Roads #1, 2013 (Global) by UD Trucks Corporation

The Global UD Trucks Customer Magazine

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SAUDI ARABIA:

RELIABILITY ABOVE ALL P4

Two years after the tsunami

P14

A heritage of fuel efficiency

P20

The traditional gemba spirit

To give our customers what they want plus a little more. That’s what “going the extra mile” means to us. We leave nothing to chance. Our customers enjoy the peace of mind that comes with knowing they have the best possible solution. Our aim is to be the most committed partner – to go the extra mile in everything we do. To learn more about the difference UD Trucks can make for your business, visit www.udtrucks.com or contact your nearest UD Trucks dealership.

Going the extra mile

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Feature Story

The Long Road to Recovery After the March 11 tsunami, the UD Trucks dealership in Japan’s Iwate Prefecture supported customers in the direst conditions imaginable.

Exceeding Expectations

or us here at UD Trucks, every new issue of Roads rekindles the passion we feel for UD Trucks. It is always exciting to read about how our company is developing in Japan and around the world, and the positive response we get from you, our customers, wherever you may be. As head of the UD Experience, my work is to bring the UD Trucks’ brand as close to customers as possible. Since the program started in April last year, visitors have continued to come from near and far to UD Trucks’ headquarters in Ageo outside of Tokyo to learn about our company, tour the factory and get behind the wheel of a gleaming Quon or Condor. We don’t just want to tell by words who we are; we want visitors to feel the values that we stand for, make them real. And what are these values? We are a brand built on traditional Japanese hallmarks—quality, craftsmanship, attention to detail and customer service. We have a word in Japanese called monozukuri, meaning to make things with exacting precision and quality, and perhaps the part I love most about UD Trucks is that it is a company that passes on this spirit to each new generation of employees—it becomes part of the DNA. I like to think that those who come to the UD Experience expect monozukuri, and when a visitor comes to us afterwards saying “that was really something,” it’s such a great feeling, a great moment. With this magazine, I hope to communicate some of that feeling to you too, dear Reader. Please enjoy this issue of Roads.

Tomohisa Ishida Senior Manager UD Experience UD Trucks Brands Strategy & Marketing

News

What’s Happening News from around the world of UD Trucks.

Cover Story

Desert Challenge Saudi Arabia’s construction sector is thriving, but local conditions demand trucks of outstanding reliability.

Feature Story

King of the Road Visitors come from worldwide to take the UD Experience, a full-day tour of UD Trucks culminating in a test drive.

History

The Spirit of Efficiency From the founding days until today, UD Trucks has been a pioneer in fuel efficiency.

At the Wheel

Racing Against Time in Bangkok Time is of the essence when transporting liquid concrete through Bangkok’s infamous traffic.

Publisher Per Sundström Per.Sundstrom@volvo.com Tel: +81-48-726-7601 Editorial Production Next Inc. roads@nextinc.com www.nextinc.com Tel: +81-3-6436-4270 Editor-in-Chief Kjell Fornander

Tradition

Gemba and the Art of Hands-on Involvement The Japanese concept of gemba is a key part of UD Trucks’ philosophy.

Roads is published three times per year by UD Trucks Corporation udtrucks.com

Global Business

Executive Editor William Ross Art Director Koichi Asano Production Manager Kazumi Umezawa Printed in Japan

Creating the Truck of Tomorrow UD Trucks is moving to support customer needs in diverse markets even better.

Contributors to this issue: Tony McNicol Based in Tokyo, Tony McNicol is a writer, editor and photographer who has written extensively for publications in Japan and globally.

1-1, Ageo-shi, Saitama 362-8523, Japan udtrucks.com

Mark Schreiber

Jim Hand-Cukierman

Author-translator Mark Schreiber has lived in Japan for over 40 years. He has written extensively about Japanese language and popular culture.

Canadian Jim Hand-Cukierman is a Tokyo-based photographer and writer whose work appears in magazines around the world.

Cover photograph The Passionates Studio

Feature Story

The Long Road to Recovery Text: Tony McNicol Photos: Jun Takagi

arely a week had passed since the After the tsunami of March 11, earthquake and tsunami of March 2011 destroyed the city of 11 when Tomoko Tamayama, a Kamaishi, things looked hopeless general manager in the UD Trucks for truck owners and local Iwate head office dealers. Many businesses left, in Morioka in Japan’s northeastern Iwate but the local UD Trucks team Prefecture, first reached the devastated city decided to stay. In a desperate of Kamaishi. situation, they not only rebuilt, She met a bleak sight. Channeled by but expanded. It was not about the surrounding valley walls, the tsunami business—it was about doing the had travelled far inland. At the site of the right thing, and standing by your dealership, some 500 meters from the coastline, the waves had reached a height customers no matter what.

