Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam presented automotive parts maker Denso Manufacturing Athens Tennessee with the state's highest honor for workplace health and safety, the Volunteer STAR (Safety Through Accountability and Recognition) award at a news conference yesterday at the Denso Athens, Tennessee facility.
“On behalf of our employees, I’m very proud to accept this award today,” said Ike Yamashita, president of Desno Manufacturing Tennessee. “At Denso, our policy is Safety and Quality First, and this award recognizes our excellent workforce and continuous commitment to safety.”
The Volunteer STAR is a nationally recognized program based on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) and recognizes the best of the best in the area of safety and health programming and performance. There are currently 40 Volunteer STAR sites in Tennessee.
The standard for participation in the STAR program is the confirmation of a company’s safety and health program, which helps reduce accidents and injuries. The program also allows employers to be removed from programmed compliance inspection lists for a period of three years. The VPP is designed to recognize and promote effective safety and health management. In the VPP, management, labor and Tennessee OSHA establish a cooperative relationship at a workplace that has implemented a strong program.
Denso Manufacturing Athens Tennessee has approximately 1,450 employees in manufacturing of automotive components, such as oxygen sensors, spark plugs, ignition coils, monolithic carriers, fuel injectors, air flow meters and fuel rails for the automotive industry. This is the site’s third time to receive the Volunteer STAR award.
Denso to create 400 new jobs at Athens site
Denso Manufacturing Athens Tennessee also announced on Wednesday that it plans to build an $85m, 224,000 sq ft facility in Athens, expected to create 400 jobs over the next three years.
The planned expansion represents the third major capital investment in the Athens operation announced since January 2014.
The facility will be built at Denso’s existing Athens plant and will be used to expand production of the company’s gasoline direct injection systems.
Denso is headquartered in Kariya, Aichi prefecture, Japan and is a leading global automotive supplier of advanced technology, systems and components in the areas of thermal, powertrain control, electronics and information and safety. Its customers include all the world’s major carmakers.
Worldwide, the company has more than 200 subsidiaries and affiliates in 38 countries and regions and employs nearly 140,000 people. Consolidated global sales for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014, totaled US$39.8 billion. Last fiscal year, DENSO spent 9% of its global consolidated sales on research and development.
