Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK: Best Practice Under Pressure

Abstract

The decision, in the early 1980s, by Nissan Motor to locate in the UK provoked unparalleled interest The company were the first Japanese auto producer to locate in the EEC; and the planned investment of £617 million (by 1992) is the largest Japanese EEC investment to date (although it will be eclipsed by the planned £840 investment of Toyota). It also promised 3500 direct jobs and many more in spin-off job creation at a time when unemployment rates in the UK were at an all time post-war high. The Nissan investment, however, represented more than a major investment and large job generation. It was the first test as to whether the Japanese manufacturing and management techniques, used to such effect in Japan, could be transferred to the UK automotive industry. Could concepts such as total quality control and just-in-time production be utilized to such effect in the North East of England as they are in Oppama? How would the various actors — British managers, workers and suppliers — respond to this challenge?