We gain the trust of our customers by providing products and services of high quality to our customers from various angles so as to be able to contribute to the solving of social issues toward the creation of a prosperous society.

Group-wide Quality Assurance System

Isuzu builds the QA system illustrated below with the aim of fully meeting its social and quality responsibilities as a manufacturer. Led by the Quality Assurance Division, all companies of the Isuzu Group work together to enhance our product quality. The Senior Division Executive of Quality Assurance Division chairs a monthly meeting of the Quality Assurance & Customer Satisfaction Improvement Committee (Quality Assurance & CS Committee), where the senior management of all divisions discuss and share information on quality-related facts and CS improvement so that the Committee can monitor how the divisions operate their quality management structures. The outcomes are shared to drive forward the quality assurance activities of the business divisions.

Improving Quality within Isuzu Group

By giving priority to quality in everything, we create products that fully satisfy our customers and contribute to society, aiming to grow as a corporate group rich in humanity. To ensure the quality of Isuzu’s products and services, it is important that we work carefully in each of the different stages of the value chain surrounding our products and services. We build readiness to assure quality in each of the different stages, including development, procurement, manufacturing and market launch, and manage the process accordingly. Through this, Isuzu ensures that its products and services fully satisfy customers. In the event that a customer has trouble with an Isuzu vehicle, we are organizationally ready to provide service and service parts to facilitate a quick recovery. Isuzu always seeks to ensure that customers can feel secure about using Isuzu’s products every day, and is committed to building long-term relationships of trust with customers.
Isuzu’s quality policy is to create and deliver products and services that satisfy its customers. Staying true to this policy, all companies in the Isuzu Group work together in quality improvement activities. This is based on our belief that we can deliver better products and services to our customers by improving the quality of business operations of all divisions, including back-office divisions. More specifically, we communicate our quality policy and share quality manuals throughout the Isuzu Group in an effort to improve the quality of our daily business operations.

Quality Management Structure (ISO 9001 and IATF 16949 certified)

All Isuzu business sites have earned ISO 9001:2015 certification, an international standard of quality management. Moreover, components to be delivered to General Motors Company have obtained IATF 16949:2016 certification, the standard for the automobile sector. Isuzu has been striving to enhance its operational quality using such measures.

Quality Activity Initiative Themes

The Isuzu Group has identified and is working on the following issues in an effort to promote business activities aimed at improving quality in all of its business areas.

1. Product Quality Improvement
2. Service Quality Improvement
3. Operation Quality Improvement

Product Quality Improvement

Basic Approach behind Product Quality Improvement

Isuzu's mission represents our determination to go beyond our previous corporate philosophy*. It emphasizes transport solutions for all goods and people, creating value that enriches society, while addressing pressing issues such as the need to attain carbon neutrality and adapt to a changing logistics landscape. To achieve this, a number of activities have been undertaken to improve quality at every stage from product development and manufacturing to market operation.

Initiatives at the Development Stage

Our product development philosophy is to gain the trust of every person. This is supported by the basic concept of S.E.E. Technology, where S.E.E. stands for the three important issues of Safety, Economy, and the Environment. To acquire the high quality needed to underpin this philosophy, we set quality gates (milestones) at different stages in product development where the quality and the maturity of the products are confirmed so that product development can proceed. During the development stages below, Isuzu focuses on failures and preventing the recurrence of failures. Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA*) and other methods are used to enhance reliability and durability.

Safety Technologies

The quest for even higher safety in trucks—which have close ties to people and society—is a priority theme that does not change with the times. This is especially so for heavy- and medium-duty trucks, which have high total vehicle weights, as the damage caused is even larger. Therefore, the latest and most advanced responses are always required. In addition, trucks transport not only people, but also important goods. For example, even if an accident can be avoided by emergency braking when there is imminent danger, besides injury to people, there is still a high risk of causing damage to important goods such as when goods fall over. At Isuzu, we install necessary safety features to prevent accidents and reduce damage according to the vehicle type.

Initiatives at the Procurement Stage

Many of the parts and other items used in Isuzu’s products are purchased from external business partners. When quality problems occur in purchased products, significant inconvenience is placed on customers using our products. While building relationships of trust with suppliers, Isuzu has established a quality management structure for products purchased from these suppliers to ensure a stable supply of good products to its plants. Going forward, we will continue to undertake quality improvement activities with our business partners and strive toward strengthening our supply chain.

