Automotive News - May 19, 2008 - (Page N16C)

MAY 19, 2008 • N16C NISSAN’S President Kume knew how to fix Nissan, but it took seven more years after he left — and Carlos Ghosn — to get it done. 50 Years in America Y utaka Kume, president of Nissan from 1985 to 1992, knew what it took to fix his struggling company. Nissan desperately needed to energize a plodding bureaucracy, listen to customers and design sexier cars. Kume worked hard to get it all done. And during his tenure, he launched the luxury Infiniti brand in the United States in 1989 and invested in U.S. operations. But in the end, it took the acquisition by Renault in 1999 and a foreigner, Carlos Ghosn, to turn around Nissan. Kume, now retired in Japan, “was a very good executive, very good at motivating people,” says Nissan Executive Vice President Norio Matsumura. “He was the right person to make a customer-oriented philosophy, but not many people in the organization understood it very well.” Kume rose through engineering, eventually taking over r&d in 1983 and becoming president in 1985. In his inaugural address, Kume urged Nissan employees to look “outside” to the customers. Unfortunately for Kume, Japan’s bubble economy burst in 1990. “When Kume took over, he took action against the yen’s appreciation,” says Yoshikazu Hanawa, who became president 11 years later. “At that time, the U.S. market was very important to us. He made sure the YUTAKA KUME Earliest Nissan involvement: 1946 Role: Nissan president, 1985-92 Key influence: Launched Infiniti in uphill battle against Nissan’s bureaucracy U.S. operation was steady and strong.” Kume found Nissan’s culture a huge obstacle. To encourage creativity, he famously reduced the number of hankos (authorizing signatures) that had been needed for any decision and opened the door for younger and more creative minds to hold sway. “I have developed a great respect for this man,” says Mitsuya Goto, former head of Nissan’s international public relations. “He tried to break down the walls between different divisions and between manufacturing and the marketing people. He used to say that he wanted to break down all of the walls.” Toward the end of his tenure, Kume acknowledged that the effort to turn the ship of Nissan’s state would take more years. To be exact, seven more years — and Carlos Ghosn. — Mary Ann Maskery Nissan needed a quality expert to fix the Quest minivan. The automaker hired away from Toyota a former colleague of Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn. N DOUG BETTS Earliest Nissan involvement: 2004 Role: Senior vice president for total customer satisfaction Key influence: Created factory quality programs to restore Nissan’s image after it was stung over glitches in its minivans issan had a crisis on its hands in 2004. The Quest minivan, assembled at the new plant in Canton, Miss., was stung by poor quality reviews from J.D. Power and Associates. To fix the problem, the company hired Doug Betts, a quality expert from Toyota’s truck factory in Princeton, Ind. Betts was given a free hand to identify the root causes of the glitches in Canton. He also was given authority to improve Nissan quality at other plants and dealerships. Betts was a stranger to Nissan, but not to CEO Carlos Ghosn. Betts had been a quality manager under Ghosn when Ghosn ran Michelin North America in Greenville, S.C. At the Canton plant, he installed visual inspection screens to display close-up views of potential trouble areas, such as the roof lines of the Quest. Nissan workers would be able to examine steel and paint finishes microscopically. Betts and his team ordered up brightly lit inspection areas on the vehicle lines to cut down on flaws in vehicle finishes. The plants installed automated touch-screen monitors that required workers to address all problems before a vehicle left assembly. That system would go into Nissan’s plants worldwide. Betts oversaw the creation of vehicle test tracks at the U.S. plants costing $10 million. The identical tracks required all vehicles to undergo a battery of quality checks that Nissan had never monitored. He also identified a new area for improvements: dealership performance. Betts sent manufacturing engineers to Nissan and Infiniti dealerships around the country to help make their shops more efficient and, ideally, more profitable. In 2007, with the dealership effort under way, Betts, now 44, was recruited away to Detroit to head a similar quality drive at financially troubled Chrysler LLC. He had spent barely three years with Nissan but left behind systems to improve Nissan’s factories, its dealer performance and its customer perceptions. — Lindsay Chappell Betts was given a free hand to improve the Quest’s quality.

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Automotive News - May 19, 2008 Ford eyes smaller F-150 cousin Sonic: Mercedes tries to 'extort' store upgrades Chrysler seeks 25% slash in parts prices Dealership managers pushed Chrysler's latest incentive Crain names 4 new VPs Automotive News staffers win Wheel Awards GM will keep cutting sales to fleets GM studies the future of full-sized trucks American Axle plans to expand in Asia At Lexus, the sales laggards are cars VW positions Tiguan as 'GTI' of small SUVs Tata enters race for 100-mpg car Harley Earl was the daddy of auto design Focus will follow Fiesta as a global vehicle Lexus shows how it sweats details Industry slows tide of state CO2 rules Chevy tweaks Cobalt to add fuel economy Be careful; don't do anything dumb Looking ahead to different industry They thought they knew everything Cerberus doesn't belong in autos Dealers as scapegoats Smart, steady growth works best for suppliers Farley's smart to value Ford's heritage Absurd logic in the U.S., cowardice in Germany BMW, Daimler keep a wary eye on U.S. economy James Franey Dealers' approach can lessen pain of staff cuts GM plans to distinguish Opel with image makeover Make or buy? Software can estimate costs for company Honda, Toyota see robots in their futures Bosch aims to lead in hybrids technology King of hearts Clarke aims to get GM back on track in N.A. Fields navigates Ford through 'white water' LaSorda steers Chrysler's global ventures Toyota's Lentz: A crash course in hard times Truck sales fall 13% in April Modine sells Thermacore unit Alcoa to close Mexico plant Toyoda Gosei expands in Mexico Hayes Lemmerz plans to close Georgia factory Japan's sales slide 2% in 1st quarter; output climbs Dealers Hyundai let U.S. direct Sonata freshening After .com and .edu, is it time for .car? Panoramic sunroof of Lincoln MKS boosts Inalfa sales Chrysler hedged gas price bet Smart phones help dealerships retain customers CAW completes pacts with GM, Chrysler early GM, UAW resolve 2 disputes New media buyer for Chrysler Visteon names Stebbins CEO Convertible registrations drop Ferrari: From denial to debut Buildings Porsches in U.S.? Depends whom you ask Toyota will go slow in Tupelo Ghosn is glum on prices, U.S. sales prospects Pischetsrieder has earned a celebratory cigar NHTSA spins VINs, averts meltdown F_RD GU_S WI_ BUI-_KS 50 PEOPLE FOR 50 YEARS Yutaka Katayama Clarence Talley Jim Morton Pete Brock Marvin Runyon Yoshikazu Hanawa Bill Bruce Shin Maki Jack Collins Mitsuya "Scape" Goto Bob Link Soichi Kawazoe Jerry Hirshberg Takashi Ishihara Roy Rogers John Parker Bob Thomas Teruo Uchino Morrie Sage Bob Thomas Nobe Wakatsuki Earl Hesterberg Carlos Ghosn Lee Clow Jerry Benefield Yutaka Kume Doug Betts Tim McCarthy Jed Connelly Atsushi Nakatsuji Dave Hubbard Joe Opre Patrick Pelata Yoshiyuki Kimura Diane Allen Mad Mike Taylor Chuck King Larry Dominique Mark Igo Mitsuhiko Yamashita Shiro Nakamura Tom Mignanelli Dick Roberts William Cushing Emil Hassan Chester Luby Jane Nakagawa Louis Schweitzer MR. K Ray Lemke Richard McCutcheon

Automotive News - May 19, 2008

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