Kansas Through the Eyes of Its Engineers
Panasonic Energy's Challenge, Seen from the Factory Floor
In July 2025, Panasonic Energy opened its Kansas Factory in the United States to manufacture cylindrical lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) in the North American market. As the company expands its automotive battery business across Japan and North America to meet growing customer demand driven by the electrification of mobility, the Kansas Factory is set to play a vital role in this strategy as Panasonic Energy's second production site in North America, following the Nevada Factory. Mass production of 2170 cells is now underway, and the factory aims to establish an annual production capacity of approximately 32 GWh in the future. This article follows two engineers at the heart of the operation and explores the challenges they take on each day.
Helping Shape the Future of Society: A Journey Filled with Purpose
Shota Ikeda
Shota Ikeda joined SANYO Electric, now Panasonic Energy, in 2006. He began his career as a nickel-cadmium battery engineer at the Sumoto Factory on Awaji Island, where his responsibilities ranged from electrode plate development to overall battery design. He later worked on the laser-welding process for lithium-ion battery can bottoms at the Moriguchi Factory in Osaka. In 2017, he was assigned to the Nevada Factory to deploy the technology overseas. He was subsequently selected as a member of the team responsible for launching the Kansas Factory and has served as Senior General Manager of its Engineering Division since 2024.
How Leading by Example Helped Transform the Team
"I never imagined how difficult it would be to communicate about highly technical matters across language and cultural barriers until I was assigned to the Nevada Factory. But as I worked side by side with local colleagues to resolve one issue after another, those barriers gradually disappeared. Before long, we had built a level of mutual understanding that I never thought possible."
When Ikeda was assigned to the Nevada Factory, Panasonic Energy's first factory in North America, he committed himself to leading by example. Following the teachings of Panasonic founder, Konosuke Matsushita, he sought to step forward, take the lead, and set an example through his own actions. However, this did not mean acting alone. Whenever he identified an issue, he made a point of working with local colleagues to find a solution. Even when his own experience enabled him to see the answer immediately, he put himself in the shoes of less-experienced colleagues and carefully guided them through the improvement process.
Over time, people began to seek him out, thinking, "Perhaps he can help me solve this problem. At the very least, he will work through it with me." Even without perfect English, he could sense that the people he spoke with were making every effort to understand him. The more earnestly he communicated with them, the more he felt that their discussions were moving forward.
Even so, the path to getting the Nevada Factory fully on track was marked by one challenge after another. The scale and speed required were unlike anything Ikeda had experienced before, and problems arose repeatedly. The factory had introduced a range of advanced equipment and technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI). Yet, Panasonic Energy's manufacturing has long depended on engineers' ability to respond precisely to subtle changes in operating conditions, such as temperature and humidity. This expertise has underpinned the company's high standards of quality, safety, and productivity. However, the traditional approach of passing on such experience-based knowledge by having employees observe skilled colleagues at close range and learn their techniques did not translate readily across cultures.
"I realized that to get factory operations on track outside Japan, we had to open up the black box of tacit knowledge: the unspoken understanding and experience that people in Japan often rely on. Every action has a reason behind it. I focused on making those reasons visible and standardizing them. My priority was to enable anyone to quickly understand the purpose of a task and the reasoning behind an improvement and then act without hesitation. I tried to put every piece of knowledge and information in my head into writing."
Many people in North America tend to think positively and logically. Once they understood the rationale behind the meticulous systems and processes of Japanese manufacturing, operations began to flow more smoothly. A stronger sense of professional ownership also began to emerge. Team members started actively proposing ideas of their own, such as, "Could we improve productivity by changing the production process this way?" When a problem occurred with equipment under their responsibility, they took charge of documenting the troubleshooting process and worked to prevent the issue from recurring.
Becoming a Factory Leader with a Broader Business Perspective
To put his experience in Nevada to work, Ikeda was appointed Senior General Manager at the Kansas Factory, overseeing both Process Engineering, which manages production technologies, and Manufacturing Engineering, which manages equipment. His responsibilities span production-line launches, equipment installation, productivity improvements, defect reduction, the development of future factory leaders, and the formulation of his organization's vision. To ensure a smooth launch, he arranged for team members who would work at the Kansas Factory to spend a full year training at the Nevada Factory, beginning one year before the factory opened.
"I believe our Mission, Vision, and Will strengthen the bonds among people from diverse backgrounds. There is a widely shared conviction that we must change the course of the world. That gives us a common sense of purpose: 'Let's build outstanding batteries together and make that change happen.' Collaboration between Nevada and Kansas has also grown stronger, and I am excited about the synergies we can create going forward."
