Nissan Plays Catch-up on Quality

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Stung by slumping U.S. quality scores, Nissan Motor Co. will overhaul quality control inside a bid to capture Japanese and Korean rivals boasting better client satisfaction.

The revolutionary strategy concentrates on two locations Nissan acknowledges it trails your competition: perceived quality and soft quality, or customer perception of quality through touch and feel, fit and finished and intuitive controls.

Kazumasa Katoh, senior v . p . in control of global quality, says Nissan will unveil the blueprint in November. In a preview to Automotive News, Katoh said the initiative was spurred by Nissan’s lackluster performance in recent surveys by J.D. Power and Associates.

In Power’s 2011 Initial Quality Study released in June, Nissan slid to No. 24, down from 12 last year and 19 in 2008. In Power’s Vehicle Dependability Study, Nissan was No. 25, unchanged from in 2009 but down from No. 18 in 2008. In both, Nissan remained below that is a average, with lower rankings in comparison to 2008 because rivals upped their games.

“On Nissan’s side, there we were surprised” because of the survey results, Katoh said within the interview a while back. “On the defects side, we certainly have improvement. But for the dissatisfaction we’ve deterioration.”

Quick fixes

As being an initial countermeasure, Nissan will prove to add a two-page quick-reference insert towards the user manuals of 2012 models in the us. The insert will state customers tips on how to cope with some issues that surfaced while in the Power surveys, Katoh said.

Nissan will be needing dealers and customers to sign a document showing they’ve browse the insert.

Other new quality measures will likely be rolled into Nissan’s latest midterm strategic business plan, Power 88. The business enterprise plan, announced in June, went light on quality and on sales targets. It contrasted while using detailed quality goals in the earlier midterm plan.

Katoh says Nissan has achieved the goals of your previous GT 2012 plan or is on the right track to arrive at them by batch that we get. Those targets focused totally on reducing breakdowns and defects.

The brand new challenge, Katoh says, is improving soft-quality problems that are not technically defects but not shut down customers.

For example, some customers complain that Nissan’s hvac controls are extremely convoluted, requiring them to push three buttons. U.S. customers, he said, prefer an easier-to-use dial system for climate control. U.S. customers also react poorly to Nissan’s adoption on the rear wiper control stem that is definitely activated by pushing forward rather than pulling or turning.

Nissan is tackling a few of the weak spots.

Rear wipers, car clocks

Power’s June Initial Quality Study indicated customers were unsatisfied with hesitations inside new seven-speed automatic transmissions in many Infiniti models. Nissan studied the challenge, changed the program and is implementing adjustments in new cars, Katoh said.

“The driveability on the seven-speed transmission was one of several highest scores in dissatisfaction,” Katoh said. “Four days after J.D. Power’s announcement we started the countermeasures.”

Since June, Nissan has pinpointed customer dissatisfaction with areas:
– Tire pressure monitors
– Rear window wiper controls
– Hands-free telephone system
– Ac unit controls
– Instrument panel clocks
– Side mirrors

Katoh blames some customer dissatisfaction on frustration with complicated new technologies, for instance onboard entertainment and tracking devices.

Nissan was at risk of such complaints because brand’s clients are more likely to choose high-tech options than buyers of other makes, he said.

But he concedes the company disregarded one of the keys metrics measured by Power. While Nissan used Power for a key benchmark prior to now, it moved to Consumer Reports below the GT 2012 business strategy and neglected Power’s market feedback.

Under Power 88, Katoh is adding Power’s Initial Quality Study and Vehicle Dependability Study to Consumer Reports as being the three key market indicators for Canada and america. Its goal is always to acquire a top three ranking for Nissan in nonpremium brands in those surveys by 2016.

For Infiniti, Katoh wants a top-notch three finish among all brands because timeframe.

“We are accumulating the lessons learned,” Katoh said. “So what we experienced with defects and dissatisfaction, we are applying to new model development.”