Chennai factory proves its quality – and its environmental credentials

The Alliance factory in Chennai, India, which is gearing up to start exporting the Nissan Micra to Europe later this month, has just achieved three significant milestones in a remarkably short time frame.

Micra production started on May 23 – and now Renault Nissan Automotive India Pvt. Ltd (RNAIPL) can boast being awarded its ISO Quality certification (ISO 9001) and ISO Environment Management System certification (ISO 14001) while at the same time gaining Whole Vehicle Type Approval for the European market.

The initial plan was to get ISO certificates one year after the start of operation – which would have been May 2011 – as part of RNAIPL’s objective “to achieve global best quality from start of operation” while Whole Vehicle Type Approval is also mandatory for exporting the India-made cars to Europe.

ISO implementation activity, mainly led by Indian members, kicked off in early June 2009 with an unwavering resolve to train internal auditors and implement ISO awareness training for all employees and contractors.

After conducting three internal audits, RNAIPL was ready to meet the challenge of the two stages of certificate audits conducted by Indian and German certification body auditors on May 3-4 and July 5-7.

Apart from demonstrating the global capabilities of RNAIPL, this success also shows the excellence of the Alliance Production Way, an integration of both Renault and Nissan production methods, and is something of which we’re rather proud.