250,000 Infiniti and Mercedes I4 engines to be built each year.
Wayne Gerdes -
CleanMPG - Oct. 11, 2012
In a Nissan release earlier today, a new previously announced manufacturing facility was highlighted. The plant is a partnership between the Renault-Nissan Alliance and Daimler and once completed, will produce Infiniti and Mercedes-Benz I4 gasoline engines.
With a blank slate, engineers were able to incorporate new ideas into this plant.
Facility Engineer Thomas Lawson: "We've tried to take energy efficiency into play as much as possible. Starting at the top it's a white roof like we do on most buildings now to get reflectants and not add to the summer heat load.”
He also worked with builders to try something they've never tried before, skylights.
In daytime hours, much of the factory will be self-lit.
At maximum capacity, Nissan says this new facility will create approximately 400 new jobs in addition to those to build the plant. Workers filling those positions will find a new building designed with teamwork in mind. Lawson commented, "we've created a
Regarding design, the central core of the building finds both machining and assembly next to one another. They two groups will share break and rest areas, work space and managers share offices.
The idea is that the two separate groups sharing close quarters will create more cooperation and quickly allow problems to be resolved within a closer team environment.
The building is located at the existing Nissan Powertrain Assembly complex, yet positioned in a way so it can be easily expanded either to the north or to the south in the future.
Production of the new engines will begin in 2014 with installed capacity of 250,000 units per year.
According to Nissan, this is the first location that Mercedes-Benz is manufacturing engines in a North America Free Trade region and the plant's strategic location will ensure a direct supply of engines for the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, to be built at Daimler's near future manufacturing facility in Tuscaloosa, AL.
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