A materials lesson in Civics

Honda's Indiana-based manufacturing project leader shares insights on meeting all-new product challenges with the launch clock ticking…during COVID.

As a veteran manufacturing engineer, Jill Fuel was an ideal choice as project leader for the production launch of Honda's 2022 Civic Hatchback at Honda's Indiana assembly plant. In eleven generations of Civic, it's the first hatchback variant to be built in the U.S., sharing 85% of its underbody and 99% of its chassis with the sedan. And being an all-new model with many significant design changes, Fuel expected the usual challenges when the program kicked off in 2018.

“This was my first full-model project,” she told SAE Media during the 2022 Great Designs in Steel conference. “It was a big step up for me and for our 100-person team - and then came COVID.” The subsequent temporary suspension of production at the Greensburg, Indiana, facility for several weeks hit the Civic project hard, as it did vehicle programs across the industry.