Carpet firm bags award from Toyota

MANILA, Philippines - A relatively young Filipino company supplying carpets to car makers, Autocarpets, Inc., won a coveted and prestigious Global Supplier Recogition Award from Toyota Motors of Japan for meeting the leading global car makers’ tough Toyota Production System (TPS).

Autocarpets, represented by its president Rafael Villarreal, was one of the five companies, with the four others being global multinational giants namely Tata Steel of India, Industrias Guidi of Argentina, Mahle Industries of North America, and Goshen Industries of Taiwan, that walked up that stage to received the Regional Contribution Award given by Toyota Motors Japan in its 2012 Toyota Global Suppliers Convention held at the Nagoya Congress Center recently.

Villarreal said that by winning the Regional Contribution Award, Autocarpets showed that Filipino manufacturing quality can meet global excellence standards and can compete with the giant multinational conglomerates from developed First World Countries.

“We don’t need to be a multinational company to be able to excel and be recognized by Toyota Motors Japan,” Villarreal said.

Autocarpets, he said, may well be the first company in the south east Asian region supplying parts and components on the assembly of cars to Toyota that won the said award.

The feat was made more impressive since it was only in 2009 that Autocarpets started to adopt the much-admited TPS that is credited with Toyota’s highly-efficient “Just-In-Time” assembly line systems that enables the car maker to produce top quality vehicles at the most globally-competitive cost.

Autocarpets was started only in 2007 when local low-profile industrialist-businessman Egmidio “Eddie” Jose and his Sanoh Fulton Philippines, Inc., and Villarreal partnered to buy the automotive carpet making business of Philippine Carpet Manufacturing Corp. 

Villarreal, a former president of the Motor Vehicle Parts Manufacturers Association of the Philippines (MVPMAP), said that accomplishment of Autocarpets boosted the case of local parts manufacturers that Filipino companies can be globally competitive.

“We just need enough government support,” Villarreal said. 

MVPMAP has been calling on the government to provide its members support and urge car manufacturers, particularly the multinationals, to assemble more of their vehicles here to generate more manufacturing activity and provide more jobs to blue-collar workers.