Drawing on the lessons learned in Nevada, the team began preparing to launch the Kansas Factory. Because the site had originally been an undeveloped plot of land, essential infrastructure, including electricity and water, had to be built from the ground up. This was a first for Ikeda as well. Anticipating potential challenges based on his experience in Nevada, he set out to provide a clear path forward. On a single sheet of paper, he laid out the factory's concept, the role it should play in society, and its vision, then distributed it to every member of the team.
"My personal vision is to contribute not only to engineering, but to every aspect of the factory's operations. To do that, I need to keep learning every day so that I can run the factory from a management perspective. In the 19 years since I joined the company, I have continued to take on challenges that contribute to social transformation. It has been a journey filled with purpose. My vision is to deliver our lithium-ion batteries for automotive use from Kansas, at the heart of North America, to customers across the continent and to lead the transformation from here."
The boxes and battery-shaped display at the factory entrance contain batteries bearing messages written by employees to commemorate the factory's completion.
Building a Strong Team Where Diverse Talents Shine
Noritaka Hayashi
Noritaka Hayashi joined the company in 2009. After spending approximately three years in an engineering role within manufacturing operations, he went on to support the development of cathode active materials and work on the development of new current collectors and their introduction into factory production. Drawing on his experience in areas such as process validation for current collector development, he later moved into process engineering. He now conducts process validation for the introduction of new battery models at production sites, including the Nevada Factory and Kansas Factory.
Challenges Have Made Us Stronger as a Team
Every day at the Kansas Factory brings a new challenge. Establishing stable production is only part of the task. The very nature of factory operations is also undergoing a major transformation, from building a new organization of people with diverse backgrounds and talents to creating a smart factory.
"What I want to achieve at this factory is the automation of electrode production operations. Producing electrodes, which are critical to lithium-ion battery performance, involves many highly technical processes. Without people with specialized expertise, it is difficult to maintain high quality. I want to harness technology to automate a wide range of tasks and take our productivity to the next level."
As Technical Manager of the Electrode Team within Cell Process Engineering (CPE), Hayashi is responsible for electrode-related technologies used in lithium-ion batteries. His role includes launching production lines, improving manufacturing processes, coordinating with teams in Japan, setting the direction for his team, and training local colleagues. He is currently working to strengthen the production system by introducing new equipment and manufacturing methods, with the goal of establishing a production system capable of operating at unprecedented speeds.
"Everything we are building is new, and we have to bring it online on an exceptionally tight timeline. Every day is incredibly challenging and exciting. We discuss in advance with our local colleagues how we will approach each stage and prepare thoroughly before moving forward. As a result, many of the issues that arise are within the range of what we anticipated. Even so, unexpected problems inevitably occur."
Many of the local team members completed a year of training at the Nevada Factory, where they ran through various simulations for launching the production lines. In practice, however, just as the team overcomes one challenge after another and appears ready to get operations on track, a new problem emerges. When this happens repeatedly, motivation can begin to fall. Hayashi encourages the team, strengthens collaboration across departments, and guides everyone toward a solution.
"Rebuilding motivation once it has fallen is never easy. But when we face a difficult situation together, I know we can overcome it. Sharing that moment of success with my colleagues is one of the greatest rewards of this work. Very few people have the opportunity to build a factory from the ground up. As we bring related departments together and work through each problem and challenge, I can truly feel the trust and unity of the entire team growing stronger."
Different Perspectives Open the Door to New Ideas
Hayashi places great value on the diversity created by the wide range of talent within the local team and on learning as much as he can from its members. While he shares the essential technical knowledge they need, he does not impose Japanese manufacturing philosophies or business practices. Instead, he makes a conscious effort to respect the ideas and perspectives of his local colleagues.
"I have worked at Panasonic Energy for many years and spent much of that time involved in electrode-related work. That experience may have narrowed my perspective in some ways. When I moved to the United States, what I looked forward to most was meeting people from diverse backgrounds, learning from their different perspectives, and using those experiences to grow. That is why I always approach my work with a learner's mindset. When we hit a major obstacle while preparing to launch the factory, the local team proposed ideas that had never occurred to me and helped us achieve results. Every day brings new insights that challenge my conventional thinking and open my mind to new possibilities."
Panels introducing employees are displayed along the corridors of the Kansas Factory.
Hayashi sees it as a vital part of his role to bring people with widely differing backgrounds and values together around a shared goal. He also believes that building this team will be highly significant for his own future.
"What defines Panasonic Energy for me is that it gives people opportunities to take on all kinds of challenges, regardless of age or career background. When you seize those opportunities, you can encounter a wealth of different ideas, both in Japan and overseas, and gain an extraordinary range of experience. I want to foster that same spirit of challenge within this team. My goal is to build a strong team that enjoys moving forward together and then pass that spirit on to the next generation."
The Kansas Factory occupies an expansive site of approximately 1.2 million square meters. Some of its corridors extend up to 700 meters in a straight line.
2026-10-26
