NISSAN Sunderland - workforce.

NMUK is the most productive car plant 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 discussed, and if adopted, will mean the factory will be active 24 hours a day. The shift pattern is such that a night shift can be introduced, although this will require the hiring of an entirely new shift of workers. This is something which will only be introduced if NMUK officials can be sure demand for vehicles is high enough to warrant the increase in volume.

Although staff have been accommodating to all management changes in working practices and have seen a steady decline in benefits over the years this has not been reflected in the wages. A 2% increase has been offered to staff this year (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.

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.

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 at 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, although this never actually happens.