CASE SYNOPSIS OF NISSAN

NIKITA GARG
S143F0021
The NMUK in 2003 produced 331,924 vehicles and 70% output was exported.
Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK Limited (NMUK) has four operating sites:
1. The most productive car plant in Sunderland. It handles
manufacturing and assembly of Primera, Micra and Almera ranges

the

2. Nissan Design Europe (NDE) supports design teams responsible for

aspects such as colour and trim design, digital design, modeling,
design strategy and communications.
3. Nissan Technical Centre Europe (NTCE) is in Cranfield. This is a centre
of excellence for the design and development of vehicles for Nissan's
European operations. NTCE is part of Nissan's worldwide network of
development centres (in Japan, USA and Europe).
4. Nissan Motor (GB) Ltd (NMGB) is the sales & marketing division for the
UK. In ten years the company has sold over 1 million vehicles to UK
buyers.
The plant is located in Sunderland because of skilled labour force, efficient
communications and available government support. At NMUK, the production
flow draws on three main production shops, as well as support areas. The
three main shops are:

body assembly
painting
final assembly

Supporting manufacturing areas are:

press shop - produces panels for the vehicles

plastics shop - makes bumpers (fenders) on site
castings shop - makes engine parts e.g. cylinder heads
engine shop - assembles engines, installs oil, coolant fuel
axle plant - produces axles that are joined to engines in final assembly.

Nissan expects and requires its employees to become multi-skilled decision

makers. Most employees also want that for themselves. Reaching that goal
involves

training employees to develop their skills

encouraging them to make decisions
organising employees into participative teams
developing open-channel, multi-directional communication systems
placing quality at the heart of flow production
flexible working practices
providing the employee variety within his/her role.

Total Quality Management

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a key feature of Nissan's way of working.
TQM involves making customer satisfaction top priority. To achieve this,
Nissan has to

understand customer requirements

consider the processes involved in providing quality, not just the end
result
prioritise and standardise tasks to deliver quality
educate all employees to work in this way.

In practical terms TQM involves

identifying customers and their requirements

establishing and using objectives (targets) for all areas of activity
basing decisions on researched hard facts rather than on hunches
identifying and eliminating the root causes of problems
educating and training employees.

Just-in-time technology
With a just-in-time approach, specific vehicles and their components are
produced just-in-time to meet the demand for them. Sub-assemblies move
into the final assembly plant just as final assemblers are ready to work on
them, components arrive just in time to be installed, and so on. In this way,
the amount of cash tied up in stocks and in work-in-progress is kept to a
minimum, as is the amount of space devoted to costly warehousing rather

than to revenue-generating production. Nissan's just-in-time

depends not on human frailty but on machine precision.

process

Every vehicle is monitored automatically throughout each stage of

production. A transponder attached to the chassis leg contains all of a
vehicle's production data e.g. its required colour, specification and trim. This
triggers sensors at various points along the production line thus updating the
records.
Kaizen
Nissan is famously associated with 'Kaizen' or continuous quality
improvement. Kaizen can be applied everywhere, any time, any place. It can
involve the smallest change in everyday working practice as well as a major
change in production technology. Typically these improvements are initiated
by teams of employees sitting down together and sharing ideas for
improvements. Small steady changes are maintained to make sure that they
actually work. No improvement is too small. Kaizen improvements can save
money, time, materials and labour effort as well as improving quality, safety,
job satisfaction, and productivity.

Nissan
Quality
Questions and Answers

What is quality and why is quality at the heart of the Nissan success story?

Quality is the business process concerned with making sure that production meets
the requirements of the end consumer. In simple terms the goods produced need to
be fit for the purposes they are required, individual car customers have particular
requirements when they purchase a car a quality car is one that meets these
requirements. Achieving high quality enables Nissan to be an efficient and profitable
car manufacturer, and of course, quality is not just about meeting the requirements
of the end consumer. Every employee at Nissan has internal customers i.e.
employees that they supply (at the next stage of the production process). Creating
high quality therefore means making sure that internal and external customers are
continually supplied with quality outputs and products.

How do continuous flow methods of production help to reduce costs?

Continuous flow involves parts, components and sub-assemblies continually flowing

down the production line. The Nissan plant has been specially designed so a number
of sub-assemblies flow into the final assembly line, which can if required, run 24
hours a day with a series of shifts. As the processes are standardised it is possible to
produce with maximum efficiency using just-in-time assembly techniques. Waste is
eliminated or at least minimised and this leads to very high outputs at very low
costs. With continuous flow there are no time gaps between the production line
starting up and stopping.

Why are Nissan workers trained to be multiskilled? What is the impact on

productivity?

Multiskilled workers are trained to do a variety of tasks, and their dependence on

others is reduced and these workers are able to take on more responsibility and
think for themselves. They are thus likely to be far more motivated and competent
than workers who only have a single skill, they will be far more productive, and able
to take on fresh responsibility.

Examine one of the key areas of training at Nissan and explain how this will help the
company to be more productive.

Each of the key areas of training helps Nissan to be more productive, e.g. technical
development gives employees greater technical skills enabling them to work more
skilfully and make fewer mistakes. People development improves the ability of an
employee to work in a team, to communicate with others, etc.

Why is Total Quality Management much more effective than end of production line
inspection.

End of production line inspection checks, whether there are any faults from the line,
so that faulty components or end products can be scrapped. However, if there are
no other quality procedures this is very wasteful. By creating a quality culture and
TQM all the way down the line, faults can be eliminated so that the ideal of zero
defects can be attained.

How can just-in-time approaches ensure that production is synchronised with

customer demand?

Just-in-time production involves delivering vehicles to the end customer at the time
required. As a result, the production line can be organised to deliver to meet this
demand it can be slowed down, or sped up. The same goes for sub-assembly and
the delivery of components, stockpiles are not required and waste can be reduced
to a minimum.