Honda plant adds parts center.(NEWS)(Honda Motor Company Ltd.)

Byline: Ralph Kisiel

Honda Motor Co. has added its first North American on-site parts consolidation center to its new assembly plant here. The goal: Reduce the cost of parts shipping and handling.

The center will become particularly important when the automaker ends Honda Civic production in early 2009 at its East Liberty Auto Plant in Ohio.

Many of Honda's suppliers in Ohio then will have to ship their parts farther to this new $550 million assembly plant in southeastern Indiana, roughly midway between Indianapolis and Cincinnati.

"That's one of the reasons we attached the consolidation center, said Rick Schostek, vice president of Honda …