In Japan, we have a total of 680 business partners, about 90% of which are located in Japan. In terms of transaction amount, the procurement of vehicle and engine parts makes up about 80% of the total. To monitor the delivery quality and market quality of our business partners, we calculate a monthly evaluation score based on factors such as the number of defect occurrences, the number of defects, and the severity of defects. Business partners whose evaluation scores and defect counts do not meet a certain standard are selected to be companies subject to management, and business partners whose evaluation scores meet a certain threshold but have defect counts exceeding a specific limit are selected as companies subject to observation, indicating a need for improvement in delivery quality. In FY2023, approximately 90% of our business partners satisfied the delivery quality evaluation score requirements. While no companies were selected as companies subject to management, some were chosen for observation, and improvement activities were carried out for these business partners in an effort to elevate quality. In addition, we conduct an on-site audit for some business partners at the time of the direct supply contract renewal assessment, implemented every three years, to verify their quality management structure operations. With new business partners, we conduct an on-site audit before starting our business relationship with them and evaluate the effectiveness of their quality management structures to see if they meet requirements for trading with us.
We are also making progress with creating a BCP/BCM system and carrying out measures to reconfirm our supply chain and minimize the time it takes to restart operations in the event of an emergency. By improving the speed of our initial response and cooperating with our business partners, we are working to facilitate rapid recovery and creating a system that minimizes the impact on Isuzu product sales.

Initiatives at the Manufacturing Stage

Isuzu’s customers require products of different specifications, and therefore Isuzu’s products are available in many different variations. This is a characteristic of Isuzu. Isuzu is constantly committed to the development of human resources and improvement of production systems as it seeks to improve the quality of its diverse products to the same, high level and make them globally available.
Isuzu systematizes and integrates its quality-first concept, methods and manufacturing knowhow into ISUZU MONOZUKURI (IM). IM is a production method implemented in every Isuzu manufacturing plant in Japan and overseas countries. At heart, its concept is to ensure that Isuzu-badged vehicles can be manufactured based on a uniform concept of workmanship and quality control, in any plant around the world. To homogenize variation at a high level based on IM, production line managers gather each morning before starting work and have a quality audit meeting, through which we share information centering on quality and ensure that our production lines are always adaptable to changes.
Further, with IM-based efforts to deliver quality assurance on a global scale, Isuzu endeavors to become a company trusted by every customer who needs Isuzu’s commercial vehicles and diesel engines. In addition to classroom and practical training on the fundamentals of IM, the employees involved in production are provided with applied practical training so they can apply the knowledge and skills acquired in basic training on the job site and make improvements according to the situation.

Number of Employees Who Received the Training in FY2023

There were 995 participants in FY2023, with an average activity rate of 21 hours per participant (2-5 days/person).

(Reference)
Core skills training: Group training on IM concepts and TPM^* is provided remotely.
Technical skills training: Approximately 30 types of practical skills training are delivered, including tightening training and engine assembly training.

Initiatives for Higher Field Quality

Isuzu strives to improve its field quality by paying close attention to customer opinions and analyzing and feeding them back to all quality-related processes to ensure that issues are addressed and improvements are made.

Initiatives toward Improved Field Quality

Taking advantage of the FQ management structure*, Isuzu collects quality information from markets then implements cause investigations and responds to issues promptly and accurately.
Isuzu Customer Center (Japan) gathers customer opinions, warranty repair records, and improvement requests from sales dealers as field quality information to direct to our quality improvements. The collected information is used in our efforts to comply with regulations from various countries including domestic safety regulations for road vehicles, and to respond to them even more quickly.
We also share information regarding the status of our response to field quality information and quality activities with top management and all employees on a monthly basis through our Quality Improvement Newsletter. Our Quality Improvement Newsletter features and shares quality activities such as the status of field quality improvement activities, the status of verification activities for initial quality of newly-launched vehicles in Japan, and the status of ISO/IATF activities. Through this, we seek to improve quality awareness throughout the entire Company

Initiatives for Recall Campaigns

The aim of the recall system is to prevent defective vehicles from causing accidents and to ensure the safety and assets of our customers and drivers. Based on an understanding of the aim and its philosophy, Isuzu conducts recalls as required by the Road Transport Vehicle Act, improvement measures, and service campaigns in an effort to ensure smooth operation of our customers’ vehicles. We are always prepared to take prompt and appropriate actions from the customer’s perspective, taking into consideration the diversification of users’ circumstances.