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of ten meters. The building had been completely swept away, along with the residential area around it. “The tears just welled up in my eyes,” recalls Ms. Tamayama, “I was lost for words.” Masayuki Murai, a director of sales from the head office who first reached the area on March 16, was stunned. “There was absolutely nothing there,” he says. The scale of the destruction was almost beyond comprehension. But one thing was very clear: throughout the region, the dealership’s customers had been struck

a grievous blow by the tsunami. Offices, equipment and vehicles had been damaged or destroyed and supply chains had been severely disrupted. It was weeks until even the first handful of customers could restart work— mostly transporting essential emergency goods: water, food, fuel and feed for animals. There were many months more before other businesses could get back on their feet, and a significant number are still yet to restart operations. As information about their customers’

01. The restored UD Trucks sales office in Kamaishi stands in lonely triumph surrounded by a vast flat space that once was a city. The office officially opened for business on January 23 this year. 02. Knowing that they help customers rebuild their businesses is a source of strength for the staff.

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Feature Story

predicament trickled in during the chaotic immediate aftermath of the disasters, the staff at UD Trucks Iwate realized that they had to take action. They had to help as many customers as possible get back on their feet as quickly as possible. It became their mission, their way of supporting the recovery efforts. Driven by this purpose, the team would work tirelessly over the coming two years, supporting their customers in every way they could in the most difficult circumstances imaginable. “We knew what we should do,” says President Chitaka Fujisawa. “We are transport industry professionals and we wanted to help people use their vehicles.”

Tomoko Tamayama: “I was lost for words.”

Chitaka Fujisawa: “We are transport industry professionals. We wanted to help people use their vehicles.”

to their vehicles—punctures and broken suspension springs were common from driving through debris-strewn streets. A maintenance truck was regularly dispatched to Kamaishi from the Morioka head office. But other customers had lost their vehicles in the disaster and Mr. Murai helped source them second-hand cars and trucks. Prices had shot up after the disaster, making that a difficult task.

Going forward

Yet, it was clear that a new Kamaishi office was needed. The tsunami had swept away the businesses of a number of local customers, and the UD Trucks staff wanted the sales office to stand ready for them as they rebuilt their operations. There was huge demand for Struggling in chaos a facility where trucks could be maintained and repaired The need for support was, in quickly, close to the customers’ a word, desperate. Staff from Hiroyuki Takahashi: “Almost the only Masayuki Murai: “There was absolutely places of work. Morioka travelled every day to things we had to work with were our nothing there.” By the end of 2011, the Kamaishi, a trip that in normal mobile phones.” decision was made to circumstances would have purchase a temporary building. In February taken two and a half hours but now took crowded with recovery vehicles. 2012, it was installed at the site of the up to four hours on roads damaged and Even just locating customers was a original office. formidable task. It was only When the new branch manager, Hiroyuki through painstakingly visiting Takahashi, arrived in April, he found only more than 100 refugee centers one other building in the vicinity. The that in mid-May a partial list of office still had no electricity, gas, water or customers could be completed. telephone landline. “I remember meeting many Iwate Morioka “Almost the only things we had to do our customers who had lost prefecture work with were our mobile phones,” recalls everything themselves, but Kamaishi Mr. Takahashi. who were doing their best to Japan There was also the longer-term future of support the recovery,” says Tokyo the Kamaishi business to consider. Mr. Murai, adding that a few Osaka Most importantly, they had to decide were even using their vehicles whether to rebuild a permanent sales office again. “Of course we had to on the original site, which was in one of help them and be there for the areas worst hit by the tsunami, or move them. We had to do our part.” further inland. Many needed urgent repairs

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“ We all wanted to be there for our customers.”

Chitaka Fujisawa, president of UD Trucks Iwate

“There were lots of dealers in the area before the disasters, but they all left,” says Mr. Murai. The difficulties of rebuilding in an area that had been completely destroyed, he notes, were great. “We thought about doing the same, but we’d spoken to our customers,” explains Mr. Murai. “We knew that we could be useful here.” The old sales office had been in the same place for some 30 years, close to a highway used frequently by customers. “Our customers were familiar with the location,” says Mr. Murai. To President Fujisawa, the needs of their customers meant the choice was no choice at all. “We had to be near the highway, not up in the mountains,” he stresses. Once the decision was made to rebuild the sales office in the same location, Ms. Tamayama spent hectic weeks commuting from Morioka to meet officials—she had only three months to negotiate with city hall. Among other things, she had to demonstrate that a new building could be reconnected to essential utilities, then arrange for that to happen. Despite the difficulties, UD Trucks Iwate in June 2012 received permission to build a permanent sales office. Construction started the following September. It was decided to expand the new sales office with two maintenance bays, greatly expanding its ability to quickly serve customers’ needs on the spot. When the sales office officially opened on January 23 this year, Ms. Tamayama and her colleagues invited ten customers for a small ceremony. It was a deliberately muted event as participants were all too aware that reconstruction in Kamaishi had as yet barely started. On its completion, the sales office was one of just three new buildings in the area. Many of the customers themselves were

working from temporary offices in other parts of the region, still with no idea when they could build permanent facilities. “Some of the customers thanked us for providing the new maintenance bays,” recalls Ms. Tamayama. “Others thanked us for coming back to Kamaishi.”

