Nissan SA aims for 44 000 vehicles in 2010

NISSAN SA’s recently appointed manufacturing director, Neil Craddock, said that the company aimed to produce 44 000 vehicles this year — bringing the car maker close to the new Automotive Production and Development Programme quota of 50 000 per year by 2013 in order to qualify for incentives.

The programme’ s overall objective is to stimulate growth in the vehicle production industry in order to reach 1,2 million vehicles per year by 2020. Mr Craddock, former manufacturing plant GM at Nissan SA, said that internal company initiatives were in line with the programme’s focus on volume-driven incentives rather than with those of its predecessor, the Motor Industry Development Plan, where the emphasis was more on exports.

“One of the objectives of the Shift Nissan SA programme is to increase our capability to make sure we meet the demands that will be placed on us as a result of the higher volumes expected of all motor manufacturers,” said Mr Craddock.

This applied particularly to the plant, he added, which has its own sub-programme, known as Shift Monozukuri, to encourage greater volume throughput across the various disciplines.

The group said a number of system changes were on the cards, allowing for more flexibility to change model mixes and more capability with respect to inventory management and awareness of stock levels to meet volume demands.

“This has an inbound and outbound component, from sourcing of parts from a variety of areas both locally and abroad, as well as distribution to dealers,” Mr Craddock said.

The system is expected to overcome previous challenges in guaranteeing parts availability to meet volume demand. Nissan SA’s internal manufacturing capability is also being addressed through focused training programmes, improved communication and entrenchment of the Gen ba Kanri principle in support of standardisation.

Job-specific training of plant personnel from junior to senior level is being carried out in conjunction with Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK), a leader and benchmark within the company, it said. In order to meet the challenges of cost, quality and timely delivery, standardisation is being introduced across the board. This starts wi th something as seemingly insignificant as work wear.

“It’s about teamwork, morale building and doing away with an ‘us and them’ syndrome,” said Mr Craddock.

“If you want to drive standardisation, it’s got to be the cornerstone of everything you do as an organisation, and standardising the work wear is part of this particular initiative,” he said.

Nissan SA said it fares well against its regional counterparts in the general overseas markets on cost per unit, the quality of its vehicles produced, and the delivery of cars into stock.

“We’re in a good place right now and, where there are any gaps, we are structurally aligned to deal with them. We’re pretty confident we’ll meet any challenges between now and the end of the year and beyond,”

Mr Craddock said. Commenting on the strategic plans of Nissan South Africa, Mr Junior Bruwer, Managing Director, Pupkewitz Motors Division, of which Pupkewitz Nissan a subsidiary said: “These are exciting times for the Nissan brand. Not only has Nissan SA set itself targets that are reachable, but also the fact that the range of vehicles Pupkewitz Nissan currently offers our current and prospective clientele, ensures that the Nissan brand will further enhance itself in being a leading brand in Namibia.”