PBM GROUP 2 TEAM 13-MAVERICKS

HONDA TODAY

Ans1. Honda’s priority has always been innovation and high-quality standards. Their creativity has also
been remarkable from the start of the company. The “Honda Way” paved way for culture building by
setting uniforms and open arrangements. This setup helped engineers getting more creative and more
successful in their test runs. Helping workers perform well by encouraging them to think, participate and
experience, has been Honda's strength. While the competitors thought that doing product development
in independent stages and phases is risky, Honda thought otherwise. It believed in working
simultaneously towards greater success. Though Honda's play in traditional market research was not
much, it still didn't lose track of emerging trends in the market and customer preference. This was
enabled through Large Project Leaders (LPL) who play an important role in major development process.

Ans 2. Even though it is possible that some of Honda’s competition would go through the process of
engine redesign, those competitors may not have just spent 5 billion yen on a major undertaking for
their micromini vehicles. For this reason, I feel that Kamimura should keep whatever engineering talent
is needed to perform the "minor tooling changes in the machining process" to increase the cylinder bore
in order to increase the engine displacement to 660 cubic centimeters. Even though this decision is
contrary to Honda’s usual policy of introducing a new engine with a new car, the 660 cc Today could be
treated as a derivative of the 550 cc model released earlier that year and thus would not be considered
a new model. Increasing the cylinder bore diameter would change the stroke/bore ratio from 0.95 to
0.87 which would lower the fuel economy slightly, but increase the horsepower. This increased
horsepower could be a partial selling point for the Today, which is a consideration that has previously
been thought of as being secondary. Releasing the engineering talent to other projects would be better
for the company, overall, and would display Kamimura’s commitment to Honda, and not just the Today.

Ans 3. There is a possibility that the competitors’ might entirely redesign the micromini car with the
JAMA specifications as they might not have spent huge amounts recently. However, the
development process takes 2 to 3 years, Honda might have a competitive advantage if they
launch it with minor tweaks before the others. Honda's competitors might go with expanding both
stroke and bore. Since they haven't undergone any major redesign in the near past, they will be able to
spend more and hence it will be less riskier for them.