Abstract
Even before the Nissan Revival Plan (NRP) was announced in 1999, Nissan's
body welding and assembly shop aimed to create a production system capable of producing
multiple models on the same line. The objective was to increase the efficiency of the
production facilities for building new models to meet more diversified market trends. Toward
that end, efforts were made to implement a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) on the
production lines.
In addition, factory consolidation under the NRP increased the necessity of further enhancing
multiple model production flexibility. Global deployment of the Nissan Production Way
(NPW) was started in 1994. For these reasons, the body shop has standardized the production
system that tended to be original to each factory before. This standardized system, called the
Body NIMS (Nissan Integrated Manufacturing System), is now being deployed globally.
New approaches for continous improvement of body accuracy and guaranteeing the quality of
all vehicles in each process were implemented, especially at the Tochigi Plant that produces
luxury vehicles.
This paper describes the NIMS for achieving "Douki Seisan" (synchronized production) and
the aims of the NPW, using the approaches adopted for the Nissan Fuga as an example. The
main features of the NIMS are:
1. Hybrid main body assembly line (flexible single line with 8-model random sequence
production)
2. Integrated production with suppliers (supplier lines on Nissan premises reduce part stocks
and lead times)
3. Human-friendly and focused on value-added operations (no walking, no selecting, no
worrying and comfortable working postures)
4. In-process quality assurance (quality assurance for each body and quick issuesolving with
portable laser measurement devices)
Keywords: Body in white (BIW), Nissan Production Way (NPW), Flexible manufacturing system, Nissan Integrated Manufacturing System (NIMS), In-line measurement system