Subaru will soon get a boost in production, particularly for Southeast Asian market units. This is in large part to the opening of the new Tan Chong Subaru Automotive (Thailand) Limited (TCSAT) plant just outside of Bangkok. Motor Image Pilipinas, the distributor of Subaru in the Philippines, invited members of the media to the formal opening of Subaru’s assembly plant in Thailand. The Subaru assembly plant is owned in large part, by Motor Image’s parent company, Tan Chong International Limited (TCIL), which holds a 74.9 percent stake and Japan’s Subaru Corporation which holds the remaining 25.1 percent.  The facility, TCSAT Limited, is located in Bangkok’s Ladkrabang Industrial Estate. The more than 100,000 square meter facility was built with an initial investment of 5B Baht and targets to manufacture and meet the demand for Subaru vehicles in Southeast Asia. Strategically located, it’s just 30-km outside Bangkok City, 10-km from Suvarnabhumi Airport, and 100-km away from Laem Chabang Port.  The plant is Subaru’s third facility, and will augment production from the Japan and Indiana (USA) plants.  TCSAT will assemble completely knocked-down (CKD) units, initially starting off with the fifth-generation Subaru Forester, which is set to be shipped within Thailand and to Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia. Members of the Philippine media were treated to a plant tour, where we got to see everything from where the separate parts were being welded together by robots to form all the panels of the Forester. Parts like the chassis, doors, roof, and more were assembled into modules, then head off to the paint shop for the dip wash, primer and interior painting, which is done by hand. The final exterior painting is done by robots. All crucial processes are automated to ensure superior quality, zero defects and consistency. Later on in the production line, the body is mated to the power train, fluids are put in, tires bolted on and the interior installed. It’s after this where the final body work is inspected. If any imperfections are spotted, the unit is pulled out to be fixed, before running through the quality check again. Those without paint or body problems will proceed to a leak test under high pressure water sprayers. If it passes this stage, it’s ready to be shipped abroad to various markets. To ensure the quality of the vehicles that are assembled at TCSAT, a team of Japanese staff are there to make sure that that production standards and processes meet the same stringent levels as in Japan.  They even regularly pull out a completed vehicle at random to compare it to an identical reference vehicle brought in from Japan. The facility also has a test track, specially built to assess the condition of every car before they leave the factory. The robust quality control procedures ensure that every car produced at TCSAT is safe, comfortable and reliable. From left: Akira Teranashi; Jason Shang; Philip Lu; Glenn Tan, Deputy Chairman and Managing Director of TCIL; Tomohiro Ishitobi; and Masayuki Kaneko at the TCSAT facility. “This is truly a milestone for us, to be able to build Subaru cars ourselves in Thailand. From distribution, dealerships and aftersales, we are now also manufacturing Subaru cars. This strategic long- term move will allow us to better manage our supply chain, widen our product lineup, localize better and be less dependent on supply from Japan. We will be better able to respond and meet consumer demand for Subaru vehicles in the region, and perhaps even beyond the region in future,” said Glenn Tan, Deputy Chairman and Managing Director of TCIL. Text by Neil Pagulayan. Photos by Neil Pagulayan and Motor Image.