With 1,005 quality issues solved over the past 5 years, Proton shows its commitment to quality

If the brown Proton X50 could display human emotions right now, it would be nervous. That’s because this particular unit fresh from the Tanjung Malim plant is about to be audited by a Proton quality inspector.

Donned in white gloves and a clipboard in hand, the inspector has a feel around the compact SUV’s body for any uneven surfaces. He takes out his clipboard and writes down a few comments.

Then, just as he is about to open the driver’s door, he notices a blemish below the handle. He circles the spot with a black crayon and remarks to the gathering media that this X50 will be brought back to the paint shop to have the blemish removed.

This brown X50 is not ready to be delivered to its customer as it has a few more issues including a creaking rear door, scratches on the plastic trims, and some bubbling in the paintwork. All of this was just a demonstration of Proton’s quality audit in which the media were invited to Proton’s Tanjung Malim plant.

The quality operation called Global Consumer Product Audit (GCPA) is being done in both Proton plants in Tanjung Malim and Shah Alam. GCPA is an indicator for product quality audit where it rates issues encountered on the production line based on their severity.

It is a comprehensive assessment of the vehicle where 1% of daily LULUS (qualified) cars will be selected. The evaluation includes vehicle safety and security, authentication functions, vehicle functions, performance evaluation of user satisfaction degree, vehicle dynamic, and static evaluation of the quality of the standard perception.

Vehicle dynamic and function evaluations are done at Proton’s internal test track which includes driving over road surfaces that simulate what the average Malaysian could face including potholed and bumpy roads.

Since 2019 when GCPA began its implementation with Proton, there has been a 55% reduction in its scores which shows improvement. 1,005 issues have been resolved over the past 5 years with Proton constantly improving in the Product Reliability Index.

As Proton strives to be number one in customer satisfaction, it is constantly listening to customer issues. Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Proton, Roslan Abdullah informed the media during the Q&A session that social media has brought in an evolution of the way customers and owners would query their vehicles.

“Back then, it was easier because there was only one official channel (Proton Customer Care) for customers to submit their issues,” Roslan said. “But these days with social media and various online communities, it can be challenging to narrow down which issues should we prioritise but we take heed to complaints that are severe.”