Nissan Continues to “Think Outside the Box”

August 6, 2008

Nissan continues to “think outside the box” when it comes to cost cutting and improving efficiencies. While being employed there for 8 years the term “Kaizen” impressed me. Kaizen is the Japanese management term for “constant and never ending improvement”. Everyone who is and has ever been employed at Nissan knows they do just that-constantly looking for ways to improve. The Smyrna Nissan plant and it’s 5600 employees have the led the struggling company over the often bumpy road of automobile manufacturing. Nissan continues to bounce back and much of its due to their constant innovation, quality products, assertive cost cutting and passion for improvement.
Nissan recently celebrated its 25 year anniversary of making quality products at the awarding winning plant here in Tennessee. Since 1983 Nissan has produced over 8.2 million vehicles have been built in Smyrna. Nissan’s total investment is over 2.5 billion here in Smyrna. In 1994 Nissan won “most productive car and truck plant in North America” for Harbour Report benchmarking survey much of it due to the hard working employees that have made the company efficient. Nissan’s Smyrna plant has been the keystone for the automaker. They have reduced cost, improved quality and turned out popular vehicles in the marketplace. The newly designed Altima has enjoyed much success as well as the new Versa which gets up to 34 mpg and starts at a low price of $12,000 (which is about 1/2 the amount most Hummers have depreciated the last 6 months).

The “outside the box” thinking with a 6 figure buyout to reduce its workforce is commendable. When many companies would simply announce a layoff Nissan has been creative in reducing the size of its workforce. With the announcement by Nissan President and CEO Carlos Ghosn to build an electric vehicle and be the “global leader in zero emission vehicles by 2012″ is honorable.

Many know I have been a critic of Nissan for their use of “temporary employees” many times employing them for a few years and providing no benefits yet the company has been given tax incentives of over $100 million. Nissan i’m sure has realized the use of “temps” has adversely affected quality and production. I heard many a story of temporary employees who at lunch time simply did not return after they realize they are being paid roughly half that of a Nissan technician or they work for a few weeks until they find something better.

I’ve often thought of Marvin Runyon and what he would think of the use of “temps” to build a quality vehicle. How can an employee who is told “he doesn’t work for Nissan but a temp agency really care about the job at hand? Or a Nissan employee who has been employed there for many years be told he cannot move to day shift due to a temp doing that job? What ever happened to seniority?

Mr. Runyon proved you can be efficient, cut cost and take care of employees. He eliminated 23,000 management jobs (yes management jobs) to add mail carriers and employees to improve public service while at the Postal Service. As the mail load grew by 11%, the total size of the Postal Service work force remained about the same and its 765,000 employees made it the largest civilian employer at that time. The Postal Service had been losing millions of dollars each year since 1989, but Marvin Runyon soon had it “in the black” and by the time he left in 1988 it had amassed more than $1 billion in profits!

I never had a chance to meet Mr. Runyon but i heard the stories of him walking the floor dressed in the same blue uniform as his employees with “Marvin” stitched on his Nissan shirt. I’ve heard he loved old cars and could talk to any technician on any subject. His “actions spoke loud words” and gave employees the feeling that he cared about them and what they thought. Under his management Nissan became one of America’s most productive automotive plants. Later President Ronald Reagan named him chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Smyrna and Rutherford County is blessed to have Nissan in our state. They have provided good jobs with good pay and benefits, improved our tax base and built us a great product that many of us drive daily. It’s not unheard of to see someone own a Nissan truck, Sentra or Maxima with over 250,000 miles that’s still going strong. With higher taxes, fees and more bureaucracy governments at all levels should look to Nissan and learn the term “Kaizen-Constant and never ending improvement”. Government at all levels are struggling with the same issues from rising health care cost, retirement benefits, fuel cost and more, but many times leaders simply fail to look long term and seek solutions. Government can’t continue to be the “bottomless cookie jar” by “bailing out” those who make poor decisions or giving them a check to “jumpstart” the economy. The inheritance we leave our children will be greater debt and a disservice to the next generations.

Thank you Nissan for making a difference in our community and our great state of Tennessee.