[blackwasp]

Nissan Motor has acknowledged that its International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certification has been withdrawn for its factories in Japan.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that unauthorized persons were involved in the final inspection of vehicles. Production at the company's six plants in Japan was halted after it was discovered that uncertified technicians were using stamps of certified technicians to sign off the final inspections. This was brought to light after Japanese transport ministry officials inspected the six plants.

As a result, the automaker was forced to recall and do final inspections, including steering, braking and acceleration tests on all the cars made at the said plants. This exercise has cost US$ 222 million to the company. Production resumed only last week after Nissan reviewed its inspection system.

Officials at the company have revealed that the ISO certification was lost at the end of last month. Nissan further clarified that this affects only the domestic market. ISO certification is crucial to show that a company meets certain quality and standards. The Japanese manufacturer has said that it will seek to get back the certification.



Source - NHK World

Link to Team-BHP News

[i74js]

Japanese players are known for their lean manufacturing and quality control. Deployment of non-certified staff for final checks and certification is clearly a criminal offence and not business negligence.

In Japan, such practice was unearthed and remedial measures were taken, there are multiple manufacturing facilities of Nissan as well as Renault-Nissan JV across countries and such quality lapses are very well be prevailing / practiced at those locations too !

Amazing !

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

What's really happenning to the Japanese? They are totally coming down from one scandal to the other - and facing a downward spiral that's quite strange for a culture that stood as the epitome of hard work and quality.

Nissan loses ISO, Kobe Steel scandal, Honda's quality issues internationally, Mitsubishi's fuel economy scandal, Toyota's stuck accelerator cover-up - this decade is truly seeing a fall of Japanese brands values.

[hema4saran]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

Nissan Motor has acknowledged that its International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certification has been withdrawn for its factories in Japan.

What kind of business model you are running if you put unauthorized persons for Final Inspection of your vehicles? This is a serious criminal offence as it involves safety of the people driving the car and also for other road users.

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

What's really happenning to the Japanese? They are totally coming down from one scandal to the other - and facing a downward spiral that's quite strange for a culture that stood as the epitome of hard work and quality.

Nissan loses ISO, Kobe Steel scandal, Honda's quality issues internationally, Mitsubishi's fuel economy scandal, Toyota's stuck accelerator cover-up - this decade is truly seeing a fall of Japanese brands values.

+1. You missed out on the TAKATA airbags scandal. Japanese is slowly loosing its forte on quality. Koreans are emerging as the next Japanese in terms of the quality and also they are known for their value for money products. If they are indulging in all these kinds of scandals, I would say this the beginning of downfall of Japanese products.

This is not only applicable to automobiles. Look at the quality of Japanese electronics? They already lost the market position to Koreans in consumer electronics. Not sure how long the Koreans will sustain on the product quality though.

[vigsom]

In my view, Japanese practices are way above the ISO requirements.

However, of late( from 2012), I have seen a huge dip in the reliability of Japanese products and believe that this fall is due to a shift in focus from quality to austerity, and due to changing cultures, which are global issues.

[deep_bang]

When I was a kid, I used to be awed at anything "made in Japan". Even simple small products that were Japanese showed their quality.
Then the motorcycles of the 80's - hero Honda and the likes - oh. They just killed the rest with just sheer reliability.
Toyota and Honda took over the global auto market in the late 90s to now.

So, it's hard for me to even imagine these kind of incidents. There was even a joke about a US company asking the Japanese for a product and that they will accept only 3 defective pieces in a million. The Japs sent them a note along with the shipment that they could not understand the curious request but that they manufactured 3 defective pieces separately and sent it along with the shipment.

Painful to see this.

At a more fundamental level, it sort of shows how a nation can come together make her great ( after Hiroshima/Nagasaki) but also how the next few generations have lost that same attitude because they never had to struggle for anything...

[libranof1987]

I can't find that article now; it talked about how Japanese engineering (the zenith of reliability and process efficiency) has taken a massive hit in the last few years.

Be it the Takata airbag scandal, or the others highlighted by C_D, Japan Inc has been in the news for all the possible wrong reasons.

Here's an interesting article on why corporate Japan needs reform.

But preventing scandals and disasters isn’t the only reason Japan needs to improve corporate governance -- it also needs to boost productivity. With an aging, shrinking population, and with women already having joined the workforce en masse, Japan’s best bet to keep its economy growing is to push its companies to update their management practices. And the best people to force Japanese managers to shape up are investors and independent directors.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/artic...rporate-reform

[GTO]

Japanese build is no longer as precise as it used to be. That's a fact. 5 years back, would anyone have imagined threads on 'Honda City niggles' & 'Toyota Innova niggles'? Would've been seen as blasphemy.

What's worse, they've also lost their innovative streak. Japan has fallen behind in electric cars, autonomous driving etc. In the mass market, how many Japanese manufacturers offer turbocharged direct injection petrols? Or dual clutch ATs? Among diesels, they aren't the power toppers either. The last true innovation from the Japanese that I recollect is the 'Vtec' (of the 90s).

Hyundai has easily caught up with the Japanese in terms of quality & reliability (beats them in some segments too, like hatchbacks).

Originally Posted by libranof1987

I can't find that article now; it talked about how Japanese engineering (the zenith of reliability and process efficiency) has taken a massive hit in the last few years.

This one? How Honda lost its Mojo

[The Rationalist]

As far as cars are concerned, I think Japanese thought they had everything covered and became the proverbial Hare and waited for the tortoises to go past. Then failed to see that fossil fuel vehicles don't have a future.

Toyota had unflinching confidence in their hydrogen cells that they didn't pursue electric strategy very seriously. But I won't write them off yet, they are a very resilient nation and it would be foolish to do so. Toyota has the wherewithal to buy out an electric technology company or even something like Tesla. Japanese would be last to bow out of competition.