Toyota Motor captured the top spot in 2004 from Nissan Motor as the automaker with the most efficient manufacturing operations in North America, a US consulting firm said, according to Kyodo News.
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Toyota reduced the time required to complete assembly and other production processes by 5.5% in 2004 from a year before to 27.90 hours per vehicle, Harbor Consulting reportedly said.
Nissan, which ranked first in 2003 in terms of overall productivity, came second after the time it required to produce a vehicle rose 4.8% to 29.43 hours due mainly to the introduction of new models, the report said.
Honda Motor ranked third with 32.02 hours, giving all the top three spots to Japanese automakers, Kyodo News said.
The struggling Big Three US automakers also showed improvements in productivity by cutting their hours per vehicle by 2.5 to 4.2%, according to the survey.
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By GlobalDataIn terms of assembly alone, Nissan came top at 18.29 hours per vehicle. The productivity of Mitsubishi Motors, which continues to cut production in North America, worsened in this category, registering 29.89 hours, up 17.5%, the report noted.
The survey also said Nissan and Toyota posted a per-vehicle profit of $US1,603 and $1,488, respectively, for the first quarter of 2005, but GM suffered a loss of $2,311 per vehicle because of discounts to cope with tough competition, Kyodo News added.
