ABSTRACT
Nissan Motor Company, Ltd. is the world's fourth-largest automobile manufacturer by 1990. In 1990, Nissan produced over 3 million vehicles, supplying approximately 10% of the world's demand for cars and trucks. The domestic Japanese passenger automobile market was intensely competitive. The largest manufacturer was Toyota, with approximately 45% of the domestic market. Nissan was second with approximately 25%, followed by Honda and Mazda, which together represented about 20%. Nissan had developed a formal procedure to introduce new products. One of the major elements of this procedure was a sophisticated target costing system. The procedure to introduce new models had three distinct stages. In the conceptual design stage, projects to introduce new product models were initiated. In the product development stage, the new models were readied for production. In the production stage, they were manufactured. Cost-reduction objectives for components were identified in some ways. Competitors' products were purchased, disassembled, and analyzed. This analysis sometimes generated ideas for cost reduction.
