Toyota Boshoku has expanded its Malaysian operations with the opening of its third plant in Shah Alam, Selangor.
The company is a joint venture between Toyota Boshoku of Japan and UMW Toyota Motor which manufactures and assemble Toyota vehicles locally, Business Times reported.
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The new RM22m, 3,200sq m plant will provide parts for cars assembled from completely knocked down (CKD) kits and improve existing processes at the older Plants 1 and 2.
“It is to accommodate the new Toyota Vios project and complement the other two plants, particularly for seat padding and headrests for Vios production,” UMW Toyota president Datuk Ismet Suki said.
“At the same time, Plant 3 will be pioneering the introduction of vibration absorption foams in order to provide comfort ride to Toyota customers. This plant has the seat-forming padding capacity of 118 sets per day for the Vios,” he said in a statement.
Ismet said the growing operation of assembling seats, door trims and interior parts is in line with the rising number of Toyota vehicles built in Malaysia.
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By GlobalData“Sales turnover has grown from RM121m in 2004 to RM230m in 2012,” he added.
Established in 2006, Toyota Boshoku manufactures and assembles seats, door trims and interior parts for the Vios, Hilux, Fortuner, Innova, Hiace and Hino commercial vehicles.
Formerly known as Seat Industries, the company’s first plant started operating at Assembly Services’ manufacturing facility, assembling seats for the Corolla and was later expanded to make seat frames, door trims and headliners for other Toyota models.
In 2011, it spent over RM8m to develop Plant 2, focusing on sewing and cutting operations, and introduced a package tray, also known as the rear speaker board, for the Camry CKD project.
“With these investments and following Toyota’s continuous improvement or ‘kaizen’, we believe the company will continue to grow and realise our goal to be the leading vehicle interior system supplier in Malaysia,” Ismet said.
