Case Study: American Showa achieves subsecond MES response and reduced downtime risk with NetApp HCI

NetApp HCI Keeps the Automotive Factory Lines Rolling for American Showa

American Showa, a U.S. subsidiary of Japan-based Showa Corporation that makes parts for automakers like Honda and Harley Davidson, faced critical production and security challenges: aging infrastructure that was vulnerable to ransomware, costly potential downtime (about $10,000 per minute), and a new MES that couldn’t meet the subsecond response times needed to stop defective parts, leaving the multi‑line project at risk and behind schedule.

The company deployed NetApp HCI with SolidFire Element OS and VMware to consolidate aging hardware into a secure, high‑performance private cloud and to host the MES. The new platform delivered subsecond responses (as low as 0.3s), up to 6× faster application performance, lower maintenance and energy costs (projected ~50% less electricity, ~70% less heat), and reduced downtime risk—turning a fragile, stalled project into a scalable, easier‑to‑manage solution.

American Showa

Sean Henry

Senior Manager