Sustained Quality Improvements
In 1994, Mazda issued the following mission statement with regard to quality: "We will do our work faithfully and unceasingly, so that we may offer products and services that will please our customers."
Since 2005, Mazda has undertaken eight groupwide initiatives, including Mazda Quality activities and A Revolution in Product Development Quality, under the slogan of "Self-initiated change and dramatic quality improvement."
Our automobiles have received numerous awards worldwide, in recognition of their high quality. We will continue to make further improvements so our customers have no concerns or complaints and to make the Mazda brand even more appealing.
Mazda Quality
36th Annual All-Mazda QC Circle Competition
In 1962, Mazda launched a Quality Control Circle Initiative, aimed at offering products that would satisfy its customers. In 1978, we expanded this initiative to encompass quality in products, service and work performance, when we implemented a groupwide effort to improve quality known as Mazda Quality.
In recent years, we have redefined Mazda Quality to mean "efforts to elevate quality in everything that we offer our customers." With this in mind, we have adopted quality engineering and Six Sigma*, which are globally recognized quality management philosophies and techniques. At Mazda, we consider the elevation of the quality of our management, our operating environments and the manner in which each and every one of us thinks and acts—in addition to the way we conduct our business—to be crucial if we are to elevate real quality in everything that we offer our customers.
* A set of techniques for improving processes and reducing deviations in quality, which are referred to as Sigma in statistics.
- Quality Control Circle Performance
| Event Name | Date | Results | Theme | Participating Circles | Departments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| National QC Circle Competition (Okinawa) | December 7-8, 2006 | Prize for Most Impressive Entry | Zero defective parts campaign to prevent glownuts from falling off | Humans Circle | Powertrain Production Department No. 2 |
| - | Eliminating e-coating line ID abnormalities | Singles Circle | Vehicle Production Department No. 2 | ||
| - | Aiming for clean effluent through microorganisms | Aladdin Master Circle | Workshop Engineering Department No. 2 | ||
| Quality Control Circle Kaoru Ishikawa Prize | December 8, 2006 | Quality Control Circle Kaoru Ishikawa Prize for Second Half of FY2006 | Lead time reduction activities; eliminating bearing cover repairs | Ogonbashi Kajiya Circle | Powertrain Production Department No. 1 |
| QC Circle Hiroshima District Overall Competition and Award Ceremony | November 23, 2006 | Regional Governor Gold Prize | Eliminating e-coating line ID abnormalities | Singles Circle | Vehicle Production Department No. 2 |
| Fukuyama City Mayor's Prize | |||||
| (Prize for Most Impressive Entry) | |||||
| National QC Circle Competition | November 15, 2006 | Divisional Manager Gold Prize | Striving for master artisan quality | Ogonbashi Kajiya Circle | Powertrain Production Department No. 1 |
| Yamaguchi District QC Circle West Block Competition and Award Ceremony | October 26, 2006 | Regional Governor Prize | Eliminating delivery delays for customer parts | Spirit Circle | Vehicle Production Department No. 4 |
| National QC Circle Competition (Kobe) | September 21-22, 2006 | Prize for Most Impressive Entry | Strategy to eliminate cutting debris from new cylinder heads | 6M Circle | Prototype Fabrication Department |
| - | Improving diamond tip re-sharpening yield | Nine Circle | Powertrain Engineering Department | ||
| - | Eliminating delivery delays for customer parts | Spirit Circle | Vehicle Production Department No. 4 | ||
| - | Eliminating leaks from oil check plugs | Rescue Circle | Hofu Inspection Department | ||
| QC Circle Hiroshima District Awards by Work Type and Department | September 21, 2006 | Regional Governor Silver Prize | Zero defective parts challenge Sub-theme: preventing glownuts from falling off | Humans Circle | Powertrain Production Department No. 2 |
| Hiroshima City Mayor's Prize | |||||
| (Prize for Most Impressive Entry) | |||||
| Regional Governor Distinguished Prize | Aiming for clean effluent through microorganisms | Aladdin Master Circle | Workshop Engineering Department No. 2 | ||
| QC Circle Chugoku and Shikoku Branch Competition | July 20, 2006 | Branch Manager Prize | Striving for master artisan quality | Ogonbashi Kajiya Circle | Powertrain Production Department No. 1 |
| Grand Prize | |||||
| Branch Manager Prize | Eliminating draw-back mold defects and insufficient material coating thickness | F Spirit Circle | Prototype Fabrication Department | ||
| Gold Prize | Eliminating stoppage of the automated door removal line at Hofu Assembly Plant No. 2 | No Back Circle | Hofu Inspection Department | ||
| - | The Secret of the Birth of Chapotchi - eliminating quality defects through contact welding of electromagnetic contactor for heater control | Fujimura Circle | Workshop Engineering Department No. 2 |
Quality Management Systems
In November 1994, Mazda received ISO 9002 certification for all its business areas except design and R&D. In June 1996, Mazda become the first Japanese automobile manufacturer to receive companywide ISO 9001 certification, which applies more broadly than ISO 9002 and extends from design and development to purchasing, production, sales and after-sales service in automotive manufacturing.
Mazda conducts some 180 annual internal quality audits to maintain and improve the quality management system that it has built on the ISO 9001 foundation.
Auto Bild, a respected German automotive publication, has rated Mazda No. 1 in its 2007 Quality Survey, marking the third consecutive year that the Company has been so honored.
The survey, which began in 2001, evaluates automotive brands according to seven criteria: endurance testing, dealership surveys, a reader survey of 22,795 of its subscribers, a check of the number of product recalls a given brand has had, warranty terms, Technical Monitoring Association (Technischer Uberwachungs-Verein, TUV) reports and complaints about various automotive manufacturers that are submitted to the magazine.
