Honda Experiences Engineer Shortage
By NORIHIKO SHIROUZU
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
December 16, 2005 3:25 a.m.
TOKYO -- Honda Motor Co. is experiencing a shortage of engineers in Japan, a problem challenging many other Japanese auto makers and technology companies, but Honda's problem is not the lack of traditional automotive engineers but those who can look far into the future of automobiles, says a senior company research and development executive.
A Honda senior R&D executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the No. 3 Japanese auto maker has plenty of engineers to go around in performing day-to-day product engineering activities.
"The pinch we are feeling," the executive said, "is for researchers who can really help us look far into the future of automobiles, [such as] experts in human science who can advance our understanding of the psychology of colors and the psychology of what makes people feel 'fun' when driving."
Honda also needs experts in material science, chemistry, and biology, among other disciplines, he said. "We are even looking for people who can help us with a discipline like logic … to really understand the mechanism of internal combustion."
That's increasingly critical, the senior engineering executive said, as Honda tries to make progress in commercializing a technology automotive engineers call homogenous charge compression ignition, or HCCI, that can further enhance the fuel economy of a typical gasoline internal-combustion engine.
The technology is a hot topic in automotive research labs at General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. in the U.S.; Volkswagen AG and DaimlerChrysler AG in Germany; and Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co. and Honda in Japan because of its potential to provide as much as a 30% boost in the fuel economy of a gasoline engine.
Experts believe vehicles powered by gasoline HCCI engines could potentially offer the big fuel economy of a diesel without high emissions of nitrogen oxides and sooty particulates -- a problem that hampers the wider use of diesel engines globally.
Honda's automotive engineering center in Japan has about 7,000 full-time staff engineers. When contract engineers and "guest engineers" from suppliers are included, the number swells to as many as 8,500, the executive said. |
