Customer complaints in the automotive industry: An inescapable "year - end ordeal"
In the business arena, customers are the "breadwinners", and their feedback and complaints are important aspects that enterprises cannot avoid in their operations. For me, who spent many years in a foreign - invested auto parts company, customer complaints were like an ever - present ghost, permeating my career in the quality department and the project department.
During my days in the Quality Department and the Project Department, I spent my whole day dealing with a wide variety of customers and also had to face all kinds of customer complaints. Especially in those years when I served as the Quality Manager, each year I felt as if I was being fried in a pan over and over again. The scope of customer complaints was very extensive, including both problems related to product quality and some strange non - product - quality situations. These customer complaints were like unexpected bombs that exploded in my otherwise peaceful work and life, keeping me on high alert all the time.
Nowadays, I've switched careers and plunged into the field of quality software. However, this job still has a close connection with quality management. Those customer complaint experiences deeply engraved in my heart in the past are like old movies, occasionally playing in my mind. They have become reference materials for my daily work and topics of conversation among my colleagues and me during breaks.
Customer complaints in the automotive industry have their unique characteristics. In particular, complaints from automobile manufacturers know no distinction between day and night. Even on Chinese New Year's Eve, as long as the production line is still running, complaints may come at any time. This requires those responsible for customer quality to have strong psychological qualities. They need to keep their mobile phones on 24 hours a day and always be ready for a "surprise attack" from customers.
Whenever it's approaching festivals or holidays, that gnawing feeling becomes even more intense. I think most of my colleagues who are responsible for customer quality will feel the same as me at this time. We silently pray in our hearts, hoping that there won't be any quality issues. After all, at this time, we're not only afraid of causing trouble for our customers, but also even more afraid of customers coming to us with problems.
Next, I'll start this series of articles on customer complaints with an actual case of causing trouble for a customer.
One winter, there were only a few days left until the Chinese New Year's Eve. At this time, the employees of every company were extremely eager to go home, just like having grass growing in their hearts. They were all looking forward to going home early to reunite with their families. Many employees from other places had already asked for leave in advance and set off on their journey home.
I also knew clearly in my heart that customers definitely wouldn't call me to offer New Year greetings at this time. So, whenever I saw a call from a customer coming in, my heart would suddenly tighten, because I knew it definitely wouldn't be anything good. Just as the saying goes, what you fear will come to you. On the afternoon of the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, I was attending a company operation meeting when I suddenly received a call from a quality engineer at a certain OEM. On the other end of the phone, the caller demanded aggressively, "What's going on? Do you still want to celebrate the Spring Festival?" Then came a stream of scolding. Almost at the same moment, the logistics manager's phone also rang. Without a doubt, it must be from a customer too.
My logistics manager and I didn't dare to delay for a single moment and immediately reported the problem to our foreign general manager. After some explanations, the foreigner finally understood what had happened. He used the English word "unbelievable" to express his shock.
After summarizing the customer complaint information obtained by me and the logistics manager, we learned that the customer's logistics warehouse delivered the parts to the assembly line according to the loading plan. When the warehouse workers were delivering Part A, they opened a carton containing Part A, only to find that it was full of cardboard and there was not a single Part A. The workers quickly opened another carton, and there were Part A in this one. So they immediately delivered it to the production line and then reported the problem. The customer urgently checked the inventory and found another carton of cardboard. As a result, the inventory of Part A was short by two cartons, and there were no Part A in transit. On the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, the customer had a loading plan, and there would be a small amount of consumption of Part A. After calculation, it was concluded that the inventory of Part A was insufficient to meet the production schedule after the Spring Festival.
In the face of such customer complaints, neither the QMS manual nor the procedure documents clearly stipulate which department should be responsible. At that time, the company was in the process of translating foreign QMS manuals and procedure documents and was still in the stage of digestion and absorption. There were many undefined grey areas, which was also the actual situation at that time.