In its 2007 survey, Auto Bild gave Mazda particularly high marks for mentioning the Company's TUV report relating to the Mazda brand's high quality over the long term (i.e., quality verified through safety tests two or three years after purchase, as well as the positive results of the magazine's 100,000-km endurance test).
Procedures for Recalls and Other Countermeasures
As an automaker, Mazda considers it a responsibility to build products as close to perfection as possible. Accordingly, we do everything in our power to bring this about. Despite our best efforts, however, unforeseen defects do arise.
At Mazda, we continually collect quality information about defects, primarily from our dealers, and then make sustained quality improvement efforts to prevent accidents and keep drivers and passengers in our vehicles safe. When a product is recalled—owing to a real or possible failure—to comply with safety regulations, we deal with our customers and relevant governmental regulatory agencies as follows:
- Issue notifications to the relevant authorities, according to the regulations and procedures of each country
- Notify customers via mass mailings and newspaper advertisements, as well as providing explanations at dealerships
- Post recall information on our website
Recalls and Other Measures in FY2006
Mazda experienced increased product recalls in Japan from FY2002 through FY2004, with seven recalls in FY2002, 11 in FY2003 and 14 in FY2004. In FY2005 and 2006, however, we reduced the number of recalls to 11 and 10, respectively, as a result of our sustained quality control efforts in all operations, aimed at avoiding recurrences of defects, as well as preventing them from occurring. Details of our recalls and corrective steps can be found on our website.
Getting Behind the Wheel with Peace of Mind
At Mazda, we offer comprehensive after-sales services to our customers, from purchase to demolition, so they can enjoy the experience of driving their cars with peace of mind, while also maintaining performance in safety and environmental terms, the latter including fuel consumption and exhaust emissions.
We offer proprietary services, starting with high-quality maintenance provided by nationally certified mechanics using genuine, original parts, and a legally mandated package of periodic tune-ups at affordable prices. We also offer useful information to our customers on our after-sales service information website.
Mazda is also carrying out initiatives to improve its aftersales service offerings, as follows:
- Building cars with easy after-sales service, as well as minimizing costs for maintenance and repairs
- Offering the latest diagnostic hardware, specialist tools, service manuals and other relevant information in a timely manner to facilitate reliable maintenance and repair work at our service centers by providing consultations by service staff
- Leveraging quality market data from our after-sales service channels to improve our repair technologies and build better cars, and the data from our worldwide service centers as technical information
- Offering training and education for our service staff to improve their skills in maintenance and dealing with customers
At Mazda, we have rededicated ourselves to offering a full range of after-sales services, so every customer who buys a Mazda automobile will have a highly satisfactory experience.
Technical Training for Service Staff
We hold training seminars for the service staff at Mazda dealerships whenever a new model goes on sale, dealing mainly with new features and technologies.
Beginning in FY2005, we added safety training to our standard training course to improve the information pertaining to safety devices as part of the new model training. This additional training session gives our mechanics a greater understanding of the features, operations and maintenance aspects of these safety devices. In FY2006, Mazda conducted six new model training seminars and three safety training seminars.
Also in FY2006, Mazda conducted a top-to-bottom review of its standard training seminar curriculum to ensure that service personnel learn the advanced maintenance technologies that are increasingly essential to the excellent performance of our products, which have become ever-more sophisticated.
Mazda Training Centers
Mazda Training Center Taibi
Mazda has built training centers for service personnel in Taibi, Hiroshima Prefecture, and in the city of Yokohama. These centers have extensive facilities and diverse programs tailored to different degrees of skill development to inspire service personnel to improve their knowledge and technical skills.
Mazda's Training Center Taibi conducts new technology training for public service organizations (independent mechanics).
Offering Service Manuals for Tune-Ups and Maintenance
Since April 2005, Mazda has been distributing its service manuals in digital form under Mazda Electronic Service Information (MESI) to facilitate prompt, reliable delivery of maintenance information to Mazda dealerships. The information is provided online to dealers in Japan and Europe and on CD elsewhere.
Mazda will extend MESI in response to feedback from dealerships to provide improved services to its customers.
Developing Service Diagnostic Devices for Mazda Automobiles
Mazda has developed proprietary service diagnostic devices for dealerships so they can provide proper maintenance of the complex, sophisticated electronic control systems used throughout the Company's automobiles.
We rolled out the Mazda Modular Diagnostic System (M-MDS) in December 2005 to replace the Worldwide Diagnostic System (WDS) that had been the standard. The M-MDS development effort involved examining feedback from dealerships around the world, and included features that would allow efficient diagnoses of the overall primary electronic control systems used in customers' vehicles. M-MDS was the most strongly demanded new feature requested. We supplied M-MDS to all dealerships in Japan in fiscal 2006, and to almost all of our dealers outside Japan.
We will continue extending the M-MDS feature in response to dealer feedback to enable our customers to receive better service.
Specialized Tools Aimed at Ensuring Quality of Service
To ensure reliable and fast service at facilities worldwide, we offer global dealerships specialty tools developed specifically for after-sales service.
We take into account input from dealers when developing more user-friendly specialty tools to provide higher levels of service to customers.
Service Skills Competition
43rd Annual Mazda All-Japan Service Skills Competition
Since 1963, Mazda has hosted an annual All-Japan Service Skills Competition, aimed at improving the customer service and mechanic skills of the personnel who work in our dealerships in Japan, as well as instilling a sense of professionalism. In recent years, we have extended the competitions to encompass competitors from around the world.
Mazda hosted its second Global Service Engineering Contest on August 2, 2006, at which representatives from 13 countries came to Hiroshima.
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