A small symbol of reconstruction In Kamaishi today, grim reminders of both the scale of the disaster and the scale of the reconstruction challenge are all too easy to find. Just behind the sales office is a huge processing facility with towering piles of debris. In fact, the facility is one of the sales office’s customers, with UD trucks being used to transport debris from all over the city. Although two years have passed, only a fraction of the debris left behind by the tsunami has been disposed of. Despite the still difficult situation, President Fujisawa says he hopes the new sales office can be a “small symbol of reconstruction” for the city and for their customers. Mechanics are already busy servicing vehicles, with customers including both local goods transport companies and construction

companies involved in rebuilding. The building work is likely to continue for many years to come. Many local people are still living in temporary accommodation, and many businesses only have temporary premises. Like Kamaishi and the Tohoku region as a whole, the sales office and its customers face an uncertain future. Despite the new facilities, the sales office still has fewer customers than before the disaster. In the mid-term, the vast rebuilding needed in Tohoku will continue to support the local economy, but once construction stops no one knows what will happen. In any case, for the last two years, few in Tohoku have had the luxury of thinking that far into the future. For UD Trucks Iwate, the priority over the last two years has been to make sure that customers’ urgent immediate needs are met, and help them make a start on the long road to recovery. “We wanted to do something that people could see—something to show that reconstruction is starting,” says President Fujisawa. “And we all wanted to be there for our customers”.

01-06. The tsunami engulfs the city of Kamaishi. The UD Trucks Iwate sales office is circled in images 01 and 06. (Photos by Dummy Dummy)

07. A customer truck hard at work clearing debris.

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Cover Story

Desert Challenge

UD TRUCKS NEWS New Zealand

New Quon makes debut in New Zealand

arch 6, 2013 was a momentous day for UD Trucks Distributors (NZ) Ltd. In a highly anticipated moment, the company unveiled the new Quon range at the Waikato Stadium in Hamilton, New Zealand. The truck, designed for fuel economy and easy maintenance, is expected to sharpen UD Trucks’ competitive edge in New Zealand. An audience of dealers and sales staff heard presentations about the Quon from Taizo Matsuo, Vice President of UD Trucks Product Management, UD Trucks Global Brand; Jon McLean, Vice President of UD Truck Sales; and Mark Hammond, Manager of UD Trucks Product Planning and Engineering. After John Gerbich, General Manager of UD Truck Distributors (NZ), had wrapped up the presentations, the group moved on to viewing the new Quon model up close.

The launch coincided with the Transport and Heavy Equipment Expo, held every four years at the Mystery Creek Events Centre south of Hamilton. This popular expo draws participants from every field of the transport industry, and attracted over 12,000 visitors in 2013. The UD Truck Distributors (NZ) expo stand was based around the theme “The Road To Your Success” and had nine vehicles on display, including two of the new Quons. The centrepiece was a display of the new GH11 engine and the Escot V transmission. Visitors to the stand could test-drive a fully rigged Quon GW26-420 tractor unit coupled to a tri-axle semi-trailer carrying a 25-tonne container. Over the three days, 32 potential purchasers trialled the truck, all of them commenting positively on its great performance and the smooth and quiet ride.

The new Quon model at the test track (top); the new GH11 engine showcased at the expo.

Japan

Japan’s heavy winter is no match for the Quon

now, snow and more snow. Perfect weather then for presenting a powerful snowplow version of the Quon heavy-duty truck at Japan’s Yuki Mirai 2013 (“Snow Future 2013”) exhibition. This annual event, held this year in Akita City in the country’s northern Tohoku region on February 7–8, covers issues and technologies related to snow, an important topic in what is actually one of the world’s snowiest countries. Japan Sales staff gave a presentation outdoors about

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the vehicle for the event’s snow removal machine exhibition and demonstration session. While the freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall—“heavy

snowstorm,” according to the weather report—perhaps made for less than comfortable conditions, the presenters were warmed by the strong interest from customers and visits from local kindergarten children, who marveled at the powerful vehicle. UD Trucks’ snowplowequipped Quon with its 410 horsepower GH11TC engine and all-wheel (6x6) drive system

has the best snow removal capabilities among domestic products. It is also extremely fuel-efficient and environmentfriendly thanks to a combination of ultra-high-pressure fuel injection and urea-SCR catalyst technology that efficiently removes particulate matter, NOx and CO2 from the vehicle’s exhaust, ensuring that the snow left behind stays the way it should be—pristine white.

In Saudi Arabia, a country seeing an extraordinary construction boom, hauling heavy cargo to exacting deadlines in temperatures reaching 50 degrees Celsius is all in a day’s work for Al Rajhi Company, the biggest construction material distributor in the Middle East. But it takes trucks of superior reliability and performance. The snowplow version of the Quon.

