The car factory that builds car factories

I’ve been round a few car factories in my time. How many? No idea but they’re pretty much the same the world over. The unique elements are few and far between, but visits to the Bentley trim shop stand out for the hand-crafted nature of things. I’m writing this in Tokyo Airport waiting for a flight home and today I’ve been round a different type of factory. It’s the factory that makes factories. Zama Operation Centre is home to Nissan’s Global Production Engineering Centre (GPEC), the firm’s base for perfecting the manufacturing process on new models, before shipping the hardware, software and philosophy out to its plants around the world, including Sunderland. With the north-east site due to start assembling the all-new Note from next summer, senior staff are here developing the production line. They will continue to visit so the process of making the Note is as transferable as possible. At Zama they experience a fake production line, learn how the car will be built and fine-tune the process so back home everything is as smooth as possible. In short, they iron out all the mistakes once at Japanese HQ, rather than have staff at 20 plants round the world finding and solving the same problems. Today was the first time media have been let in and a fascinating place it is too. When the Note arrives in showrooms next September, I shall have a greater respect for what’s gone into making it.