The Global UD Trucks Customer Magazine #01 2013 SAUDI ARABIA: RELIABILITY ABOVE ALL P4 P14 P20 Two years after A heritage of The traditional the tsunami fuel efficiency gemba spirit To give our customers what they want plus a little more. | That’s what “going the extra mile” #01 2 013 means to us. We leave nothing to chance. 04 Feature Story Our customers enjoy the peace of The Long Road to Recovery mind that comes with knowing they After the March 11 tsunami, the UD Trucks dealership have the best possible solution. in Japan’s Iwate Prefecture supported customers in the direst conditions imaginable. Our aim is to be the most committed partner – to go the extra mile in News everything we do. 08 Exceeding Expectations What’s Happening News from around the world of UD Trucks. To learn more about the difference or us here at UD Trucks, every new issue of Roads rekindles the passion we feel for UD Trucks. It is Cover Story UD Trucks can make for your always exciting to read about how our company 09 business, visit www.udtrucks.com F Desert Challenge is developing in Japan and around the world, and the or contact your nearest UD Trucks Saudi Arabia’s construction sector is thriving, but positive response we get from you, our customers, local conditions demand trucks of outstanding dealership. wherever you may be. reliability. As head of the UD Experience, my work is to bring the UD Trucks’ brand as close to customers as possible. Feature Story Since the program started in April last year, visitors have 12 continued to come from near and far to UD Trucks’ King of the Road headquarters in Ageo outside of Tokyo to learn about our Visitors come from worldwide to take the UD Experience, a full-day tour of UD Trucks Going the extra mile company, tour the factory and get behind the wheel of a culminating in a test drive. gleaming Quon or Condor. We don’t just want to tell by Roads is published words who we are; we want visitors to feel the values that History three times per year by we stand for, make them real. 14 UD Trucks Corporation And what are these values? We are a brand built on The Spirit of Efficiency udtrucks.com From the founding days until today, UD Trucks traditional Japanese hallmarks—quality, craftsmanship, Publisher attention to detail and customer service. has been a pioneer in fuel efficiency. Per Sundström We have a word in Japanese called monozukuri, meaning [email protected] Tel: +81-48-726-7601 to make things with exacting precision and quality, and At the Wheel 17 Editorial Production perhaps the part I love most about UD Trucks is that it is a Racing Against Time in Bangkok Next Inc. company that passes on this spirit to each new generation Time is of the essence when transporting liquid [email protected] www.nextinc.com concrete through Bangkok’s infamous traffic. of employees—it becomes part of the DNA. Tel: +81-3-6436-4270 I like to think that those who come to the UD Experience Editor-in-Chief expect monozukuri, and when a visitor comes to us Tradition Kjell Fornander afterwards saying “that was really something,” it’s such a 20 Executive Editor Gemba and the Art of great feeling, a great moment. William Ross Hands-on Involvement With this magazine, I hope to communicate some of Art Director The Japanese concept of gemba is a key part Koichi Asano that feeling to you too, dear Reader. Please enjoy this of UD Trucks’ philosophy. Production Manager issue of Roads. Kazumi Umezawa 22 Global Business Printed in Japan Tomohisa Ishida Creating the Truck of Tomorrow Senior Manager UD Trucks is moving to support customer needs in diverse markets even better. UD Experience UD Trucks Brands Strategy & Marketing Contributors to this issue: Tony McNicol Mark Schreiber Jim Hand-Cukierman Based in Tokyo, Tony Author-translator Mark Canadian Jim Hand-Cukierman McNicol is a writer, editor and Schreiber has lived in Japan is a Tokyo-based photographer photographer who has written for over 40 years. He has and writer whose work appears extensively for publications in written extensively about in magazines around the world. Japan and globally. Japanese language and popular culture. 