Kindergarten children marveling at the powerful vehicle.

The presenters from Japan Sales braving the snowstorm.

Text: Marriam Mossalli Photos: The Passionates Studio

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Cover Story

he Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is one of the fastest growing markets in the Middle East. An oil-based economy with about 17% of the world’s discovered petroleum reserves, the country has positioned itself as the largest petroleum exporter in the world. The strong economy, along with the country’s comparatively recent establishment in 1932 and young population, means that construction has become one of its most active and lucrative industries. Spurred by government initiatives for economic development, such as the establishment of six gigantic “economic cities” across the Kingdom aimed at garnering over $370 billion in infrastructure projects over a four-year period, the local construction industry shows no signs of slowing down despite the global economic slowdown that has adversely affected the growth of the industry across the Middle East. In 2011, construction contract awards reached over $81 billion, and are expected to increase to $87 billion in 2013,

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“In our industry, it is all about getting from point A to point B without any delays—especially mechanical.” Saleh Al Ammar, General Manager according to the KSA Construction Industry Overview by Ventures Middle East. Together with a young and rapidly urbanizing population, the real estate development, infrastructure, and utility (ie. oil and gas, power and water) markets are now seeing unprecedented demand growth, and as a result, so are the companies within them. One of them is Al Rajhi Company for Industry and Trade. Al Rajhi was one of the first companies to pioneer the manufacture and marketing of construction materials in Saudi Arabia. Since its establishment over fifty years ago, the company has dominated over its competitors,

earning Al Rajhi its present position as the largest distributor of construction materials in the entire Middle East. “Building on the trust of our customers, we have worked continuously on our portfolio of products and services to ensure the delivery of quality,” says Al Rajhi’s Chairman, Abdullah Abdul Aziz Al-Rajhi. “This means working closely with local producers and cooperating with our offices and agents abroad to ensure that we import only the very best international construction materials.” The company’s internal infrastructure and distribution mechanisms ensure reliable, high quality delivery. “As the largest distributor of construction materials in the Gulf, we require tough and dependable vehicles that can withstand the Kingdom’s diversified terrain,” explains General Manager Saleh Al Ammar. Currently an owner of a 150-truck fleet that includes some 55 UD Trucks, Al Rajhi has wood transporters and steel tippers transporting materials from 70 branches Kingdom-wide.

From steel pipes and metal sheets to wood beams and wire fences, Al Rajhi’s portfolio requires reliable machinery that can also be used for multiple cargos. “Most of our UD trucks are 20-ton transporters. What’s particularly great about those is their practicality,” says Al Ammar, adding that the company also has medium-size UD MKB and PKB trucks, which are not restricted by the Heavy Duty Truck Regulations on inner city transport that are in effect in Saudi Arabia. “One of the things that I believe really sets UD Trucks apart from it competitors here in Saudi is the aftersales and customer service from its local dealership,” says Al Ammar. “I knew that Rolaco Automotive Division had a good reputation in aftersales and customer care, but it was impressive to witness it first-hand through their constant follow-up to ensure the trucks are performing to standard.” This dedication, says Al Ammar, will make him a repeat customer. In fact, during this interview, he revealed a new purchase order to acquire five more UD trucks. “I like the power of UD over Mitsubishi or Isuzu,” he explains. “More horse power, less gear shifting and better drivability. I also believe UD trucks have better handling, dependability and durability, which is paramount in our industry, when it is all about getting things from point A to point B without any delays— especially mechanical.” Frequent operations do not seem to affect the reliability experienced with UD Trucks. “We are in constant demand from customers, and we require immediate attention when issues do arise.” Here, Rolaco offers product service and spare parts. Al Rajhi’s UD MKB trucks also hold up well in the Saudi heat, which can soar to 50 degrees Celsius and cause overheating and other mechanical problems, especially during long-distance legs. A tour of Al Rajhi’s main branch in Riyadh shows the diversification of the company’s business and the high demands that come with it. “We’re interested in buying the new tractors that UD Trucks are now offering,” hints Al Ammar, as he drives through warehouses filled to the brim with wood, metal and plastics. Perhaps there’s another purchase order already on its way?

01. A UD truck being loaded with construction material at Al Rajhi’s warehouse in Riyadh. 02. General Manager Saleh Al Ammar is impressed with the aftersales and customer care from their local dealership.

