Aisin AI President Fumio Nakagawa

As automotive and auto parts manufacturers began moving to Thailand during the past few years, Aisin AI Japan recognized the trend early and set up its first overseas manufacturing plant in Thailand in 2002. Rather than build from the ground up, the manual transmission maker acquired Mazda Engineering’s plant in Chachoengsao province, which was completely equipped with the needed high-tech machinery.

‘‘The technology for manufacturing manual transmissions is very complex and difficult. We were lucky to have it all in place,’’ recalls President Fumio Nakagawa, whose primary objective was to be near the customer as competition for the domestic, European, and Australian markets grew increasingly stiff.

Having enlisted Alliance Thailand (assemblers of Mazda and Ford) as customers, Aisin AI signed contracts with Toyota and Mitsubishi in early 2005. Nakagawa also expressed hopes to expand business and reach out to other major customers.

To raise the morale and enhance the skills of its workforce, Aisin AI Thailand set up an overseas training program. Currently, 80 people, or 15 percent of the company’s employees, have been sent to Japan for training.

‘‘We have been making an effort to maintain close communications with employees in order to cultivate mutual respect for Thai and Japanese business cultures. It would be wonderful if both sides could find a common objective, achieve that and share happiness. Through this process, we would like to aim at becoming No. 1 in ASEAN,’’ he continues.

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