Yamaha Motor : Initiative to Strengthen All Aspects of Design Design Director appointed to oversee strengthening of design functions
March 30, 2012 at 01:50 am EDT
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Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. announces the appointment of Mr.
Yasuhiro Kira as Design Director of the company's
recently launched Design Center, where he will serve directly
under the Center's Executive General Manager as of April
1, 2012. Mr. Kira has served as head of Yamaha
Corporation's Product Design Laboratory and as a
professor at Shinshu University and brings to the position a
wealth of experience in the fields of design organization
management and initiatives for promoting design
internationally.
Drawing on his experience as an instructor of young designers
in institutions of higher learning, Mr. Kira will be
responsible for design-related management in areas ranging
from setting long-term design strategy and building
design-related organizational structure to personnel
development and more.
Yamaha Motor established the new Design Center in January
2012 to strengthen all aspects of design functions
companywide. The Design Center is comprised of the 3D Design
Division and the Coloring Design Division responsible
primarily for product design, and the Design Promotion
Division responsible chiefly for corporate design. The Design
Director will serve directly under the Design Center
Executive General Manager and will work with all three of
these divisions to advance design management functions. The
objective is to coordinate the creation of concepts that will
be shared globally throughout the Yamaha Motor group, not
only in the area of product design but also extending to the
Yamaha Motor brand itself and all things related to
design.
Yamaha Motor is currently working to increase its corporate
value through sustainable growth by expanding "business
scale" while improving "financial strength"
and augmenting "corporate strength" as outlined in
the next medium-term management plan. This initiative falls
in the realm of efforts to augment "corporate
strength" and will surely contribute significantly to
the company's ongoing efforts to strengthen design with a
comprehensive approach.
Profile of Yasuhiro Kira
1970:Graduated from the Department of Design, Faculty of
Engineering, Chiba University
Joined Nippon Gakki Co., Ltd. (present Yamaha
Corporation) 1996:Appointed General Manager of Product
Design Laboratory 2004:Appointed Executive Officer,
General Manager of Product Design Laboratory 2008:Retired
from Yamaha Corporation 2008:Appointed professor of
Kansei Engineering at Shinshu University 2012:Concluded
professorship at Shinshu University in March
Selected Career Achievements
·As head of the Yamaha Corp. Product Design Laboratory,
he was instrumental in establishing the company's
design philosophy and pursuing a global design
organization that began actively promoting design abroad
before other Japanese corporations. ·As a product
designer, he produced product designs (the "SILENT
ViolinTM," etc.) that proposed new value and new
concepts that have achieved high levels of value for
society. ·As a judge for the Good Design Awards and
others, he has a network of connections in the global
design world.
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This press release was issued by Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd. and was initially posted at http://www.yamaha-motor.co.jp/global/news/2012/0330/design.html . It was distributed, unedited and unaltered, by noodls on 2012-03-30 07:45:39 AM. The issuer is solely responsible for the accuracy of the information contained therein.
Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. specializes in the construction and marketing of motorcycles, all terrain vehicles and boats. The group also develops engine manufacturing activity. Net sales break down by family of products as follows:
- sale of motorcycles (65.3%): 4.8 million units sold in 2022. Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. also offers all-terrain vehicles, off-road recreational vehicles, snowmobiles and electric bicycles;
- manufacturing of marine motor equipment and watercraft (23%): ooutboard engines, jet skis, fishing boats, utility boats, etc. ;
- sale of industrial machines and robots (5.2%);
- provision of financial services (2.8%);
- other (3.7%): primarily golf carts, snow blowers, generators and multi-purpose engines and automobile engines and components.
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: Japan (7.3%), Asia (40.1%), North America (25.3%), Europe (13.9%) and other (13.4%).