Tokyo - DENSO Corporation announced that the company’s DENSO Manufacturing Tennessee, Inc. (DMTN) Athens location became an independent business, effective April 1. The new company’s name is DENSO Manufacturing Athens Tennessee, Inc. (DMAT) and Harvey Oita, executive vice president at the Athens location for the past three years, has been named president.
Currently, Athens employs 800 associates. Another 150 may be hired by the end of the year throughout both Athens manufacturing divisions (fuel injection and ceramic products), said new company President Oita.
“DMTN President Neal Ozeki said continuous growth at the Athens location was a major reason for this decision by DENSO. Since its grand opening in 1997, the Athens operation has been a part of DMTN, which has its headquarters in Maryville. The Maryville operations will continue as DENSO Manufacturing Tennessee under Ozeki’s leadership.
Assigned to the Athens location three years ago, Oita has been with DENSO Corporation for 30 years, serving in Japan, India, and Indonesia, as well as several years in California.
The Athens facility currently produces oxygen sensors, fuel injectors, air-flow meters, ignition coils and spark plugs, with production about to begin on a monolithic carrier, part of catalytic converters - a different product base than that at the Maryville facility.
In becoming a separate company, DMAT has added a general services division, including accounting, payroll, purchasing, and environmental departments. The company has also expanded its departmental services in compensation and benefits and safety and health. To ensure a successful start-up of these areas, the Maryville location has transferred already-trained staff with DENSO experience.
“This development supports DENSO’s increased presence in Tennessee as well as North America†said Ozeki. DENSO now operates three DENSO affiliates in Tennessee:
DENSO Corporation, a leading global supplier of advanced technology, systems and components, employs 87,000 people in 31 countries with worldwide consolidated sales for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2002 totalling $18.1 billion(*1).
*1 Figures for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2002 include the effect of an irregular 15-month reporting period, due to 45 overseas subsidiaries and overseas affiliates changing their year-ends to March 31 from December 31.
Â