Double accolade for NSK at Toyota supplier awards

NSK Europe is celebrating a double scoop at the prestigious Toyota Motor Europe (TME) awards: a Certificate of Recognition (in the Supply category) and a Superior Performance Award (in the Quality category).

TME typically presents the awards at its showpiece Annual Business Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, in front of several hundreds of industry dignitaries. However, with the pandemic still a concern, the company instead organised a virtual live presentation.

TME reviews the performance of its suppliers over the previous financial year in a range of different categories. The Certificate of Recognition in the Supply category is given to the suppliers with outstanding delivery performance. In the shared aim to deliver continuous improvement, TME acknowledges the critical role of suppliers via its annual awards programme.

To judge the winners, TME assesses a range of KPIs (key performance indicators) that include overall delivery performance, encompassing service parts and accessories with a Certificate of Recognition, which for 2022 (covering the 2021 financial year period) includes NSK Europe.

NSK Europe is also celebrating a Superior Performance Award in the Quality category. Just a solitary supplier each year is successful in securing this illustrious accolade. Quality is a major priority at TME, where PPM is a common measure of the number of defects that occur in a million parts. Warranty claims and response to quality issues are among additional supplier criteria appraised for this award.

Rashmi Shah, head of TME Purchasing, presented both of the awards and their accompanying certificates to Franck Keiffer, managing director of NSK’s European Automotive Business Unit (EABU) at NSK France in Guyancourt, where the team responsible for TME is located.

NSK’s EABU supplies several different products to TME engine and transmission plants in Poland and the UK, including ball bearings, tapered roller bearings and rocker arms. The products arrive at TME from NSK manufacturing facilities that include Kielce (Poland), Peterlee (UK), Takasaki (Japan) and Saitama (Japan). In addition, NSK delivers wheel bearings to TME car assembly factories in France, the Czech Republic, Turkey and South Africa.