Nissan Manufacturing Wish List

Nissan North America has an extensive manufacturing footprint. Consider only its operations in Tennessee, for example. There is the Smyrna Assembly Plant. This is a 6-million-square-foot facility where 7,250 people work, producing 640,000 vehicles per year. The output at the plant includes the Nissan Altima, Maxima, Leaf, Pathfinder, Rogue, and Infiniti QX60, or sedans, an electric vehicle and crossovers. True flexible production.

Images: Inside the Nissan Smyrna Assembly Plant. (All: Nissan North America; photos by Ken Tucker)

Then south of Smyrna is the Decherd Powertrain Plant. This is a 1.2-million square foot operation where 1,700 people work, producing 1.4 million engines, 1.4 million crankshaft forgings, and 456,000 cylinder block castings per year. They are producing two different 2.5-liter fours, a 3.5-liter six, and a 4.0-liter six, a 5.6-liter eight, and performing the assembly for the Leaf eMotor.

So we asked the Nissan Manufacturing team what they’d be interested in when it comes to new production technology, something of a wish-list. There are answers from machining personnel, assembly personnel, advanced technology and all.

The plant produces the Nissan Altima, Maxima, Leaf, Pathfinder, Rogue, and Infiniti QX60.

And this is what we learned:

All:

Anything that allows processes to be automated—whether on the plant floor or in the office
3D printing and robotic forming for service, repair and legacy parts

Machining:

Machining centers with built-in 3D metal printers for part repair/rework
Porosity inspection system for visual porosity detection using a laser/camera
Data connectivity, especially for legacy controls for data
Advanced tooling

Assembly:

Material handling and kitting automation like that being used in automated warehouses and by online retailers
Robotics-as-a-Service business models and advanced control technology without big infrastructure costs
Autonomous quality inspection (deep learning, laser, etc.)
Automated material inventory management
Advanced robotics for automating new tasks within assembly