Through modularization, we aim to deliver products that meet various market needs at shorter lead times.
Hino Motors, Ltd. (Hino) held an event to announce the launch of its new medium-duty truck model in Indonesia. Hino has been engaged in developing "market best-fit vehicles" based on modular designs, and the model introduced in Indonesia represents the first iteration of such products. This is the first time Hino will be launching the production of a new model outside of Japan.
Hino's customers in Indonesia have utilized Hino trucks and buses for over three decades. Sales of the light-duty "market best-fit vehicle" truck, introduced in 2010, has grown steadily to the point where the sales volume of Hino vehicles overall is now second only to that in Japan. This makeover of our flagship model in the medium-duty trucks category enables us to offer vehicles that accommodate a variety of different applications and types of cargo in the medium-duty category. Also, in conjunction with enhancements to our Total Support, we are committed to our ongoing efforts to maximize our customers' up-times, and minimize their life cycle costs.
The development of market best-fit vehicles based on modular designs was one of the initiatives driving our growth strategy which was included in the mid-term corporate plan announced in April 2012. Commercial vehicles represent capital assets that our customers use for their business operations. And because there is great diversity in the types of cargo as well as the applications that need to be addressed in the commercial vehicles market, this results in high-mix low-volume production, where the number of models continues to grow as the number of units per model remains small. In addition, the kinds of parts tend to increase with the number of models.
In response to these issues, Hino introduced the modular concept in its development process, where parts and components are categorized as either core parts, which form the foundations of a model, or peripheral parts which are used for making customizations to vehicles based on customer requests. By designing core parts for shareability and producing them centrally in Japan on the one hand, while increasing the number of locally sourced parts, with a primary focus on peripheral parts on the other, we have gained the ability to produce a diverse range of vehicles in locales that are geographically nearer to their ultimate market destinations. This in turn enables us to deliver models that best suit our customers' needs at shorter lead times. Over the next few years, we will be following the precedent set by our initiatives in Indonesia to expand the range of regions and markets where we are able to provide these new modular models as "best-fit vehicles" for other regions and markets.
In parallel with these forms of vehicle production that are based on new ideas, we are also working towards optimizing our production systems on a global scale as was also stated in the mid-term corporate plan.
Hino is committed to strengthening ties with our customers in different regions around the world, and continues to provide products and services that meet the needs of our markets, in order to become our customers' brand of choice and make positive contributions to our customers' businesses.
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