Nissan opens first field quality and training centre in India

Nissan Motor India on Friday inaugurated its first field quality centre and training facility in the country at its manufacturing plant at Oragadam, near here. Following the establishment of the field quality centre (FQC), the company, a subsidiary of Japan’s Nissan Motor Company, hopes to achieve a better understanding of customer needs so it can build vehicles that garner a higher level of customer satisfaction. At present, Nissan sells models such as the X-Trail, Teana and Micra in India.

This is the seventh such facility set up by the Japanese auto major globally, which will help achieve its “Fix it right the first time” mantra.

Nissan Motor India Managing Director and Chief Executive Kiminobu Tokuyama said: “At Nissan, quality is a key attribute in establishing brand value. The training centre will provide product, process and soft skill training for dealership staff, which will help us better focus on ensuring a quality ownership experience for our customers.”

As part of Nissan Motor’s quality control initiatives, every new Nissan dealer will undergo a training programme before commencing operations. Nissan India was set up in 2005. In February 2008, Nissan, together with global partner Renault of France, inked an MoU with the Tamil Nadu government to set up a 400,000 units per annum plant at Oragadam at a committed investment of Rs 4,500 crore over seven years.

The Oragadam plant was inaugurated on March 17 this year and the first car — Micra — rolled out from the plant in July. The company began exports of the Micra in October, with the long-term goal of selling the compact car in over 100 markets. Nissan has 20 dealers in the country at present and plans to have over 100 by 2013.

After the success of the petrol variant of the Micra, Nissan started bookings for the diesel variant earlier this week. The diesel Micra is planned for a pre-Christmas launch. The company has so far sold around 4,500 petrol-variant Micra cars.