Kevin Monroe

JTEKT Plant Manager

• What inspired you to pursue a career in this industry, and what led you to your role as JTEKT Plant Manager?

I have made a career in the automotive manufacturing industry through the example and path of my father. He worked in a company similar to JTEKT during my teenage years. I gained the opportunity to work with the company as a temporary employee during the summers and holidays while I attended college. That experience provided me with a good base level of experience and comfort in manufacturing, which I have been able to build upon for more than 30 years since.

• What are some key accomplishments that have defined your leadership journey in this business?

JTEKT is a remarkable and innovative company. I’m grateful to be a part of a team that has contributed to success in many ways as it relates to business – We’ve successfully launched new products and improved our process efficiency steadily. The most defining successes that I’m privileged to participate in as a leader are more closely related to our workforce. I joined JTEKT in 2016 and found a welcoming and supportive work team unlike any I’d experienced elsewhere. My objective has been to keep these basic traits that have been here for many years and to rekindle the pride in our work place. I see confirmation of this goal through our strong retention, continuous development of talent, and active positive participation in the community. We have found some level of success in both directions – we’ve stabilized the business to provide a secure future for our work teams while making this a great place to work.

• How do you envision the company evolving over the next 5 to 10 years?

Change is the only constant in our industry – the market moves our plans faster than we can forecast and in ways that are difficult to predict. Globalization has been the trend for many years but tariffs and other political influences may change our strategy quickly. The automotive industry is experiencing a dramatic change and our company will evolve with it. Electrification, autonomous driving, and shared ownership of vehicles are a few trends changing the traditional relationship with automobiles and mobility. JTEKT will remain aligned with current customer base (Toyota, Nissan) but will continue seeking growth through the changing needs of the market.

• What have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced as a Plant Manager, and how have you approached them?

As with anyone in a position of leadership in 2020, I was greatly challenged by the circumstances of the Covid era. Low unemployment coupled with quick recovery in the automotive market led to difficulty in meeting our customer demand through 2021. I found that the Covid era conditions did not really create new problems, rather the situation exposed existing weaknesses in the business. Employees had many options to choose from leaving no reason to tolerate poor working conditions or management practices. Stress and competition in the supply chain revealed a number of other circumstances that became serious barriers to normal operation in the same time frame. Our approach as a leadership team and business was to take stronger action to address chronic problems. The result is a better business on the other side of Covid, one that is better positioned for adverse circumstances.

• How do you balance the demands of running a company with your personal life and interests?

I am grateful to have the opportunity to lead an organization of over 1,000 people. I owe it to the team to be focused, to live my values, and to keep other people first. By leading this way I am able to share responsibility, to build trust, and to share ownership. This does not only drive better results, it also facilitates growth and development and allows me the comfort to focus on personal life without deep anxiety for managing the minute-to-minute operation of our business.

• What aspects of your role as Plant Manager do you find most rewarding?

I take satisfaction in the ongoing development, promotions, and achievement of service milestones in our plant. It means we have run the plant well enough to allow our team members to build their life around it. I also enjoy sharing our accomplishments, knowing that we are achieving a benchmark status that others want to emulate.

• How do you stay connected with and responsive to the needs of your employees and customers?

We don’t directly negotiate pricing or obtain customer sales commitments from our plant level. Our role is to build trust in our products by delivering top quality and reliable delivery. We are intentional in building relationships with our customer contacts. It is difficult for customers to seek a change when we are delivering consistently high performance and operating with consistent communication and transparency. We facilitate communication with employees through multiple channels. Making opportunities for focused listening and unstructured communication is foundational to understanding needs and quickly identifying issues. We are also intentional to provide consistent and predictable communication through a variety of monthly meetings. I’ve found it true that repetitive messaging is necessary to ensure information is delivered and comprehended.

• What are some values that are important to you, and how do they shape your approach to leadership?

I maintain firm personal values and have experienced a few challenges through the years that have deepened my commitment to consistency of character. In brief, a few key values for are to honor my religious values through mv daily actions, maintain physical and mental health and to seek excellence. By living values through action, I can enjoy the everyday work with confidence that the outcome is sure to be positive.

• Can you share a story that illustrates a pivotal moment in your career?

