Nissan Motors opened an assembly plant just north of Jackson, MS in Canton, MS in May, 2003. The plant currently employs 5340 and is considered one of Nissan’s most productive plants. Mississippi hadn’t had a tradition in automotive manufacturing until Nissan landed there. The impact in Jackson has been tremendous, but I contend that this is the type of facility that can impact a number of small towns throughout the state with new auto parts supplying plants.
Almost 50 new firms, hiring approximately 5,000 people have sprung up in 18 towns throughout Mississippi. Some have only a handful of employees. Few have over 300 employees and the largest, Johnson Controls in Madison, has 600.
Virtually all of these auto suppliers today are built around the focus factory concept that was popularized in Japan. The factories are smaller, which takes out several layers of bureaucracy, and results in more of a teamwork approach. It is much more productive than the old model and even the US auto manufacturers have caught onto its advantages.
States like Alabama and Mississippi that have developed a very progressive approach to companies like Nissan are winning the battles for these types of plants. States in the upper Midwest that are still trying to hang onto the old way of operating will probably lose in the long term.
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Really i heard Nissan's Smyrna plant long been a crown jewel of the often-troubled company. It has been named the most productive assembly plant in North America for seven years running by the Harbour Report (through the report release in June, 2001), turning out vehicles in a mere 17.37 hours a piece. It has the flexibility to build both body-on-frame trucks and SUVs and unibody cars. And with the addition of the new highly competitive Altima last year to a product mix that includes Frontier pickups and more...
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