1-1, Ageo-shi, Saitama 362-8523, Japan udtrucks.com Cover photograph The Passionates Studio Feature Story The Long Road to RecoveryText: Tony McNicol Photos: Jun Takagi 01 After the tsunami of March 11, arely a week had passed since the of ten meters. The building had been a grievous blow by the tsunami. Offices, 01. The restored UD Trucks sales office earthquake and tsunami of March completely swept away, along with the equipment and vehicles had been damaged 02 in Kamaishi stands in lonely triumph 2011 destroyed the city of surrounded by a vast flat space that once Kamaishi, things looked hopeless 11 when Tomoko Tamayama, a residential area around it. or destroyed and supply chains had been was a city. The office officially opened for truck owners and local general manager in the UD Trucks “The tears just welled up in my eyes,” severely disrupted. for business on January 23 this year. dealers. Many businesses left, Iwate head office recalls Ms. Tamayama, “I was lost for words.” It was weeks until even the first handful 02. Knowing that they help customers Bin Morioka in Japan’s northeastern Iwate Masayuki Murai, a director of sales from of customers could restart work— mostly rebuild their businesses is a source of but the local UD Trucks team strength for the staff. Prefecture, first reached the devastated city the head office who first reached the area transporting essential emergency goods: decided to stay. In a desperate of Kamaishi. on March 16, was stunned. “There was water, food, fuel and feed for animals. situation, they not only rebuilt, She met a bleak sight. Channeled by absolutely nothing there,” he says. There were many months more before but expanded. It was not about the surrounding valley walls, the tsunami The scale of the destruction was almost other businesses could get back on their business—it was about doing the had travelled far inland. At the site of the beyond comprehension. But one thing feet, and a significant number are still yet to right thing, and standing by your dealership, some 500 meters from the was very clear: throughout the region, the restart operations. customers no matter what. coastline, the waves had reached a height dealership’s customers had been struck As information about their customers’ 04 #01 | 2013 #01 | 2013 05 Feature Story 01 02 03 04 05 06 predicament trickled in to their vehicles—punctures “ We all wanted to be there for companies involved in rebuilding. during the chaotic immediate and broken suspension The building work is likely to continue aftermath of the disasters, springs were common from our customers.” for many years to come. Many local the staff at UD Trucks Iwate driving through debris-strewn Chitaka Fujisawa, president of UD Trucks Iwate people are still living in temporary realized that they had to take streets. A maintenance truck accommodation, and many businesses only action. was regularly dispatched to “There were lots of dealers in the area working from temporary offices in other have temporary premises. They had to help as many Kamaishi from the Morioka before the disasters, but they all left,” says parts of the region, still with no idea when Like Kamaishi and the Tohoku region as customers as possible get head office. Mr. Murai. The difficulties of rebuilding they could build permanent facilities. a whole, the sales office and its customers back on their feet as quickly But other customers had lost in an area that had been completely “Some of the customers thanked us for face an uncertain future. Despite the new as possible. It became their their vehicles in the disaster destroyed, he notes, were great. providing the new maintenance bays,” facilities, the sales office still has fewer mission, their way of supporting and Mr. Murai helped source “We thought about doing the same, but recalls Ms. Tamayama. “Others thanked us customers than before the disaster. the recovery efforts. them second-hand cars and we’d spoken to our customers,” explains for coming back to Kamaishi.” In the mid-term, the vast rebuilding Driven by this purpose, the trucks. Prices had shot up after Mr. Murai. “We knew that we could be needed in Tohoku will continue to support Tomoko Tamayama: “I was lost for Chitaka Fujisawa: “We are transport A small symbol of reconstruction team would work tirelessly words.” industry professionals. We wanted to the disaster, making that a useful here.” the local economy, but once construction over the coming two years, help people use their vehicles.” difficult task. The old sales office had been in the same In Kamaishi today, grim reminders of both stops no one knows what will happen. supporting their customers in place for some 30 years, close to a highway the scale of the disaster and the scale of In any case, for the last two years, few in every way they could in the Going forward used frequently by customers. “Our the reconstruction challenge are all too Tohoku have had the luxury of thinking that most difficult circumstances Yet, it was clear that a new customers were familiar with the location,” easy to find. Just behind the sales office is far into the future. imaginable. Kamaishi office was needed. says Mr. Murai. a huge processing facility with towering For UD Trucks Iwate, the priority over the “We knew what we should The tsunami had swept away To President Fujisawa, the needs of their piles of debris.