• Recalls: Where a vehicle may not be able to meet safety regulations for road transport vehicles (regulations to ensure vehicle safety or prevent pollution) due to a problem in design or the manufacturing process, the vehicle may be repaired free of charge upon notification to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. This is referred to as a recall.
• Improvement measures: Where a vehicle cannot be left as is for safety reasons or for the prevention of pollution even though it complies with safety regulations, the system allows the vehicle to be repaired free of charge upon notification to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, as long as the problem is attributable to design or the manufacturing process.
• Service campaigns: A service campaign allows a vehicle to which neither recall nor improvement measures applies to be repaired free of charge upon notification to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, for the purpose of improving its merchantability and quality.

Number of recalls and other notifications

(Reference) UD Truck Recalls in FY2023: 5

Service Quality Improvement

Basic Approach behind Service Quality Improvement

Isuzu's mission represents our determination to go beyond our previous corporate philosophy*. It emphasizes transport solutions for all goods and people, creating value that enriches society, while addressing pressing issues such as the need to attain carbon neutrality and adapt to a changing logistics landscape.
Consequently, it is important to ensure that our customers’ vehicles keep working well and, if they don’t, are quickly restored to working order. Isuzu provides standardized support both in Japan and overseas as part of its commitment to offering high-quality service. During the current COVID-19 pandemic, Isuzu’s trucks have played an important role in supporting the availability of medical supplies and daily commodities. We are aware of Isuzu’s mission and social responsibility to, in all circumstances, unfailingly deliver the vehicles customers need and help them to keep running satisfactorily by providing after-sales service without delay.

Thorough Service System

Isuzu is currently fully committed to post-delivery customer support.
Our customers always expect high quality. Isuzu pursues the establishment of high-quality, integrated service systems both domestically and internationally.

Japan

Overseas

Parts Supply System

Isuzu delivers service parts in a timely and accurate manner to any place, leveraging its network of mother parts center (Tochigi, Japan) and regional parts centers in Japan and overseas. In addition, Isuzu Logistics Global Center commenced operations in April 2020. This is a state-of-the-art distribution warehouse designed to meet growing demand overseas for service parts. The new facility reinforces our readiness to supply parts to customers overseas. Moreover, the introduction of latest technologies has advanced the automation of in-warehouse work. Handling of heavy materials has been reduced in our in-warehouse work, which provides a better working environment for women and even elderly workers.

Japan

Seven regional parts centers ship the service parts to the service parts sites of Isuzu dealers.

Isuzu’s extensive service parts supply network includes regional parts centers in the Middle and Near East, North Africa, North and Central America, Europe, and the ASEAN and Oceania regions.

Improvement of Maintenance Engineering

Isuzu World Service Skills Competition (I-1GP)

The Isuzu World Service Skills Competition (I-1GP) gathers teams of servicing staff and engineers from different countries and regions across the world to compete in a skills and knowledge competition to find the world’s best engineers. This is a global competition that aims to improve individuals’ technical skills and the responsiveness of the engineers in Isuzu Group dealerships engineers (team technical skills). This international and interregional competition in skills and knowledge is aimed at improving service quality in their respective home fields so that Isuzu customers can enjoy the greatest satisfaction anytime, anywhere. The competition has been held since 2006. Considering the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing uncertain global situation in FY2023, it was concluded that it would be difficult to hold the competition, which involves inviting the finalists of the preliminary rounds to Japan to participate in the final round. Consequently, an online service skills contest e-competition was held for only the third time. The CV Division held a competition on November 2-4, 2022.
Usually, contestants are divided into Categories A and B depending on the level of gas emission regulations applicable to the vehicles they sell. However, as in FY2021, for the FY2022 I-1GP, rather than being divided into categories, contestants competed in technical knowledge and virtual diagnosis of failure in their respective countries online, the same as last year. This time, in addition to the Commercial Vehicle (CV) category, the Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) category made its debut in the e-competition. A total of 37 countries participated in the CV category and 22 countries in the LCV category, working to tackle common global challenges.