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King of the Road

Dreaming of taking a gleaming, perfectly tuned Condor or Quon for a spin? Try the UD Experience, a unique introduction to UD Trucks’ values and technologies that nearly every week draws visitors from near and far to the company’s headquarters in Ageo north of Tokyo. Text & Photos: Jim Hand-Cukierman

Feature Story

he UD Experience, launched in April 2012, is not just a test drive. It is, as the name implies, a complete hands-on experience of the values that power the UD Trucks brand. First, a short presentation takes visitors from the founding in 1935 of Nihon Diesel, UD Trucks’ predecessor, to the global brand existing today. Then it’s off to the factory to check out the world-class production line and meet the people who keep everything humming. “When you look at the gentlemen here, and the quality checks, it shows you these guys are not just mass-producing vehicles,” says Ahmed Khalil Ebrahim Isa, a visitor from Bahrain. “At every step, there’s a quality check.” Mr. Isa, who started out as a firefighter,

now serves as fire, health and safety manager at Bahrain Petroleum Company. He knows his trucks and has seen assembly lines around the globe. “This,” he says, “is very clean, very efficient.” After the factory tour, visitors are shuttled to the proving ground, where they get to take a Quon or Condor for a spin. “This is a very big truck,” Mr. Isa marvels, “but it feels like a small one.” The UD Experience attracts participants from both inside and outside Japan; the ratio is about 50:50. Besides representatives from Bahraini enterprises, visitors have also come in recent weeks from Myanmar and Pakistan. Interest is clearly spreading and the list of happy participants grows steadily longer. With visitors coming nearly every week, there are now plans

to build a full-fledged customer center to improve the visits. Each UD Experience requires plenty of preparation, especially for overseas clients. “Accommodation, transportation and sightseeing are included,” explains Tomohisa Ishida, head of UD Experience, UD Trucks Brand Strategy & Marketing. “Many clients are in Japan for the first time, so we offer some opportunities to connect with the culture.” Of course, Mr. Ishida notes, the main goal is to show visitors first hand what UD Trucks’ commitment to go the extra mile really means. Three words from Mr. Isa suggest the message is getting through loud and clear: “Seeing is believing.”

01 02

03 01. Ahmed Khalil Ebrahim Isa from Bahrain checks out a UD cab. 02. Kurniawan Ali, CEO of Win Strategic Group of Myanmar, in the driver’s seat. A member of the test drive support team guides a customer back to the starting point.

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03. The factory tour gives UD Experience visitors a chance to see for themselves the assembly of trucks and engines in very modern, very clean facilities.

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History

The Spirit of Ef ficienc y From the founding days until today, fuel efficiency innovation has always been central to UD Trucks’ competitiveness. Text: Anders Lenart

n Japan after World War II, transportation—a key to rebuilding—was scarce and expensive. In this environment, word began to spread of a truck powered by an engine claimed to be so highperforming that “it could fly an airplane.” Yes, it cost nearly four times as much as the 15,000 yen you’d need to pay for a standard gasoline truck, but it had twice the range at half the fuel consumption. The company behind the truck was a small truck manufacturer with roots in a very different industry—aircraft. Today, this company is known as UD Trucks. The focus on delivering fuel efficiency remains a competitive hallmark. In a chronicle of the company’s history, a former director of sales recalls the time immediately after the war: “A customer came to our headquarters in Kabuto-cho [in Tokyo] with his backpack stuffed with 100yen bills and asked us to sell him a truck. People came with cash in their hands all the way from Kyushu and Hokkaido to buy our vehicles based on reputation by word of mouth.” In the 1920s, former air force pilot Kenzo Adachi had resolved to use his experience to help develop Japan’s domestic aviation

01. Kenzo Adachi, the founder of UD Trucks, in front of the very first truck, the legendary and very high-performing LD1. 02. The ND1 diesel engine, a milestone in Japanese automotive history.

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01 industry. Impressed by the diesel-powered aircraft manufactured by German company Junkers, he decided to introduce these to Japan, where diesel technology was rare. In Germany, Mercedes-Benz had developed the first diesel engine vehicle in 1924, and Krupp had bought the Junkers engine patent and in 1926 for the first time put a direct injection diesel engine in a truck. A trip to Germany in 1933 deeply impressed Mr. Adachi. Not only were diesel vehicles everywhere, the Krupp-Junkers brand outperformed other European diesel engines—putting its performance and fuel

efficiency far ahead of the gasoline engines common in Japan. Mr. Adachi decided to manufacture highperforming diesel engines in Japan. In 1935, he bought the Krupp-Junkers engine patent and founded Nihon Diesel Industries Ltd, six employees strong. The turbulent times caused many delays, but in late 1938 came the company’s first Japan-made engine: the 60 horsepower ND1. It performed as well as the KruppJunkers engine—a milestone in Japanese automotive history. This engine was at the heart of the company’s first truck, the

“A customer came to our headquarters in Kabuto-cho with his backpack stuffed with 100-yen bills and asked us to sell him a truck. People came with cash in their hands all the way from Kyushu and Hokkaido to buy our vehicles based on reputation by word of mouth.” 3.5-ton payload LD1, which was released in November 1939. The test drive has entered UD Trucks lore. Over 13 days, President Adachi and his team drove the LD1 over 3,000 km of some of Japan’s toughest roads. The feat proved beyond doubt the vehicle’s—and the engine’s—durability, reliability and efficiency. These keywords, which today are central

to the UD Trucks DNA, drove the company’s post-war success. Although buyers were initially skeptical since few had experience of diesel engines, the Industrial Bank of Japan soon lent support and large-fleet owners took notice. In 1947, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government put its prototype diesel bus into service. In January 1955 came the iconic product:

