Nissan Motor Co.'s Tennessee plant established a new benchmark for labor productivity among car assembly plants in North America, rolling out one midsize sedan in 15.74 labor hours, according to a U.S. auto ratings survey released Wednesday.
Harbor and Associates Inc. said the performance by the Nissan plant in Smyrna, Tenn., was the most efficient since it started publishing the productivity report in 1989. The report rates labor productivity both on a plant-by-plant basis and on a companywide basis.
Under the plant-based ranking, the Smyrna plant was followed by General Motors Corp.'s two plants in Oshawa, Ontario.
The No. 1 Oshawa plant needs 16.44 labor hours to produce a midsize car, and the No. 2 plant 17.08 hours, the report says.
Mitsubishi Motors Corp. led the overall company assembly rankings with a measure of 21.33 labor hours per vehicle at its assembly plant in Normal, Ill.
Harbor did not include other Japanese automakers in the companywide listing, as some of their North America plants did not submit labor productivity data.
GM ranked second in companywide labor productivity at 24.44 hours, and Ford Motor Co. third at 26.14 hours.