Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. announced in July 11 the official opening of a state-of-the-art field quality centre (FQC) at the Nissan Technical Centre Europe in Cranfield, Bedfordshire, UK.

Built at a cost of 4.5 million euros (US$6.13 million (i)), the new facility will be Europe’s leader in product quality improvement and will also centralize responsibilities which were previously handled by several functions that were disseminated throughout the continent.

Russell Crossan, general manager of quality for Nissan Europe, said that putting up the FQC at Cranfield enhances their company’s ability to work cross-functionally and quickly develops countermeasures to vehicle quality issues in Europe.

FQC engineers will reproduce the concern experienced by customers in the market through the use of parts which are directly collected from dealerships. They will then lead teams drawn from development, manufacturing and suppliers to name 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 enhance parts quality. It 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 US. This will be done in order to improve Nissan's global standard of quality and contribute to higher customer satisfaction at the optimum level.

Nissan Motor Co. is also recalling more than 140,500 Altima sedans because the air filter can catch fire if it touches a hot object such as cigarette ash.

The Japanese auto maker said that the recall involved 140,582 Altimas from the 2007 model year. Spokesman Tony Pearson said last Wednesday that the company has received reports of four fires but no injuries.

Nissan told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which posted the recall notice last Monday on its Office of Defect Investigation Web site that the filter may ignite if a certified hot object enters into the air-intake system.
Owners were notified in July 3, and dealers are replacing the air filters. The recall is expected to pursue through October 1, and owners with questions may call Nissan at (800) 647-7261.

About Nissan Motor Company and the SHIFT_ principle

Nissan is a Japanese car maker and maker of Nissan Frontier parts whose philosophy revolves on a single word – SHIFT_.

According to the company web site, the SHIFT_ principle implies that the company is not afraid to take the lead or to stretch the boundaries in wider and better directions.