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Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Corporation (YMMC), based in Newnan Georgia, broke ground yesterday on a new, advanced, and innovative “SMART” Warehouse, the first-of-its-kind for Yamaha Motor Company worldwide. Using state-of-the-art automated storage and retrieval systems, the new 200,000-square-foot facility will be capable of reducing response time for fulfilling dealer orders for Yamaha WaveRunners, Golf Cars, ATVs, and Side-by-Sides by more than 50 percent.

If you’re trying to picture the SMART Warehouse, imagine a seven-story vending machine. Instead of cokes and chips dropping slowly, it has high-speed automation sending Yamaha team members the parts they need immediately to build recreational vehicles. A better system will make a more efficient team, and ultimately a happier customer. 

“The new Yamaha SMART Warehouse will improve our overall operational efficiency and the velocity of material flow to our factory assembly lines, allowing us to ultimately get product in the hands of our dealers and customers faster,” said Mike Chrzanowski, President and CEO of Yamaha Motor Corporation. “The demand for all our outdoor recreational products produced at this factory continues to exceed supply and we are pleased to bring this new warehouse facility online as soon as possible.” 

SMART is an acronym for Sequenced Material and Reduced Transportation. 

The SMART Warehouse’s automated storage and retrieval system for the medium parts will be capable of retrieving and putting away 240 containers per hour, compared to the current rate of 170 containers per hour. The small part automated system will be capable of handling 2400 containers per hour, in comparison to the current capability of 550 containers per day. The new systems will enable Yamaha to reduce forklifts by 50 percent using automatic conveyors and tuggers to move parts through the SMART center to the factories. 

The Newnan community also stands to benefit from the new Yamaha SMART Warehouse. “The significant investment Yamaha made in this new facility underscores the company’s long-term commitment to our YMCC employees as well as the City of Newnan and Coweta County,” Chrzanowski continued. “This system within the SMART Warehouse will bring higher paid and more skilled jobs into Coweta County, including robotics experts, software developers and systems engineers.”

Designed by SSI SCHAEFER, the new Yamaha SMART Warehouse will also include an observation platform for groups such as students from local schools to learn more about manufacturing and automated processes. 

Yamaha expects to complete the SMART Warehouse in 2024.

Yamaha’s strong product demand and continuous growth means that they are currently hiring. Details are at YamahaJobs.com. Most careers at Yamaha start Contract to Perm.