I worked for a different automotive manufacturer for 15 years during which I transitioned away from manufacturing leadership to managing support functions. As the business faced challenges and deteriorated, my job became expendable. I sought a familiar situation in a Japanese automotive company and wanted to get back to working closely with manufacturing. I moved my family from Indiana to Tennessee to work at JTEKT with limited knowledge about the people I would be working with. Initial impressions proved accurate. I found myself in a situation with high-integrity coworkers and a stable employer. I was able to grow with the company over time and to provide a stable home for my family as well.

• What motivates and energizes you to keep pushing forward, especially in challenging times?

I feel like I make a difference by supporting the managers in our company to excel and by providing opportunities for employees to develop and grow their careers. Feeling like I can help, even in indirect ways, is motivating for me. We’ve had significant challenges that can impact people’s lives adversely if not handled with care. Again, I’m fortunate to work with an outstanding group of leaders. Together we’ve had success in finding the best path forward and a positive outcome through difficult circumstances.

• What advice would you give to aspiring leaders or future CEOs in your industry?

I find great value in benchmarking and learning what other people do in similar positions. My view on benchmarking is to target two-thirds innovation and one-third imitation. Copying a formula or practice directly from another business doesn’t really work. It needs to be adjusted to fit to your situation or incorporated as part of a wider set of practices. Conversely, a great idea can be made better with the contributions of other people. I would also reiterate the value of having firm character, which is practiced by maintaining values in adverse situations and following through even when your direction is different from the actions of those around you. Directly following what everyone else is doing is not a path to differentiation or success.

• How do you foster innovation and creativity within the company?

As mentioned previously, decentralization facilitates innovation and creativity. I work to build trust. limit the scope of responsibility, share authority and provide support. People involved closely in the work have great solutions, they only need support and confidence to make use of them. JTEKT provides opportunity for innovation and creativity through several programs (Quality Circles, Engineering projects, Tanzaku/Suggestions) but also allows for creativity in the normal course of our work.

• What strategies do you use to build strong relationships with clients, partners, and stakeholders?

From our plant perspective, our customer base is fixed. Our role is to build partnerships with our customer contacts and corporate stakeholders. We have made an effort to encourage transparency which helps in numerous ways. First, we can get needed help by making our situation clear. We also get valuable input when others see our situation differently than we do. Trust in our processes and practices increases when others see and participate in our work.

• What do you believe sets your company apart from competitors?

Automotive manufacturing is a low-margin and very competitive industry. The product we make is safety-critical. Steering in your vehicle must operate without failure 100% of the time. We set ourselves apart from our competitors with quality first, which is our primary competitive advantage. A lower cost steering system is worthless if there is any hint of a performance issue. We leverage technology to secure quality as well as any other company in our industry. We have many untapped opportunities, but the quality of our products is outstanding and is the basis of our stability going forward as a business.

• How do you measure success for yourself and for the company?

We are part of a large public and for-profit company. Achievement of our annual business plan is our primary scorecard. We establish leading indicators to confirm if we are able to meet the current plan and if we are on track for continued success in coming business cycles Success for us is also judged relevant to our competitors – we need to keep an advantage in quality with competitive pricing in comparison. A more tangible judgment of success for us in Vonore is execution of shorter-term goals. This can include launch of a new product, continuous improvement to reduce waste, or elimination safety or quality risk. As a leadership team, we derive satisfaction in confirming continuity in our business which allows for stable work and reliable income for our employees. In our role as managers, we don’t directly add value to the products. Instead, we find success in influencing others to achieve more than they could have done alone.

• Are there any upcoming projects or initiatives that you’re particularly excited about?

Our plant is the flagship location for JTEKT North America. We are continuously seeking opportunities to expand our business in a profitable way. I’m proud that we have a secure and long-term product base and look forward to confirming new business at some time in the future. I’m very proud of the ongoing and developing systems we have at the local level. We maintain a Quality Circle Program to teach problem solving and encourage innovation, we are continuing to define career development pathways, and we have well-used training programs for most roles in our company- maintenance, Engineering, leadership, and logistics.

• What’s something about the company that you think more people should know?

JTEKT is a global company that contributes to some great initiatives. This is a large company that maintains its most important North American location in Monroe County. We build high-precision steering systems locally using the best available technology. JTEKT seeks to be a strong corporate citizen and considers people as its strongest asset. JTEKT products can be found in many applications – we supplied bearings for a moon rover, have developed an innovative wheelchair in the US, and supply On bearings that are used in competitive cycling to name a few.