The UK’s biggest car plant, Nissan in Sunderland, north-east England, is more than 5% more productive than the most efficient car plant in North America according to Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK (NMMUK), citing the 2005 Harbour Report.
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The report measures the productivity of car plants on a labour hours/vehicle basis. It showed that in 2004 the average combined time it took Sunderland to build its three models (Micra [European and global export version of the Japanese-market March], Almera and Primera) was a fraction over 15 hours per car.
This is 5.1% better than the top-ranked plant in North America, which averaged 15.85 hours/car.
Taken in isolation, the Micra took just 13 hours to build – over 21% more efficient than the combined volume of the most productive plant in North America.
Sunderland was ranked as the most productive car plant in Europe from 1997 through to 2003 by the World Markets Research Centre.
Last year, Nissan joined the Harbour Report which studied more than 30 plants across Europe (although comparison details of the European plants analysed are not made public) and every domestic and major foreign manufacturer in North America.
Sunderland exclusively will build the coupe/convertible Micra C+C from September onwards. This will be followed in January 2006 by the Tone ‘mini-MPV’ and the 4×4 crossover car, provisionally called Qashqai, in December 2006.
Last week a Micra became the four millionth vehicle to be built at Sunderland since production began in 1986.
