Customer is Nissan Supplier -having hard time with change request

We reached out to our customer, asking for a temporary waiver to make a minor production change (with an identical alternate) while we conduct emergency repair. Unfortunately the repair will take a few months while waiting for spare parts, but we’re only changing one piece of equipment.

Our customer is a Tier 1 supplier to Nissan.

We need to manufacture THIS WEEK if we’re to meet our customer’s delivery deadline. We’ve been asking for approval for over a month and they’ve been dragging their feet, claiming we needed 3 months for Nissan to approve but not telling us what to do. Late last week we finally were able to coordinate a meeting with them and Nissan, and Nissan gave them approval to share with us their management of change document.

I filled out what I could, but our product is a) a fluid (so a lot of metrics do not apply) and b) fields on this format deal with direct impact to Nissan from OUR change (which is none since our product goes into our customer’s part and the change we’re asking will not affect the final product in any way)

And they’re demanding we take a class to learn the Nissan quality requirements. (?!!) We have no direct relationship with Nissan aside from this one product/customer.

Can someone help me understand what’s going on?

It feels ridiculous to go through SO MANY hoops to get an approval for a minor change with no possible impact to quality, meanwhile we’re in danger of not delivering. You’d think that a late delivery would be a larger concern, but apparently paperwork is more important?

I can't really help you there, other than to say I am familiar with the change order abyss. We had a similar issue, although not with an automaker. Put in our request as we where scrapping a current lathe and upgrading to a newer, better lathe. We waited while they kicked it around. Eventually, we said "screw it" and started production to meet deliveries on the new lathe as the risk was extremely low. Well three years later I got some random email saying that the change was "rejected." They have taken and used several thousand parts without incident in that time. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do -- easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Your mileage may vary.

I suppose what you could do, is produce and hold the shipment until approval. Once it starts to effect their production, hopefully the approval will come. That way you don't have to make the product, just ship it. Good luck.

Thanks for our comments, Golfman25.

Now they're telling me that as a Tier-N supplier we HAVE to comply with Nissan requirements. Which I'd be happy to do if I only knew what they were. I'm debating whether I should ask our customer to share their copies of Nissan supplier quality manual etc., not sure if that would be opening a can of worms.

I still refuse to take a 5 day Nissan quality class to learn how to fill out Nissan documents I'll never need to fill out.

Casana said:

Thanks for our comments, Golfman25.

Now they're telling me that as a Tier-N supplier we HAVE to comply with Nissan requirements. Which I'd be happy to do if I only knew what they were. I'm debating whether I should ask our customer to share their copies of Nissan supplier quality manual etc., not sure if that would be opening a can of worms.

I still refuse to take a 5 day Nissan quality class to learn how to fill out Nissan documents I'll never need to fill out.

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I would continue to push back. Usually what happens is people just roll things down hill -- "every supplier has to _________" without taking into account any unique characteristics of the supplier/products. That way they don't have to make a decision.

Well...you should, in reality, not need to communicate any changes that do not affect form, fit or function. Unless there is a specific requirement in place that says such.

If this change has no impact, why would you even communicate it?