Kendall worries less about EVs like the Dodge Challenger Daytona EV coming to the line-up due to their fewer moving parts.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\u201cYou don\u2019t launch until you\u2019re ready,\u201d Kendell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the goal of zero defects begins long before a vehicle rolls down the assembly line. And that, he said, has led to changes in the way new models are designed and engineered. \u201cThe whole team has to have the same goal and be aligned,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suppliers, dealers also play a part<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Suppliers must also be brought in at an early stage, according to Kendell, and that may mean accepting the idea that quality has to come before costs when picking a vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Retailers are also part of the new equation. A new \u201cadopt a dealer\u201d program has helped Stellantis discover problems earlier than in years past, Kendell noted. In one instance, a dealer isolated an unusual rattle in the climate control system of a car brought in by a customer. It was due to an occasional assembly line glitch that was quickly resolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In decades past, automakers looked at quality as a headache they\u2019d often prefer not to deal with. The conventional viewpoint was that it was cheaper and easier to make repairs rather than solve problems before they happen. That approach has been turned on its head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Quality = cost savings<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Getting quality rights means \u201cwaste you don\u2019t have to spend for,\u201d said Kendell. While he wouldn\u2019t disclose hard numbers, he said warranty costs have gone down in direct proportion to the decline in warranty repairs. That\u2019s been backed by several outside analysts, including J.D. Power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whether Dodge, Ram and any of the other brands will remain on top in future quality surveys remains to be seen. Key competitors are taking aim at the same target, Kendell acknowledged, noting that staying ahead is \u201clike playing chess at 300 miles per hour.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a game he\u2019s determined not to lose, however. And he knows Stellantis can\u2019t afford to make the wrong moves. Fixing quality \u2014 and winning over customers who demand defect-free vehicles \u2014 will be essential, the new quality boss said, if the automaker hopes to achieve its goal of doubling its revenues by 2030.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Stellantis is looking to build on its top two finish in J.D. Power’s Initial Quality Study in 2021. TheDetroitBureau.com talks with the company’s new quality chief to see how he plans to make it happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4841,7,8,5,1164,2648,9],"tags":[2406,12033,12032,377,12031],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247015"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247015"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247019,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247015\/revisions\/247019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247015"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=247015"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=247015"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=247015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}