Mazda Museum, Hiroshima, Japan, October 29, 2013
If you are in Hiroshima this is something to try out. The biggest company in the town of Hiroshima is the Mazda Motor Corporation. They have their main office at Fuchu a few km outside of the city centre. From there a private bus takes you to the museum located within the production facility (that, by the way, is huge!).
The museum contains many of the old cars, current production techniques and future concepts, but still there is a large section on rotary engines although they are discontinued entirely. There were a lot new stuff about the CX-5 in the museum (I was there last time in the spring of 2012) with all sorts of design issue and production techniques. Very good indeed.
The highlight of the tour was to see the production line (no photographing allowed) and we saw Mazda 2 and MX-5 being build. From where we could see from, they were laying the carpets in the cars. Thereafter there were a station for inserting the dashboard (done by hand) and gluing on windscreens (done by robots). Such a car production line is a very fascinating thing to watch and it is a logistical marvel. We also saw the private port where the cars are loaded onto large ships. There were ship at anchor a few kilometers out in the bay and cars ready to be loaded on the pier. (Again, no photographing allowed)
The video contains stills and HD video.
A tour has to be booked at the Mazda museum in advance. You can check out the Mazda museum website:
If you want to see my movie from 2012 on the Mazda museum please click on:
Mazda Museum, Hiroshima, April 9, 2012
If you are in Hiroshima this is something to try out. The biggest company in the town of Hiroshima is the Mazda Motor Corporation. They have their main office at Fuchu a few km outside of the city centre. From there a private bus takes you to the museum located within the production facility (that, by the way, is huge!).
The museum contains many of the old cars, current production techniques and future concepts, but also a large section on rotary engines. I heard that this part of the museum was to be changed (probably due to the rotary engines are discontinued entirely). Maybe something about the new Skyactive engine technology has been included.
The highlight of the tour was to see the production line (no photographing allowed) and the private port where the cars are loaded onto large ships. One very curious thing on the enormous factory area was the fact that on all staff parking lots there were only Mazda cars. The workers are only allowed to drive Mazda... (and Ford, though I didn't see any).
The video contains stills and HD video.
A tour has to be booked at the Mazda museum in advance. You can check out the Mazda museum website:
Thank you Mazda! It was a great experience for me to see the place where my car was build :o)
The Art of Colour | MAZDA
Company name:Mazda Motor Corporation
Founded:January 30, 1920
Headquarters:3-1 Shinchi, Fuchu-cho, Aki-gun, Hiroshima 730-8670 Japan
Representative:Masamichi Kogai, Representative Director; President and CEO
Main business:Manufacture and sales of passenger cars and commercial vehicles
Stock Information
Authorized: 1,200,000,000
shares Issued: 599,875,479
shares Number of shareholders: 158,602
Capital ¥258,957,096,762
Employees
Unconsolidated Male: 19,653 Female: 1,948 Total: 21,601 (including dispatchees)
Consolidated: 46,398
Research and development sites Head Office, Mazda R&D Center (Yokohama), Mazda North American Operations (USA), Mazda Motor Europe (Germany), China Engineering Support Center (China)
Production sites
Japan: Hiroshima Plant (Head Office, Ujina), Hofu Plant (Nishinoura, Nakanoseki), Miyoshi Plant
Overseas: China, Thailand, Mexico, South Africa, Ecuador, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Russia
Sales companies
Japan: 229, Overseas: 141
Principal products:Four-wheeled vehicles, gasoline reciprocating engines, diesel engines, automatic and manual transmissions for vehicles
Mazda Motor Corporation (マツダ株式会社 Matsuda Kabushiki-gaisha), commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker based in Fuchū, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan.
In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly 1 million) were produced in the company's Japanese plants, with the remainder coming from a variety of other plants worldwide. In 2015, Mazda was the fifteenth biggest automaker by production worldwide.
The name Mazda came into existence with the production of the Company's first three-wheeled trucks. Other candidates for a model name included Sumera-Go, Tenshi-Go and more. But these were swept aside when it was decided to name it in honor of the family name of then company president, Jujiro Matsuda. The name was also associated with Ahura Mazda (God of Light), with the hope that it would brighten the image of these compact vehicles. The Mazda lettering was used in combination with the corporate emblem of Mitsubishi, which was responsible for sales, to produce the Toyo Kogyo three-wheeled truck registered trademark.