Experiment Management

This section covers a talk session with the team working on experiment management activities - an important process to listen to customer voices and to translate them for the use of the product development side. The session invited two members: Tetsuyasu Shibahara (Mitsubishi affiliation) and Masanori Koyama (Nissan affliction), both belong to the Experiment Management team, Planning and Development Group at NMKV.

▲Shibahara and Oyama (from left to right)

Experiment management and market research surveys

- 「When I see the phrase “automobile experiment”, it reminds me of testing such as aerodynamic experiments or durability tests. What is your mission in the Experiment Management team?

Shibahara：Yes, “Experiment Management” may be an unfamiliar term for many. Our work is the combination of “setting the goals based on the market demand/request” and “quality verification and project control through experiments”. We stipulate a quality standard as the goal for the product development teams through the market and other type of research. We then take an administrative role whose role is to confirm and assure that such standard is properly satisfied through experiments. At NMKV whose role ranges from product planning to product development, our scope of work here can be interpreted as to “handle every matter from an entrance to an exit”.

- Market survey is a part of your Experiment Management task?

Oyama：Experiments we do here are designed to confirm that the developed products properly meet the requirements stipulated by the quality standard, which means clear standard setting is inevitable. It is essential that we fully understand the specific needs of our customers who drive them, in addition to the intention of manufacturing side. As part of such strategy, we conduct market surveys. The target of our surveys includes not only our dealers and customers but also covers customers who drive our competitors’ vehicles. Often, we visit individuals who are willingly cooperating with out surveys to listen to their opinions in front of their vehicles, or even drive with them to do the surveys.

- The phrase “market surveys” reminds me of Product Planning department.

Oyama：Yes. In fact, some of our colleagues keep asking us “why does the Experiment team go out to town and do market surveys?”. The market surveys of the Product Planning team are designed to create the core car concept and specific product appeal by means of defining the target customers for the future models and scrutinize their ever-changing needs. On the other hand, our surveys aim to extract a set of base requirements from the dynamic market demand to find a level that our next models should satisfy, and to find a set of specific target values to be used in the reviewing process and driving conditions of our experiments.

Workflow of experiment management

- Your market surveys are conducted to create illuminating indicators for the product development. Tell us more about the workflow of Experiment Management.

Oyama：In our market surveys, we institute group interviews in various parts of Japan. We visited almost 40% of interviewees to confirm the details obtained from such interviews. Based on the result, we then begin to develop the standard and specific numerical values to materialize the answer to the question “what kind of car should next model be?”. I give you an example by a case of luggage space. There are many demands and requests for improvement. These include information such as what kind of bags or trunks can be (or can’t be) loaded in the current car they own, what and how the car body is damaged upon loading, or what are the things they definitely want to load into a space. We reflect these demands and requests, adding other factors from different perspective, and try to define an ideal size of luggage space with specific numerical indicators. Such indicators are then complied into a new model’s quality standard document, which we will explain to the Product Design and Development teams so that they can utilize the indicators in their development process. Naturally the indicators set clear target for everyone, which will be shared and adopted as the standard among respective departments including parent companies. Everyone is required to satisfy the standard stipulated throughout development process.

Shibahara：The quality checks are done by respective teams at Mitsubishi which handle testing in each category. Our role is to manage and track the progress of the testing process accordingly. By using checklists of a hundred items, for example, it will visualize how many items are confirmed and completed or left out unfinished otherwise. Through the accumulation of those experience will hopefully help us to streamline both the product development and testing processes.

- Is stipulation of the quality standard an important task?

Shibahara：As all of the customers have distinctive needs, it became hard for me to bring them all together. In particular, minor complaints or concerns are difficult to be reflected into our evaluation criteria. We can always tell our customers that “you can customize this model as you like…”; but the car products we make must be attentive to their true needs from the beginning. Otherwise, they will just leave. We take an extra heed of balancing between ultimate personalization and the vanilla offerings.

Oyama：We have completed our market surveys for this fiscal year. Now we are working hard with Mitsubishi Research teams to develop new indicators and standard.

Kei-car customer’s expectation and initiatives for the future

- From such market surveys, I assume you are about to listen to customer voices full of raw emotion?

Oyama：Actually, this is the first time for two of us to be in Experiment Management team for Kei-car, never before NMKV. Before I joined the Kei-car project at NMKV, I had rather stereotyped idea about the Kei-car customers and their needs. The market surveys illuminate a huge gap between the real customers and what is not real.

- Can you elaborate that?

Oyama：The most important point is that customers have stopped discriminating Kei-cars against regular vehicles. They are not saying like "I'm okay with this because it's just a Kei-car" or "Kei-car is a Kei-car and should behave like a Kei-car". For example, I have known the people who used to drive a large sedan and now want to switch to a Kei-car because their children came of age have left home. But these types of customers don’t compromise on the standard of the car they are buying because it's just a Kei-car. They say a car should be "convenient for shopping" but also want "more fun to drive". Buying a Kei-car doesn't mean, for them, making any compromise between fun and pricing.

Shibahara：There are many female Kei-car owners, trading in the old for the new. They gave us fascinating stories.
For example, think of an owner of super height (tall) wagon with sliding doors. We naturally assume that a tailgate with a wide opening would be convenient for loading/unloading. But in reality, there are so many cases where drivers are just putting pieces of baggage from a sliding door without going around to a tailgate. Also, we assume that the versatile cup holders which can hold various cup sizes are the best. But in reality, there is a greater demand for cup holders capable of "holding the cup motionless, fastened". These are many new discoveries like this, which bused our stereotypical ideas.

▲A talk session with customers (Photo is for illustration purposes)

Oyama： For me it was interesting to find out that younger generations had no negative impression about Kei-cars at all. They say they don't care whether vehicle number plates are yellow or not. But it doesn’t mean they have no preferences. Both Kei-cars and regular vehicles are included in their wisht list without prejudice. It's not "I want a model from Kei-car lineup". Rather, they just buy their top pick, and it turns out to be a Kei-car. "Kei-car" is not one of the genres such as compact cars, minivans, sedans, and sport cars; I think we're entering to an era in which these genres are converged into the framework of Kei-cars. No one would say, "it can't be helped, it’s just a Kei-car" now like they used to do. I strongly feel so.

- I see. It seems that NMKV’s market will broaden more than ever. Lastly, tell us about your personal goals.

Shibahara：As I mentioned earlier, we are now at the stage of incorporating customer voices into our standard indicators. My mission at hand is to finish the task and put it into the blueprint of a new model which is under development. Once the diagram is completed, no return allowed. I want to proceed with the work both deliberately and promptly.

Oyama：The highly motivated people is the driving force to push our jobs to the limit. Relentless response to the new needs of Kei-cars is one thing, but we also need to gain a buy-in from out team over the effectiveness of our approach and standardization. To this end, we set up various market survey report meetings with all concerned parties. And we hope to make proactive efforts to ensure that NMKV staff, who grew up in the different cultures of Nissan and Mitsubishi, can work together to share the excitement and joy of achieving common goals.

Shibahara： I feel that expectations for Kei-cars are advancing day by day. Any activity of Experiment Management is a new approach unique to NMKV that integrates the experimental and evaluation methods which have been utilized by Nissan and Mitsubishi. In the spirit of "picking the best", we will continue to develop products that will earn the trust and satisfaction of our customers and further enhance the values of NMKV.

- Thank you for your time.

The talk session was held in March 2015. The positions they assume and affiliation they take in this article are as of at the time of the session.