Tohatsu Marine Corporation is a manufacturer of outboard engines for ships and engine boats; the company was established in February 1988 as a joint corporation of Tohatsu Corporation, which takes pride in its technologies and tradition, and Brunswick of the United States.
The factory in Komagane City, Nagano Prefecture, started operations in January 2005 against the backdrop of an increase in demand, the production of environment-friendly engines, and the promotion of efficiency. Since then, a consistent manufacturing system has been realized by concentrating on advanced machining , assembly, and coating technologies. Thanks to the continued efforts to improve the delivery period, quality, and cost – the starting points of manufacturing, productivity is sufficient to meet 1/5 of global demand, making the Komagane factory the single factory that produces the largest number of outboard engines in the world.
Tohatsu Marine procures parts from more than 200 suppliers both from domestic and overseas to reduce the procurement risk. Tohatsu Marine is continuing to supply customers with satisfactory products by speeding up the planning cycle in cooperation with suppliers.
An outboard engine must provide very high reliability and durability. For this reason, many highly durable materials, such as aluminum and iron, are used. Machining that requires accuracy in units of 1/1,000 mm takes advantage of Tohatsu Marine’s excellent machining technology and expertise. If the machining accuracy is low, oil mist may be generated or chips may scatter. Tohatsu Marine’s high machining accuracy materializes a factory where the floor is not stained with oil and improves on problems that can deteriorate the working environment.
An outboard engine must have excellent coating quality that is highly resistant to weather and corrosion because it is used in seawater or fresh water and exposed to outdoor air. Tohatsu Marine takes the time to conduct coating and monitoring tests in stringent environments overseas to ensure coating quality that can withstand severe conditions.
Tohatsu Marine provides the world’s best production volume through streamline production for consistent machining to high-efficiency assembly, operation test, and maintenance. Skilled assembly workers ensure high quality within all processes. Each assembled outboard engine is tested in a water tank. Only products that have cleared a strict inspection are packaged and delivered.
For safety management, employees voluntarily go on patrol and an original safety and health committee is set up as an organization that specializes in safety management. Report meetings are held with both management and labor participating, where measures to ensure safety during work and reduce accidents to zero are discussed.
Quality control to quickly supply customers with products of as high quality as they demand.
All employees of Tohatsu Marine are tackling the improvement of the production site based on the 5S activities (seiri [organize], seiton [tidy], seisou [cleaning], seiketsu [clean], and shitsuke [discipline]), the basics of manufacturing, and Tohatsu Marine’s original TSC activity.
Tohatsu Marine practices the 5S activities aiming at continuous improvement of its working environment.
All workers carry out cleaning in unison and problems found through improvement of the working environment are visualized to enhance the efficiency of production activities.
This activity is to improve the workplace and the abilities of all employees by studying in groups the techniques for solving problems and accomplishing goals, thereby positively working out problems.
Let’s demonstrate our skills by positively tackling problems and issues through the activity and enlightening everyone involved. Also, let’s acquire the skills to analyze and solve problems by studying QC stories and QC techniques.
Let’s create a cheerful and enjoyable workplace by acting in cooperation with colleagues at the workplace. Let’s create a workplace through the activity where everyone can talk with each other and respect others’ opinions.