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History

the two-stroke UD engine. The race for horsepower had begun. In Japan and overseas, trucks were travelling farther and bus passengers wanted to go faster. Engines capable of 150–200 horsepower were in huge demand. The UD engine was the first produced by a Japanese company to reach this level. Known as a Uniflow scavenging Diesel engine—the origin of the UD name—its one-way airflow enabled higher performance than the cross-flow or loop-scavenging models of the time, with “scavenging” meaning pushing out exhaust gases while pulling in new fuel and air. Of the first two models, the 150 horsepower version was the first of its kind in the industry. The UD6 engine that followed in May 1955 went even further by delivering 230 horsepower at a weight 40 percent lower than conventional models. In fact, it was one of the world’s lightest per horsepower. For truck owners, this meant lower vehicle weight and therefore less fuel used for a given distance and payload. At this time, engine power rather than fuel efficiency guided innovation, resulting in the turbocharged intercooler engine in 1971, a first for Japan, and two world-firsts: the continuously controlled variable nozzle turbocharger engine in 1990 and ceramic tappets for use with a 4-valve medium-duty engine in 1993. However, environmental regulations grew ever stricter, and in the latter half of the 1990s the company made fuel efficiency its key sales point. Kenzo Adachi’s spirit continued to lead the way. Innovation became focused on combining efficient engines with multi-

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01. The 230 horsepower UD6 engine, the world’s lightest per horsepower at the time of its launch in 1955.

01 gear transmissions, so as to deliver the best possible torque at all times. In 1995 came Escot AT, Japan’s first electronically controlled semi-automatic multi-speed transmission for heavy-duty trucks. This was followed in 1998 by the GE13 engine, which was the first in the world to include a ball-bearing turbocharger—meaning better mechanical efficiency with less friction, stronger throttle response and less oil needed for lubrication. Together, the Escot AT and the GE13 delivered superb mileage and solidified the company’s reputation for excellent fuel efficiency. In 2004, the Quon set a global

benchmark for fuel efficiency and environmental performance. The heavyduty truck was built from the ground up for lower fuel consumption, featuring aerodynamic cab and body parts, a lightweight chassis, a new type of ultrahigh-pressure fuel injection that drastically improved fuel combustion, and a world-first urea-SCR technology for breaking down NOx and CO2 in the exhaust. The Quon complied with Japan’s 2005 emissions regulations—the world’s strictest at the time—one year early, and later models have continued to raise the bar. Add extensive driver training to hone fuel-saving driving techniques, and research into wireless technology for precisely coordinating the movements of vehicles in convoys, and fuel efficiency emerges as one of UD Trucks’ defining features. The company’s pioneering heritage is today fused with the leading-edge technologies of the Volvo Group. The result: extremely fuel-efficient drive-line solutions that live up to the name of UD—Ultimate Dependability.

At the Wheel

Time in Bangkok Racing Against Arguably the most organic of all Southeast Asia’s major cities, Bangkok is an intoxicating brew of piquant street food, goldendomed temples, river barges, markets, five-star hotels and world-class malls—and some of the most infamously frustrating traffic you will ever encounter. Text: Chris Taylor Photos: Pravit Kimtong

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At the Wheel

“We believe that Bangkok has huge potential as a market, and we are grasping the opportunity.” Pipat Yonkwan, Assistant General Manager, V&G Logic.

01. One of the new UD trucks bought to upgrade V&G Logic’s fleet. 02. Paphon Lokphiban, General Manager of V&G Logic, is pleased with the performance of the UD trucks. 03. Pipat Yonkwan, Assistant General Manager, is upbeat about the future.

ime is of the essence if you are at the helm of a concrete mixer truck and your cargo is liquid concrete with a lifespan of just three hours—or even two for some mixes. If that is the case, it’s hard to imagine a more daunting place for the mission than Bangkok, Thailand’s tropical capital, a city of more than 8 million people that is almost synonymous with bumper-to-bumper traffic jams. Almost every traveler who has passed through the City of Angels has their traffic-congestion nightmare tale—nearly missed flights, buses to the beaches of the South that languish for hours, snarled on urban thoroughfares before even reaching the highway, choking on fumes in the back of a tuk-tuk … But when Paphon Lokphiban, General Manager at V&G Logic, which has one of Thailand’s biggest fleets of mixer trucks, is asked how often things go wrong, he grins and says, “Not often.” According to Mr. Lokphiban, good communications between the batching plant where the cement is mixed and the target worksite where the concrete is to be delivered, along with effective use of GPS by Logic drivers, ensure that traffic-induced mixing disasters hardly ever happen. And when they do, he says, the customer understands, because everybody in Bangkok has had a bad traffic day. A part of Viriyah Group, which runs Thailand’s biggest vehicle insurance company, among other interests, V&G Logic started life

