Quality Assurance Tools

Each component from our suppliers represents the end-product of a complex manufacturing process – including planning and development validation, turning design blueprints into prototypes, performance testing to the final mass production. Nissan has created a system called NPQP^*1 for regulating the necessary quality assurance in this entire series of activities. The NPQP requires tests to be carried out on every component from suppliers to ensure the delivery of high quality components from Nissan’s suppliers.

For the NPQP to succeed, we first need to determine each supplier’s ability to provide and respond to feedback. For example, just as you need a driving license to drive a car, we need to check our suppliers’ production sites through a licensing system to ensure that we can build a partnership that will work together. To address this issue, Nissan has developed a system called Automotive-parts Supplier Evaluation Standard (ASES)^*. With ASES, companies are evaluated on a five-level scale, classified as A, B, C, or D, and only those in the upper ranks are accepted as suppliers. Each supplier’s actual work site is checked for 240 evaluation criteria, such as whether there is a system in place for clearly identifying non-defective or defective products, and what kind of systems are in place to prevent problems. ASES evaluations are conducted by specially trained evaluators who have passed rigorous tests. These activities lay the foundation for the delivery of accurate parts.

Alongside NPQP, Nissan employs a system of checks to maintain quality assurance for suppliers. To visualize the delivery and market quality of suppliers with whom we already do business, we use Supplier Score Card. We also use the Supplier Health Check^* system to monitor the health of plants at production sites. Combining these two systems ensures that our suppliers adhere to a system that consistently delivers superior components, and drives them to pursue continuous quality improvement.

^*Supplier Health Check
In a constantly changing environment, the health of a plant may deteriorate and affect quality. Our Supplier Health Check system involves regularly diagnosing the health status of production sites to prevent deterioration in quality. We also implement new quality initiatives in response to changing conditions, including the introduction of remote confirmation from fiscal 2020.

Nissan creates an individual score card for each supplier called Supplier Score Card, which constantly visualizes the quality status of all suppliers and quickly implement improvement cycles. The overall average score of Nissan’s suppliers is improving year after year. Suppliers with the highest-ranking Supplier Score Card are presented with the Nissan Supplier Quality Award.