Quality management tool would have prevented Nissan car recall

ERP vendor IFS claims its technology would have kept cars on the road

'Lean manufacturing' has back-fired on the car industry

Car manufacturer Nissan could have avoided its recall of 2.1 million cars earlier this week if it had invested in a well integrated quality management software solution – at least that's the view of ERP vendor IFS.

A similar recall was initiated by BMW earlier this month, and Toyota back in January, and all were arguably the result of what is often described as 'lean principle' working.

This principle, which has been adopted throughout the car industry over the past few years, stipulates that stock be reduced as far as possible. This means that individual parts are used across multiple brands and models, which means a fault in any one part can have far-reaching implications.

A quality management module that is well integrated into the supply chain would mitigate this problem by detecting faulty parts before they are widely deployed, according to IFS. A module of this sort would cost between about £100,000 and £400,000, according to how many people need access to it, the vendor said.

The module should be fully integrated with every element of the supply chain, including design, engineering, management and service.

Antony Bourne, global industry director for supply chain at IFS, said: "If anybody working from within any section of the supply chain spots a problem with a particular part they can flag this up and it will be picked up by others. This would mean faulty products would not make it to market.

"The recent problems experienced by car manufacturers are the result of extra pressure to reduce costs, stock and inventory as the industry copes with reduced demand," Bourne added.