Since arriving at DENSO International America, Inc. (DIAM) three years ago, President and CEO Matsushita has been unabashedly telling all who will listen about his dream of DIAM engineers developing a unique product locally to be used globally.

Linda Evatt checks a fuel pump on the assembly line at AFCO in Anderson, S.C., where it is manufactured.

DIAM engineer Dhyana Ramamurthy designed a new element for this fuel pump module.

In his own words: “My dream is to bring about a new product, conceived here in the United States, developed here, and hopefully exported to any and all other regions of the world.”

To quote rocker Bruce Springsteen, an oft-quoted American: “Born in the U.S.A.”

Adds Matsushita: “Especially now, with the North American auto industry suffering from slow sales, I would like to see the North American automotive industry show a strong global presence by creating a feature product.

“The fact is that the primary (engineering) comes out of Europe and Japan, then the U.S. If we can create a unique product on U.S. soil, it will give us a brighter future. My dream is to make new, innovative products routine in North America and unique to DENSO.”

Historically that hasn’t been the case at DENSO. Historically, says Doug Patton, senior vice president of engineering, DENSO has been an “applications” facility.

That is, until recently. Typically, DIAM engineers mostly have been tasked with modifying base designs for systems and components developed elsewhere in order to meet automotive manufacturing customer needs in North America.

Think adaptations and adjustments – or, perhaps better put, tailoring. Now comes the challenge of making something entirely new.

“The key is to think beyond the task at hand to the bigger picture,” Patton said. “This will allow us to solve fundamental issues, and long term will enable us to create a unique, North American product.”

So, comes the question: How to stimulate that sort of creativity?

One answer? DENSO has found a successful impetus: encouraging engineers to apply for patents on their new ideas. A patent is an exclusive right granted by a government to an inventor to exclude others from making or selling his idea.

Which brings us to the current pater familias – or Godfather – of DENSO patents, Iwao “Ken” Kimata. Kimata is DENSO’s senior manager of intellectual property, which pretty much puts him in charge of new ideas. He has been on duty since January of 2003.

“My charge was to encourage people here to develop something new, to provide the incentive to do so,” Kimata said. “Hopefully, those developments will end up in an actual product.”

So far, so good. Indeed, in March 2004, engineer Dhyana Ramamurthy was awarded a patent for a new fuel pump module. Ramamurthy’s module has been in use in the Honda Element.

Ramamurthy, a DIAM Southfield mechanical engineer since 1999, was asked to solve a problem specific to a fuel pump module. He solved the problem but didn’t realize that he had anything special until attending a meeting in Japan, where a senior manager suggested he apply for a patent. And voilà, a history was born.
Engineers receive a cash award from DENSO for a patent application, another cash award and a plaque for patent registration and another monetary award for actual implementation.

“While creating our own product is the ultimate goal, being able to continue to adapt current products is important in expanding our current business,” Kimata said. “We have to keep satisfying our customers’ needs.”

Matsushita says, given the long and distinguished history of automotive technology and excellence born in the U.S., there is no reason to expect anything less than realization of his dream of a stand-alone product.

“The U.S. automotive industry has had a lot of genius in the past. The engineers were geniuses who led us to the current high level of the automotive industry. There is no reason why we can’t take the same sort of genius into the next generation of technology.”

Through all of his dreaming, Matsushita remains grounded by the task at hand and by DENSO’s overriding and ultimate charge – responsibility to its customers.

“In order to bring in a new product,” he says, “we have to talk with our customers and listen to their needs.”

And, then, just imagine.

DENSO engineers at DENSO International America have submitted applications for15 patents. With Doug Patton (second from left) and Iwao “Ken” Kimata (far right), they are (l-r) Keiichi Aoyama, Dhyana Ramamurthy, Alfred Piggott, Patrick Powell, Justin McBride, Chris Wisniewski, Tom Keeling, Mike Wiegand, Akiyoshi “Danny” Mukaidani, and Dan Archibald. (Not pictured: William Attwood, Glenn Crocker, Takahira Kato, Daniel Kushner and Tim Roland.)