine ‘what practices’ might work here, and what we might discard. We covered so many things, from Quality Circles to uniforms and hats, and from morning group exercise to the open office concept,” he said.

  • Tooley had a “front-row seat” to the company’s evolution, having been hired in November 1985 “when the plant still had a dirt floor. “There were four Japanese guys and me, a desk with a blank pad of paper and a file cabinet in the front office of a warehouse,” he explained. In addition to Tooley and Ohiwa, the other associates were Gene Hyodo, Osamu “Phil” Onoue, and Takashi “Dennis” Doi.

    The local team quickly grew. The Battle Creek area had recently gone through an economic downturn, so Tooley said many sought out opportunities with DENSO. In that first large hiring round, over 8,000 applicants applied for the 400 available positions.

  • With Toyota as a major customer, the plant thrived. Tooley said in 1991, “DMMI went through a multi-million-dollar expansion, adding 250 more team members, increasing square footage in the cafeteria, enlarging the recreation complex and building a medical center.”

    “That same year, Industry Week Magazine’s ’America’s Best’ awards named DMMI as one of the Top 10 Manufacturing Facilities in the country,” Tooley said. “And over the years, we won other customer quality and delivery awards, such as the Engineering Society of Detroit Outstanding Achievement Award, and customers’ Quality Circle Awards, and many others.”


He said Ohiwa put a strong emphasis on community involvement, a connectedness that continues to this day. DMMI contributed to a variety of nonprofits and initiatives, including Boy Scouts and a Kellogg Co.co-sponsored local high school math and science program, complete with educational kits to all local schools.

Tooley said DMMI also “was proud of its Regional Manufacturing Training Center, a separate building supporting most companies in Battle Creek, and complete with DENSO robots.”

The Battle Creek plant was extremely active with United Way, which amounted to an impressive $30,000 match program in 1986. That year, Ohiwa told associates that “as responsible citizens, it is up to us to muster the volunteer energy and financial support United Way needs to carry on its work.”

    • P1030600

      To commemorate 25 years in Battle Creek, Michigan, DENSO associates (left to right) Chuck Merwin, Sharon Tenney and Kathy Brannstrom join President John Kumagai in planting a ceremonial tree at DMMI on June 22, 2011.

    • 1999_11_Festival of Lights

      On November 25, 1991, the inaugural Battle Creek International Festival of Lights started its annual tradition.  Former DMMI president Kazuhiro “Ben” Ohta helped initiate the event to ensure the light show in Battle Creek surpassed those of the city of Kalamazoo.  The tradition continues today.

Tooley said credit needs to be given to several other Japanese presidents that followed Ohiwa, “including Kazuhiro ‘Ben’ Ohta (who became Vice Chairman of DENSO Japan and started the City Light Festival in Battle Creek, which is still going strong); Mineo ‘Sam’ Kawai on the Board of Directors, and Koichi ‘George’ Fukaya, later the President of DENSO Japan.”

As DMMI’s first leader, Ohiwa’s impact on those early years was indelible, Tooley said, “even though he was very self-conscious of his poor English. So, he would take time every day to go into the plant and speak to every associate. He improved his English and met people.”

“That was the way Henry was,” he concluded.

  • Hayashi Visit_History story

    DMMI associates gathered to share their commitments to technology, culture and monozukuri with global CEO Shinnosuke Hayashi (center) when he visited Battle Creek, Michigan in 2024.