National Service/Parts Skill Competition

Isuzu holds an annual competition for workers to compete in the skills they have accumulated through their everyday work. The annual competition is aimed at improving the skills of service staff and engineers, promoting training, increasing customer satisfaction and motivating and strengthening ties among the staff members engaging in Isuzu’s service staff and engineers.
Due to the spread of COVID-19, the event had been canceled since its last occurrence in 2019. However, in 2022, the competition was held again after a gap of three years, with the slogan "Faster, Hotter, More Accurate! Aim to be Isuzu's Number One!!" Participants competed in both individual and group events find the top staff members in the country.

Training Employees of Isuzu Dealers

We offer training programs to the service staff and engineers that support the transport needs of our customers so they can brush up on their service operations and maintenance engineering skills and learn more advanced repair techniques.
In addition to conventional group training at the Isuzu Monozukuri Service Training Center, we are further enhancing the skills of our workforce by introducing remote training (using web conferencing systems and e-learning platforms) and adapting self-hosted training to be held at dealerships.

FY2023 Results

Maintenance Engineering Workshop in FY2023

30 sessions

Customer Support

Various Support Programs, including Fuel Efficiency and Safe Driving Seminars

Isuzu has been offering its customers seminars on fuel-efficient and safe driving since 1995. In recent years, we have been conducting demonstrations of key points for the use of vehicle devices and accident prevention, workshops on legal and regulatory trends and many other seminars based on customers’ needs. Within Japan, these seminars are conducted at seminar facilities named Isuzu Premium Clubs located on the premises of our Fujisawa Plant and Isuzu Hokkaido Proving Ground. The Clubs are equipped with test courses and are exclusive for our customers. Seminars are also conducted at dealers all over Japan. To date, we have held these seminars overseas for customers from 31 countries. We strive to help our customers in Japan and all over the world to use our vehicles in safer and more eco-friendly ways.

Isuzu Customer Information

The Customer Information section of the Isuzu website draws the attention of users of Isuzu vehicles to potential incidents or failure risks arising from misuse or other problems.

Long Periods of Use

In recent years, along with changes in economic circumstances and other factors, our customers have tended to use their vehicles for longer periods and their mileage has been increasing. The safety of vehicles that have been in use for a long time can be guaranteed by ensuring that regular inspections and maintenance are performed. Isuzu keeps a sufficient stock of periodic replacement parts on hand to prevent failures from occurring and to meet customers’ needs for periodic maintenance. We will keep working on inspection and maintenance, also taking into consideration the way in which vehicles are used and their use over extended periods.

Isuzu Customer Center

Isuzu Customer Center (Japan) was established for the purpose of applying customer feedback to product quality improvement. Customer feedback is shared with relevant departments both internally and externally to improve the quality of our products and services. We also provide opportunities to listen to the voices of our customers through internal training programs to enhance our customer-first approach and our sensitivity to what our customers want.

Intangible Support

Mimamori (Telematics for Commercial Vehicles)

Isuzu has also put a great deal of energy into supporting commercial vehicles from intangible aspects. This is symbolized by Mimamori, our telematics system for commercial vehicles. It reads data from the vehicle’s control computer and connects them via telecommunication to support driving and dynamics control. Mimamori has a package of useful content that includes daily operation reports, a digital tachograph, labor management and other means of support of daily compliance with laws; a full-scale function for controlling dynamic states which is effective for keeping informed of a vehicle’s position and condition; support for the practice of safe and eco-friendly driving; and various features effective for crew training. It also greatly contributes to streamlining customers’ driving control.

PREISM, an advanced genuine maintenance service, provides predictive and preventive maintenance at Isuzu service centers before a malfunction occurs, based on condition data transmitted from vehicles. This helps to shorten the vehicles’ downtime and maintain their operation.

