— Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) today reported on the progress of its investigation into past "repair directives," or so-called shiji kaishu, announced on June 2.
All information related to product defects are recorded in product information reports and saved on the company network. However, following discussions with members of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Promotion Office to be set up in July, MMC has decided to extend its investigation to include not only the product information reports on the company's computer systems, but also everything else that can possibly be checked.
Extended scope of investigation
MMC is currently looking into whether any of the vehicles included in the 30 recalls related to repair directives announced on June 2 were involved in accidents or caught fire. As of yesterday, MMC had confirmed from a product information report stored at a dealer that one vehicle subject to recall had caught fire. The company is now looking into whether there is any link between the fire and the recall and will report its findings by June 23.
MMC is also currently conducting a full reinvestigation of all 55,000 product information reports from April 2001 to May 2004.
The company will now extend the scope of its investigation to include a search to find out if any old documents exist in not only the Quality Management Office, but also the Customer Relations Department, dealers, and technical centers. Specifically, the company will look for investigative reports at technical centers; remaining product information reports, copies of repair directive forms, and logs of vehicle identification numbers at dealers; remaining product information reports, copies of repair directive forms, meeting minutes, and investigations of Japanese product liability issues at the Quality Management Office; and information on inquiries received by the Customer Relations Department.
Expanded team to tackle investigation
The 30 member investigative team will be expanded to 110, including 30 people from the Quality Management Office and 50 from dealers. New members will also join the team from manufacturing plants and the CSR Promotion Office. The results of the in-house investigation will be reported to the Business Ethics Committee and released to the public.
Upcoming schedule
MMC will report on the measures outlined above according to the following schedule.
| By June 23 : |
Report on investigation into accidents or fires related to 30 repair directive cases |
| June 30 : |
Report on reinvestigation of 55,000 product information reports issued between April 2001 and May 2004 |
| End of July : |
Report on findings of extended investigation |
| End of July : |
Report to Business Ethics Committee and announce publicly |
Further, from May 1 the company has decided for the foreseeable future to keep product information reports indefinitely instead of its previous limit of three years.
