Mitsubishi Motors Corp. is banking on a three-year restructuring effort to change its traditional corporate culture and become a more market-oriented company.
Starting this month, MMC is implementing the Mitsubishi Turnaround Plan, a scheme it hopes will lead to sustainable growth and restore consumer confidence in an automaker that has been badly damaged by news that for decades it covered up defects and consumer complaints.
The plan calls for closing down MMC's Oe plant in Nagoya, cutting procurement costs by 15 percent by 2003, and axing some 9,500 jobs, or 14 percent of its groupwide workforce, by March 31, 2004.