HONDA MALAYSIA INVESTS RM40.12 MILLION ON NEW PDI CENTRE AND VEHICLE QUALITY TEST COURSE

Honda Malaysia Sdn Bhd recently held a symbolic groundbreaking ceremony for the new Pre-Delivery Inspection (PDI) Centre and Vehicle Quality Test Course at Honda’s Pegoh Plant in Alor Gajah, Malacca. The investment amount for both the new PDI Centre and the Vehicle Quality Test Course in Malacca, which is expected to be completed by June 2012 is RM40.12 million. This cost includes land acquisition, building and equipment. The functions of the PDI Centre include incoming inspection, accessorization, warehousing, final inspection, car tracking and washing to ensure the product quality meets Honda’s stringent pre-delivery requirements. Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony, Mr. Yoichiro Ueno, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Honda Malaysia said, “With this new PDI Centre, we will be able to expedite the delivery process of new cars to all our dealers nationwide. The PDI Centre serves a very important role in ensuring the highest standard of Honda cars are met and delivered to our customers. The new PDI Centre will be able to process 30% more vehicles. This also means that we will be able to offer more job opportunities for fellow Malaysians,” added Mr. Ueno. Currently, the existing PDI Centre operates on a single shift with 51 Honda associates processing 180 units of vehicles at any one time. The new PDI facility covers a total site area of 57,000 square metre and is specially designed without sidewall for good air circulation, but equipped with a loading bay with roof to facilitate loading process during bad weather. Its total built-up area of 6,570 square metre is equipped with the capacity to park 1,522 vehicles. Upon completion, the new PDI Centre will be able to process 410 vehicles at any one time when they begin operating on two shifts. It will be a one-stop centre to accommodate all PDI processes. Meanwhile, the new 2.148km Vehicle Quality Test Course will be able to fully test new vehicles on various road conditions such as roads that are slippery, pot-holed, hilly, bumpy and cobbled-stone. At the test course, new Honda vehicles will also go through different dynamic testing zones at maximum speed of 140km/h to check on body noise, wind noise, hard brake, car pulling, steering spoke angle, transmission function and reverse function. The new Vehicle Quality Test Course will be able to test two cars per session. “The objective of the new Vehicle Quality Test Course is to help us improve the quality of all Honda vehicles produced in Malaysia. This is in line with Honda Malaysia’s commitment towards overall customer satisfaction, especially with the quality of their new car. At Honda, we place great emphasis on quality control in our products and manufacturing processes. With this new Vehicle Quality Test Course and PDI Centre, we will continue to uphold our commitment to supply and deliver products of the highest quality at reasonable prices to our valued customers in Malaysia,” added Mr. Ueno. The new PDI Centre and Vehicle Quality Test Course in Malacca will process completely knocked-down (CKD) models produced at the Pegoh Plant such as the Honda City, Civic, Accord and CR-V. Honda Malaysia has another PDI facility located at Bangi, Selangor which processes Honda’s imported Completely Built-Up (CBU) vehicles before it reaches Honda dealers nationwide. The PDI Centre in Bangi was built in 2008 and is able to process 60 vehicles in one shift operation.