Mazda expands plant in Chesterfield, adds 21 jobs

July 29, 2011
By John Reid Blackwell / Richmond Times-Dispatch

They're not rebuilding entire cars, but automaker Mazda is adding to the components it rebuilds in Chesterfield County.

Mazda North America on Thursday officially opened an expansion of its remanufacturing and technical center. The expansion comes three years after the company opened a rotary engine remanufacturing plant in a 133,000-square-foot building on Ruffin Mill Road.

The new addition to the plant is a production line that rebuilds automatic transmissions for the company's dealer customers in North America.

Mazda invested $2.3 million in the expansion and added 21 full-time jobs. That brings the plant's employment to 41 full-time workers and 29 temporary ones.

"When we opened the center in 2008, we purposely looked for space that would expand our business and help us meet our customer expectations," said Yasuo Kunita, vice president of customer service and parts for Mazda North America.

"Chesterfield County has provided a high-quality workforce, and we thank you for that," he said at an opening event Thursday attended by local and state officials.

Mazda first opened the plant in May 2008 to rebuild rotary-powered engines for its RX-8 sports car. Last year, the plant produced more than 5,000 remanufactured engines.

The new automatic transmission line disassembles and remanufactures Mazda automatic transmissions for its Mazda3 and Mazda5 model vehicles. The projected volume is 3,000 units per year.

While the expansion opened a little later than planned, Plant Manager Rob Sheets said the facility has not experienced a significant slowdown from the supply-chain disruptions in the auto industry caused by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March.

To protect the transmissions from any contaminants, the new line is located inside a separately enclosed room at the plant.

"We are bringing (the parts) back up to factory specs," Sheets said. "We are taking every part and checking it to make sure it meets our quality standards. If it doesn't, we are going to replace it with a brand new part."

An investigation group at the site also analyzes the parts for any failures and provides feedback to the company to improve future designs.

The plant also has a power steering pump line, a dealer training center and an information call center.

The power steering pump line disassembles, remanufactures and tests power steering pumps that were part of a recall for the Mazda3 and Mazda5 models.

The plant has remanufactured more than 150,000 pumps in 11 months, and Mazda said it expects to produce almost 200,000 pumps in support of the recall.

Copyright Richmond Times-Dispatch. Used by permission.

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