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as Yoonsila Co, Ltd. The company has been doing business with Products and Aggregate Co., Ltd. (CPAC, pronounced “C-pac”), one of Thailand’s largest suppliers of mixed concrete via a countrywide network of more than 300 batching plants, for more than 20 years. Today, it continues to transport CPAC’s ready-mixed concrete, but under a new name and with a new management structure. “We’ve had to upgrade the fleet of trucks too,” says Mr. Lokphiban. That is where UD Trucks comes in. Much of V&G Logic’s fleet was out-of-date, and when it became time to upgrade it, V & G Logic turned to what company CEO Thongchai Jira-alongkorn calls “Thailand’s and Europe’s No. 1 mixer truck company.” “We bought 12 UD mixer trucks last year, and we will be buying 40 more this year,” says the company CEO, citing fuel efficiency, improved safety, systematic service follow-up and training of drivers and on-site mechanics as key factors in the decision. UD trucks currently only account for around 5–6 per cent of the V&G Logic fleet, but by the end of this year that figure will be 20 percent, or about 50 vehicles out of a total fleet of 280, he says. The new UD truck arrivals are part of V&G Logic’s move into the Bangkok metropolitan area, according to Pipat Yonkwan, Assistant General Manager. Previously, he says, the company’s coverage, in terms of concrete logistics, largely encompassed provinces in the North and Northeast of Thailand. But after the devastating floods

of 2011, the reconstruction race was on, particularly in the eastern districts of Bangkok. “We believe that Bangkok has huge potential as a market, and we are grasping the opportunity,” says Mr. Yonkwan. But, he adds, despite purchases of new trucks, the demand for reconstruction in eastern Bangkok continues to outstrip his company’s ability to supply transportation. Meanwhile, on the roads of Bangkok, delivering the ready-mixed concrete is serious business. A large-scale order with CPAC might be made as much as a year in advance due to the amount of concrete that needs to be prepared—and then ferried through the streets and poured into place, says Mr. Yonkwan. GPS fitted in the trucks allows the V&G Logic truck dispatching stations to keep track of when trucks arrive at their destinations, and to calculate when to send the next, so that the construction site has a constant supply of ready-mixed concrete until the entire order has been delivered, he adds. In terms of guaranteeing the integrity of deliveries, he says the maximum distance a batching plant can be from the construction site, even on the edges of bustling Bangkok, is 20 kilometers. But even that is a risky distance. Ideally, deliveries from batching plants are divided into three rankings: Rank 1, within 5 kilometers; Rank 2 from 6–10 kilometers; and Rank 3, 11–15 kilometers. Shorter delivery distances—an average trip is just 15–20 minutes

in Bangkok—not only reduce the risks of the concrete spoiling before reaching its destination; it also means increased safety for drivers and fuel savings. “UD trucks can provide great costs savings on fuel, but the drivers have to know how to get those savings in the way they drive,” says General Manager Lokphiban. “That’s one of the things that is good about UD Trucks. When they deliver the trucks, they provide training for the drivers on how to drive them most cost-efficiently.” Training sessions are similarly held for V&G Logic’s mechanics and technicians, allowing basic in-house maintenance of the trucks, he adds. As the clouds of economic uncertainty darken horizons in Europe, Japan and even the United States, in Southeast Asia’s city of temples, night markets and glittering malls, the future seems full of promise for construction industry logistics providers like V&G Logic. Urbanization continues to take place at a bewildering pace in Bangkok, and CEO Jira-alongkorn frets more about keeping up with demand through growing his fleet of trucks and being able to find workers. “Labor is always a problem,” he says. “But we have managed to attract workers by increasing wages in accordance with government policies. In the future, we are also planning to expand our business into fast-growing neighboring countries. There are now opportunities for foreign investment and trade, so we’ll go there.”

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Tradition

Gemba and the Art of Hands-on Involvement When Japanese people hear the word gemba, they pay extra attention. Text: Mark Schreiber

emba is written with the Sino-Japanese characters “gen” ( 現 ), which means “to appear” or “at present” and is used in such words as genzai (“appearance” plus “presence,” i.e. “right now”) and gendai (“current” plus “generation,” i.e. “modern times”), and “ba” (場 ), which means a place. When combined to read gemba, the expression literally means the place where someone or something appears. In everyday usage, however, gemba means being on the scene, or where the human element comes in. A reporter covering a big news event, for example, might telephone his editor and say, “Ima gemba desu” (I’m at the scene right now). In a business context, the word captures a sense of immediacy and involvement and can be understood to refer to the places where value is created in all phases of a product’s life cycle. According to Roger Schreffler, a Tokyobased trade journalist for Ward’s Automotive, the word first became popularized in the context of motor vehicles back in the 1930s. In those days, roads were still primitive and repair facilities few and far between. When a serious problem occurred, the company manager would personally drop whatever he was doing and go to the site of the breakdown—the gemba—to observe the

