Embargo: Not for publication or broadcast before Wednesday 18 August
WHAT MAKES NISSAN’S SUNDERLAND CAR PLANT EUROPE’S MOST EFFICIENT
The Economist Intelligence Unit has placed Nissan’s Sunderland car plant at the top of the productivity league for European car manufacturers for the past three years.
Fundamentally Sunderland has all of the right ingredients to be a highly productive car plant. It has a well-motivated and extremely committed workforce, first class relationships with its suppliers and the benefit of a parent company with experience of the world’s best manufacturing processes. Sunderland is also a modern car plant built on a green field site and last but not least it has a management team that, from past experiences in the UK motor industry, understands what works and has combined the best of Japanese and European thinking.
How to find the right people and create a culture that allowed mutual involvement and the desire to improve were seen as essential early tasks. A single status meritocracy, with workers all benefiting from equal terms and conditions such as private healthcare and a company pension and access to a single union was in marked contrast to other parts of the motor industry. It encouraged people to speak out without fear and unleashed a powerful force behind the business – continuous improvement.
Other foundations were needed to facilitate the perpetual drive for improvement. Manufacturing staff are the very best and have good reasoning and analytical skills. The plant’s 4,200-strong workforce has been selected from nearly 200,000 application forms. The ability to communicate effectively is also a priceless commodity that has been woven into the fabric of the business. It enables a groundswell of quality and productivity improvement ideas to flow from the manufacturing staff who actually build the car and understand the process better than anyone else.
The plant has a very open style of management. Progress against objectives for the business and individual teams is literally displayed on the factory and office walls. Successive medium-term improvement strategies akin to high profile internal marketing campaigns have seen productivity improve by around 10 per cent each year since 1992.
As the business matured it developed closer relationships with its growing supplier base, applying the same principles of open management and open mindness. As much as 80 per cent of the finished vehicle is now made up of bought-in parts, so it was vital to have a like-minded approach among the supply base. Through the introduction of supplier development teams Nissan set a course for continuous improvement that mirrored the plant’s own achievements.
Later initiatives have seen co-operation on design and development of components result in a vehicle that is easier and quicker to build to higher quality levels. Similarly, Nissan-led just-in-time logistics and assembly procedures have resulted in leaner manufacturing systems.
Many of the 208 suppliers have benefited greatly from access to Nissan’s manufacturing practices.
The efficiency of the Sunderland plant has been increased through productivity improvements to the extent whereby it can accommodate a third high volume model without the need for investment in additional capacity. In January 2000 the replacement for the Almera will be built alongside the new Primera and Micra, at which time investment will top £1.5 billion and European component spend will exceed £1.3 billion annually.
The ability of the plant to switch production to meet changing demand from up to 60 different countries allows Nissan’s sales operation to maximise on niche market opportunities, creating demand that keeps volumes high. In 1998 the plant produced a record number of vehicles (288,838).
Being able to adjust production rates and have flexibility between models is largely a result of having a well-trained and highly organised workforce. The plant has a target of teaching each worker to do three different manufacturing tasks, conversely at least three tasks must be achievable by one worker. A low level of automation in final assembly areas also allows greater flexibility, and more scope for further continuous improvement.
As well as its two European plants, Nissan has a network of European engineering and design facilities capable of developing vehicles from concept to production. These include Nissan European Technology Centre in Cranfield, England and its satellites in Brussels and Barcelona, and Nissan Design Europe in Munich, Germany.
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For further information please contact:
Stewart McKee Manager, corporate affairs 01923 899 930
e-mail: stewart.mckee@nissan.co.uk
Lesley Benfield Press officer, corporate affairs 0191 419 3300
e-mail: lesley.benfield@nissan-nmuk.co.uk
25203/160899
