Nissan opens new European field quality center

Nissan Motor Company Ltd. on July 11 announced the official opening of a state-of-the-art field quality center (FQC) at the Nissan Technical Center Europe located in Cranfield, Bedfordshire, in the United Kingdom.

The new facility, which was built at a cost of 4.5 million euros (US$6.13 million), will play a leading role for product quality improvement in Europe, and also centralize responsibilities previously handled by several functions dispersed throughout the continent.

"Establishing the FQC here at Cranfield enhances our ability to work cross-functionally and quickly develop countermeasures to vehicle quality issues in Europe," said Russell Crossan, general manager of quality for Nissan Europe.

Using parts collected directly from dealerships, FQC engineers will reproduce the concern experienced by customers in the market. They will then lead teams drawn from development, manufacturing and suppliers to identify the root causes and develop "right first time" countermeasures.

The center will have a total staff of 46, as well as guest engineers from supplier partners who will work with the FQC to improve parts quality.

The new center will work closely with Nissan's new state-of-the-art field quality center which opened last week in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, as well as Nissan's two FQC facilities in the U.S., in order to enhance Nissan's global standard of quality and ultimately contribute to higher customer satisfaction.