Noriaki Hirakata
MANILA, Philippines — Noriaki Hirakata made a career out of scrutinizing automotive companies from the outside, analyzing business performance and offering recommendations on what automakers should do.
Then one day, the president of Mitsubishi Motors gave him a call.
“You keep criticizing this company in the last 10 years,” Hirakata recalled being told. “It’s about time to come around to Mitsubishi to implement what you suggested as an analyst.”
Hirakata accepted the challenge, he told The STAR in a recent interview.
From being an automotive analyst at Morgan Stanley, he joined Mitsubishi Motors’ global corporate strategy team in Japan, where he worked on the company’s medium-term business plan.
One of his key recommendations was for Mitsubishi to focus more on Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines, which he believed held considerable promise for the brand.
That conviction eventually brought him to the Philippines.
On July 1, 2023, Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. appointed Hirakata as its first-ever chairman of the Board, a strategic appointment that reflects MMPC’s stronger commitment to enhancing corporate governance and driving sustainable business growth.
Upon arrival, he realized there was a lot of room to improve the manufacturing processes and make them more efficient.
The plant’s defects-per-unit, a key measure of manufacturing quality, was among the highest in Mitsubishi’s global operations.
Some people had told him that producing a decent vehicle in the Philippines was difficult.
Hirakata was initially only partly convinced.
That became the starting point for a turnaround.
Rather than impose sweeping changes from the top, Hirakata and the manufacturing team worked to get employees and union leaders involved in the process.
Filipino production workers were sent to Japan to observe how other facilities operated and to learn the discipline and systems behind their manufacturing processes.
The improvements were not immediate.
But by January 2024, quality performance began to improve.
More than three years later, Hirakata remains bullish on the country, even as economic headwinds, softer vehicle sales and intensifying competition weigh on the automotive industry.
His optimism is not simply a matter of faith.
As he sees it, the question is not just how Mitsubishi can sell more vehicles in the Philippines today, but how it can build the manufacturing capabilities to compete in the years ahead.
By late 2024 to early 2025, the Philippine operation had become one of Mitsubishi’s best-performing plants in ASEAN in terms of quality, according to Hirakata.
The plant also earned recognition on manufacturing skills and capabilities.
For Hirakata, the transformation demonstrated what Filipino workers could achieve when given the right systems, training and support.
The changes themselves were hardly revolutionary, he said.
Employees were expected to arrive ahead of their shifts to prepare for work. Smartphone use during production was discouraged. Workers were also exposed to better practices through visits to other manufacturing facilities, including plants operated by other companies in the Philippines.
Some obstacles were practical rather than cultural. If employees could not arrive early because transportation was unavailable, management listened and addressed the problem.
“There’s no hidden story,” Hirakata said of the turnaround. It was about improving systems and getting people to understand why change was necessary.
He also learned that leadership required patience.
For Hirakata, the next challenge is to move beyond improving the existing manufacturing operation and establish the Philippines as a more competitive production base.
The country produces only about 100,000 vehicles a year, he noted, compared with roughly 1.5 million in Thailand and one million in Indonesia.
Still, MMPC remains optimistic about the Philippines, he said. It wants to make the country a production hub for a still to be disclosed hybrid model.
The company announced plans to invest P7 billion for HEV (hybrid electric vehicle) production in the country.
As for its export plans, Hirakata said that 2030 is the company’s internal target.
If realized, MMPC will begin exports two years after it starts HEV production in 2028.
While conservative managers may aim to start around 2035, Hirakata said he wants the company to move faster.
But he also said that exporting will bring a different challenge to the firm as it navigates different consumer behaviors and preferences in overseas markets.
“It’s challenging. But we need a challenge all the time,” he said.
At present, MMPC produces the Mirage, Mirage G4 and L300.
With Hirakata at the helm, MMPC is sure to gear up for a bigger presence in the Philippines.