Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK - Workforce and Productivity

Workforce and Productivity

NMUK is one of the most productive car plants in Europe, producing more 'cars per man' than any other factory. There are 4,500 staff directly employed by NMUK, and approximately 500 contracted, indirect staff. Employees at NMUK work a standard 39 hour week. While Office staff work on a fixed 'Day shift' basis, manufacturing staff work alternating morning and evening shifts. Morning shifts run from approximately 7am to 3pm. Evening shifts run from approximately 4pm to midnight. Shift times can vary depending on requirements. When required, overtime is worked, although it balanced out during the year with planned downtime.

A '3-shift' system has been introduced at times of high demand, meaning that the factory is active 24 hours a day. This is something that is only introduced if NMUK officials can be sure demand is high enough. Line 1 ran three shift production from August 2008 to the start of January 2009 to meet unprecedented demand for the Qashquai, however due to the credit crunch and falling orders the third shift was suspended and people released by voluntary redundancy.

Although staff have been accommodating to all management changes in working practices, they have seen a steady decline in benefits over the years this has not been reflected in the wages. A 2% increase was offered to staff in 2007, with a further 2% the following year. This is a reflection of the state of the motor industry and manufacturing in general in the UK. The proliferation of low cost countries (Eastern Europe, China and India) is fueling a migration of manufacturing from the UK. In response to this, UK manufacturers are having to cut costs in order to survive in an increasingly competitive world market. The pay negotiations were suspended for 2009/10 due to the instability in the world markets, effectively meaning there has been no pay award agreed.

Staff at NMUK use a number of methods to ensure productivity remains high. Three of the main ones are Kaizen, Just in Time and Job Rotation.

In July 2011, Nissan announced that it would be recruiting a further 200 jobs at the plant to deal with "record" levels of production.

Kaizen

Is a Japanese word meaning 'Continuous Improvement'. NMUK encourages all of its workforce to seek out areas in which improvements in their working environment, no matter how small, can be made. For example, a line-worker may have to bend down to pick a part out of a box as each vehicle goes past. This could have health and safety implications, as well as wasting time. Kaizen teams would then investigate, and possibly introduce a method in which the box is stored at an optimum height, within easy reach of the line-worker. Kaizen teams are based in every department. The emphasis is on small, manageable improvements, although large Kaizen projects have been undertaken, e.g. platforms that follow the vehicle down the line to prevent workers from having to walk alongside it while working.

Just in Time (JIT)

The JIT philosophy, encourages the use of the minimum amount of resources (e.g. space, time, material, workers) necessary to add value to a product. NMUK uses this management technique throughout the factory and beyond. Synchronous Suppliers deliver parts line-side only when they are required, therefore reducing the need to store large supplies of parts at great cost.

Job rotation

In order to keep the workforce flexible, NMUK operates a policy of '1 man -> 3 jobs, 3 men -> 1 job'. In other words, a worker should be competent in at least three different jobs, and at least three people should be capable of doing each job. This principle ensures that each job can be covered in the case of absence. It also means that jobs can be regularly rotated to prevent a worker from becoming bored in a particular role.