• Prevention:
  Servicing details and maintenance cycles differ depending on the status of use of the vehicle. However, PREISM tracks data on each vehicle’s condition, thus enabling optimally predictive and preventive maintenance for each vehicle, which checks malfunctions.
• Immediate repairs:
  Even if a malfunction occurs, our Isuzu service centers can estimate servicing details from the malfunction data obtained prior to warehousing. Thus the vehicle’s servicing time can be shortened. This can also reduce downtime and makes the vehicle’s operation more secure.
  The full lineup of the heavy-duty GIGA, medium-duty FORWARD, and light-duty ELF trucks comes with a data transmission terminal as a standard feature, providing PREISM to support stable operation of a customer’s vehicle.

EVision

Alongside the launch of Isuzu’s first mass production battery electric vehicle (BEV), the, “ELF (N-Series) EV,” Isuzu Motors Limited has developed the total solution program “EVision^*1” to support customers considering introducing commercial BEVs and has begun service provision. The support provided in EVision includes finding solutions to EV introduction issues, quantifying the CO₂ emission reduction benefits, and proposing further decarbonization initiatives to move toward to carbon neutrality.

Operational Quality Improvement

Basic Approach behind Operational Quality Improvement

Isuzu's mission represents our determination to go beyond our previous corporate philosophy. It emphasizes transport solutions for all goods and people, creating value that enriches society, while addressing pressing issues such as the need to attain carbon neutrality and adapt to a changing logistics landscape.
The quality of our products and services is derived from the work quality of each and every employee. Isuzu leverages efforts to raise awareness about quality and knowledge since we believe that enhancing the performance quality of each individual employee—and not just those divisions directly involved in product quality—creates the quality that meets customer needs.

Education for Raising Awareness and Knowledge among Employees

The foundation of work is the experience, knowledge (tools and methods), and skills possessed by each individual. But even with experience, knowledge and skills, it does not necessarily follow that the work will be done with good quality. For employees to maximize their skills and improve the quality of their work, it is essential that they remain motivated to do a good job. Isuzu therefore strives to improve the quality of its operations by educating employees to raise awareness and knowledge acquisition.

Discussions among Employees

To raise awareness about operational quality, Isuzu is holding a series of discussions for employees to talk about doing a good job from the customer’s perspective, using customers’ telephone inquiries received by the Isuzu Customer Center and the annual Quality Month* Message which is delivered from senior management to employees in November every year.
The aim of this Quality Month Message is for each individual to think over what it is to do a good job, find some clues to making it happen and put it all into action. The message is made known to all employees through the Isuzu News, published monthly, and is discussed at each department.

Message for Quality Month FY2023

Quality Awareness Education for Isuzu Dealers

To raise quality awareness among all Isuzu Group employees, quality awareness training is provided to dealers across Japan to reinforce the importance of quality-related tasks such as the accurate and prompt provision of information, reliable recall of defective parts, and early implementation of recall repairs.

Number of Locations Where Training Was Held in FY2023

22 places

Improving Knowledge (Knowledge-enhancing Program)

As a quality-related knowledge education program for employees, we conduct legal education, focusing on the Road Transport Vehicle Act/Recall System. The aim is to ensure that our employees understand the laws related to the quality of Isuzu products. Additionally, we offer a course for developing experts skilled in the statistical analysis necessary for solving problems. The courses are aimed for employees to acquire problem-solving skills and practical skills for effectively encouraging quality improvement in the workplace.

Results

Road Transport Vehicle Act/recall system: 171 participants
Expert training^*1: 19 participants

Isuzu Technical High School

Isuzu Technical High School provides education and training programs for our new technical employees (trainees) who are high school graduates. There are two courses: a three-month training early selection course and a training course. Both courses emphasize the necessary for Isuzu's monozukuri knowledge, skills, and attitude required as Isuzu technical employees. The trainees who show very high aspirations in manufacturing (monozukuri) enter the National Skills Competition to learn about the results of their day-to-day technical training and further improve their skills.
Moreover, school instructors to guide the trainees are selected from our employees working in the field. This allows the instructors to review their own operational knowledge, and at the same time to learn how to develop talent. As a consequence, the instructors will also improve.
In addition to developing trainees into full-fledged workers, the engineers involved with the training process should hone and hand down their skills. This should then contribute to qualitatively improving Isuzu’s products.

Competition Results

The 60th National Skills Competition, November 4-7, 2022, Makuhari Messe, Japan
Machine Assembly: 1 Honorable Mention
Lathe: 1 Honorable Mention