problem first-hand. When related to R&D or manufacturing, gemba is translated as “on the factory floor” or “on-site.” On the design and production side, engineers and assembly workers engage in gemba kaizen, literally “on the spot improvements,” through innovative ways to reduce waste and boost efficiency as well as develop and implement enhancements to vehicle safety. In the case of sales and aftermarket service, it refers to satisfying customers’ needs through speedy response and conscientious follow-up to feedback. A frequently heard expression among managers in Japanese companies is gemba shugi, which can be described as a policy of hands-on management, or management involvement at the grass-roots level, something widely seen as a key strength of Japanese manufacturing. In this sense, gemba can be considered the diametric opposite of the term “ivory tower.” Trusting people on-site to provide decision makers with on-the-spot evaluations means fewer worries about complexities such as internal politics, and more time spent focusing on actually solving problems. This translates directly into greater quality and reliability—attributes that are known worldwide today as central Japanese production values.

“ Gemba captures a sense of immediacy and involvement and refers to the places where value is created.” [Gen]

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[Ba]

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Global Business

Creating the

Truck of Tomorrow UD Trucks has grown over the years from a domestic Japanese company to a true global player. That puts extra demand on its product developers, as the increasing number of markets also means more diverse customer demands. But the product development team at UD Trucks is ready, with exciting new truck announcements just around the corner. Text: William Ross Photo: Dummy Dummy

D Trucks is a Japan-based company; the country has always been, and remains, its largest single market. Because of this, its focus was historically on producing trucks specifically for the Japanese market. However, in recent decades, the strengths of UD trucks have become appreciated in other markets as well, and those same trucks also increasingly exported, particularly to other Asian countries. Today, it’s a whole new world, not only in Japan, but in markets elsewhere in Asia and beyond. Domestically, competition between Japan’s four major truck makers has never been tougher, and Japanese customers are much more cost-conscious than in the past. Internationally, too, long-standing and aggressive European competitors have been joined by new low-cost truck manufacturers from China and India. The competition is good for truck buyers, of course. Now more than ever, they have a wide range of choices in terms of price, functions, performance and total cost of ownership. Loic Mellinand, Senior Vice President, UD Trucks Global Brand, is the man in charge of navigating these challenging waters. Based at UD Trucks’ headquarters in Ageo outside of Tokyo, his responsibilities include building and implementing the global UD brand, as well as laying out the product strategy for the UD Trucks of the future. While he can’t give all the details just yet, he’s eager to talk about the new product development strategy that will ensure UD Trucks’ place as a very competitive market player. “We will soon have ready exciting new developments that we can’t wait to share with our customers,” Mr. Mellinand says.

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“It’s been an exciting process. We’ve been testing many competing trucks as we have been working on our new products. We buy the trucks, test them and do a back-toback comparison. This is a very important process, because what we are doing here is not theoretical!” This result will be product lines that meet the very different needs of UD Trucks’ many and varied markets. Balance is a keyword. “We will always try to strike a balance between features and cost to fit different markets,” he says. “We will provide the features that customers demand, but with a greater stress on ensuring the lowest possible cost. This balance will be different in Japan and other markets.” To realize this, the company will shift more of its production for world markets to other Asian countries. “We want to have products designed, manufactured, localized and sourced in Asia,” Mr. Mellinand says. “This is important for UD Trucks to be competitive outside of Japan. It will help us provide very modern products that are also very cost competitive. This will be the game changer for UD Trucks.” This strategy will be important in Japan as well, where cost has increasingly become a key purchasing decision factor. “Elsewhere in Asia, the truck industry is driven by competition, but in Japan and other developed markets, the market is more driven by legislation,” Mr. Mellinand explains. “Every three or four years, new emissions and safety regulations are being introduced. So there are reasons to increase the cost of the product, but our customers are really not willing to pay more!” This difference between Japan and many

other markets means that UD Trucks will not be ending production in Japan; on the contrary, it will maintain its firm presence here. “We do want to have a product that is designed for Japan, so I’m not talking about taking a product that was designed for Asia and bringing it into Japan,” Mr. Mellinand says. “We want to provide a product that meets the expectations of Japanese customers, but at the same time leverage resources elsewhere in Asia to lower the cost for them.” Another thing that has not changed is the commitment to the UD Trucks brand DNA, the tradition of quality and performance that goes back to the company’s roots. The UD Trucks brand name, of course, was first launched in 2010, but “UD” has been part of the brand for more than 60 years. “Many of the things we are dealing with today go back far before the Volvo Group became involved in UD Trucks,” Mr. Mellinand says. “I see myself and my team today as part of the entire history of the brand. Today, though, we have some new keywords to define our products: modern, affordable and efficient. Different markets will interpret these words differently, but I think all will be able to agree on “modern” because we will be providing exciting new products that we can be proud to offer to our customers.”

“ We will be providing exciting new products that we can be proud to offer to our customers.” Loic Mellinand

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