Customer Interview
Asia Network Hub in Singapore.
When kaizen
brings two together
Three years ago when Japan’s biggest
automaker Toyota Motor Corporation
chose SingTel as its major telecom-
munications provider in the Asia Pacific
outside China and Japan, it caused a
ripple of surprise. For it is uncommon
for a non-Japanese telco to be given
such a project by a Japanese conglo-
merate. Time and a culture of kaizen
have proven the decision a right one.
Toyota Motor Corporation,
Managing Officer
Yoshikazu Amano
MR YOSHIKAZU AMANO,
Managing Officer, Toyota Motor
Corporation, the man who pushed
that ‘brave’ decision through was
recently in Singapore on a working
visit. In a meeting with Mr Lee
Hsien Yang, SingTel Group CEO,
he noted: “About three years ago,
when I chose and appointed SingTel,
there was repulsion from in-house
and outside the company.
“However, I honestly think that
working with SingTel is the right
choice. SingTel’s network service
quality is improving every year
and is becoming very good.”
Most of Mr Amano’s satisfaction
with SingTel’s service stems from
what he called kaizen, or continuous
improvement. The telco has been
able to provide this on its circuits.
This has strengthened Toyota’s con-
fidence in SingTel’s capability in
the Asia Pacific.
“A reliable communication network
is like air and water to us; it can’t
fail,” he emphasised.
Toyota has been expanding its
footprint overseas and the region is
an important part of its growth
business. It has been raising its staff
strength at its Asian research and
development base while increasing the
engineering data transmitted via its
regional network.
October last year saw the successful
completion of Toyota’s Australia-
With network becoming more im-
portant to the company, Mr
Amano is looking to SingTel to
“continuously provide a high quality
of service.”
In turn, Mr Lee extended his appre-
ciation to Toyota for continuing
to use SingTel’s services. Apart from
using SingTel’s managed IP-VPN
network to grow and support its
telecommunications network
throughout the Asia Pacific, Toyota
has appointed SingTel as the
data communication provider for
its International Multi-platform
Vehicle (IMV) project.
The IMV is a standard automobile
platform that Toyota uses to share
its motor-part designs across its
various plants in Asia. SingTel’s IP-
VPN network is used to connect the
different countries. Through this,
SingTel has been given a valuable
learning opportunity.
Mr Lee noted: “Since a few years
ago when we started to provide
services to Toyota, SingTel staff,
especially those from operations,
have learned a great deal by working
with the company.
“Certainly, for any project to be
successful, one of the key things is the
human relationship among the
working parties.”
Mr Amano agreed: “It is important
for a company that we work with to
match Toyota’s DNA, and that is to
continuously improve. We are happy
to see this kaizen in SingTel.”
May-Jun 06 | 09