Mitsubishi Fuso Bus & Truck Corp.’s failure to recall large vehicles after structural flaws were found in wheel hubs has become a big scandal in Japan. Ex-president and some executives were arrested by police for concealing the truth for about ten years and prolonged the recall.
Last week Yomiuri daily newspaper, the biggest national paper, reported its relation with ISO9001: 2000 certification because JAB strongly requested the certification body that assessed and registered the company to withdraw the certification.
Surely the scandal was based on management problem, not technical.
The request bewildered the body and its showdown still is not settled.

According to the report the scope of ISO9001: 2000 of the company has not included its design department. Therefore its design department is the customer. It’s funny! And the basic cause of the structural flaws was said to be design faults.

Coincidently I met an assessor of certification body B who said he was going to do ISO9001: 2000 assessment of Mitsubishi Motor Car Corp., a brother company of Mitsubishi Fuso Bus & Truck Corp.
Recently Mitsubishi Motor Car Corp. changed ex-certification body to the body B.
I don’t know the reason, but I feel some shady deals.