The top priority now is to quickly transport two boxes of Item A to the customer to ensure that the customer can resume normal production after the Spring Festival. As for whether the customer complaint should be handled by the Quality Department or the Logistics Department, we can only discuss it after the Spring Festival. We made a prompt decision and immediately arranged for the customer quality engineer and a logistics colleague to take turns driving and deliver the two boxes of Item A to the customer. Given the distance of several hundred kilometers, this is the fastest way to solve the problem.
By the way, our quality engineer is naturally good at communicating with people. Since he often deals with customers, he is very familiar with people in several departments of the customer. Although he looks extremely reluctant, it is most appropriate to send him to handle this matter because he can communicate with the customer more smoothly.
After we confirmed with the customer the person who would receive the goods, the two of them took turns driving. After several hours of non - stop driving through the night, they finally reached the customer's place and delivered Item A to the customer's warehouse that very night. In fact, we were on tenterhooks all the time while they were on the round - trip journey. After all, it was the tenth month of the lunar year in winter, and the outdoor temperature was extremely low. There was also snow on the road from time to time. We were just worried that something unexpected might happen. Fortunately, everything went smoothly. At noon on the twenty - ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, they returned to the unit looking extremely exhausted.
Since we promptly replenished the missing items for the customer, both sides had a lively and noisy Chinese New Year filled with the sounds of firecrackers.
The problem of inventory shortage and production scheduling on the client's side has been resolved, and the cause of the problem and the corrective measures we provided in our response have also been recognized by the client. However, it took a long time to determine who should be responsible for this problem.
According to the definition of "complaint" in Clause 3.9.3 of ISO 9000:2015 "Quality management systems - Fundamentals and vocabulary", this customer complaint about the "cardboard" is not a quality issue of the product itself, but a service issue. Regarding customer complaints related to services, whether they should be led by the Quality Department or be the responsibility of other departments depending on specific circumstances is not clear in our internal division of responsibilities. This phenomenon exists in many companies. When department leaders don't want to get involved in such matters, they will use the quality manual or procedure documents as a shield.
Later, when the quality director from the overseas headquarters came to the factory for a review, he made a final decision on this issue. He said that the quality department is only responsible for the quality problems of the products themselves, and other issues should be handled by their respective departments. So, we clearly defined the responsibilities for this grey area in the document. For example, if a customer complains about the Customer Quality Engineer (CQE) and requests a replacement, this is a complaint about the "complaint handling process", and it becomes the responsibility of the quality department.
Actually, regarding this "cardboard" issue, it depends on which department of the customer makes the complaint. No matter which department of the customer lodges the complaint, we will have a designated department to handle the business communication. At that time, although the quality department of the customer was also involved in handling this issue, it mainly played an assisting role. The leading party was still the customer's logistics department.
In the future, when facing such complaints again, although different departments will no longer shift the responsibility to each other, it will still be a torment for the Quality Department. Although it is the Logistics Department that submits the 8D report to the customer, the report written by the Logistics Department is not professional enough. As a member of the 8D team, the Quality Department still has to step in.
As for the reason why the "cardboard" was sent to the customer, it was already clarified on the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month. On the surface, a logistics employee mistakenly loaded a cardboard - filled carton onto the vehicle as Item A and sent it to the customer. From a system perspective, there are problems with the internal management process, and there are loopholes in multiple links. These loopholes need to be identified and rectified, and clearly defined in the process. We ransacked the company's finished product warehouse and production site, and no more finished product packaging boxes filled with cardboard were found. After taking various corrective and preventive measures, such problems have never occurred again.
For any enterprise, no matter how excellent it is and how outstanding its products or services are, customer complaints are inevitable. There is no enterprise that can avoid customer complaints all the time. If an enterprise wants to avoid causing trouble for its customers, it must truly improve its quality management, strengthen the foundation from the aspects of processes and systems, and enhance the moat of its quality management through digital quality management at an appropriate time. Only in this way can it remain invincible in the fierce market competition.