Nissan Outlines Vehicle Development Time Reductions
3 August 1999
Nissan Outlines Vehicle Development Time Reductions TRAVERSE CITY, Mich., Aug. 2 -- Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. today
outlined steps it has taken recently to cut four months from the vehicle
development time in a program to better meet rapidly changing consumer
desires.
Shigeru Takagi, senior vice president for Nissan's Vehicle Production
Engineering Division, said the steps taken to reduce development time after
design freeze to 15 months from 19 months began in 1997. The first vehicle
resulting from the new processes is the Tino, a small, flexible wagon
introduced in Japan in December.
By cutting vehicle development time, Nissan can react quicker to changes
in consumer demands, take advantage of implementing recently developed
technologies and reduce costs, Takagi said. His comments came during the
opening day of the annual Management Briefing Seminars organized by the
University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and the Office for
the Study of Automotive Transportation.
In 1994 Nissan's development time after design freeze, or the point in the
development process when design is finalized, stood at 29 months. During the
next three years, Nissan sliced 10 months from the process.
Nissan began efforts in 1997 to reduce development time to 15 months,
Takagi said. These efforts were focused on significant improvements in
engineering drawings, compression of manufacturing tooling development and
high initial prototype quality which reduced the need for refinements during
development process.
Drawing quality was improved by implementing repeated digital design
reviews prior to release of production drawings rather than a vehicle-based
process. This improvement took six and a half months out of the 29-month
development time.
Reductions in time for design and fabrication of manufacturing tooling and
equipment were accomplished by extensive application of three-dimensional
CAD/CAM technology. This process alone cut 4.5 months out of the previous
tooling timetable.
Finally, higher initial quality was achieved by using "parallel production
trial" which streamlined engineering and manufacturing operations and enhanced
application of 3-D measuring systems resulting in better fit and finish
results in early prototype builds. This carved three additional months out of
development time.
In addition to becoming better able to meet changing customer demands,
reducing vehicle development times also cut production engineering launch
costs by 40 percent, production trial costs by 60 percent and capital
investment by 40 percent compared with the conventional process.
Nissan is continuing to make changes in its development cycle for future
vehicles through the company's flexible manufacturing system in body assembly,
Takagi said. These changes, like previous ones, are aimed at reacting quicker
to fluctuating market demands, reducing development time and cutting costs.
Nissan employs more than 70,000 Americans, approximately 12,000 directly
and 58,000 at 1,250 Nissan and Infiniti retailers nationwide. More
information about Nissan North America, Inc. and the complete line of Nissan
and Infiniti vehicles can be found online at http://www.nissan-na.com
