Welcome to Nissan's enormous car manufacturing plant in Sunderland, UK. Built in 1984 and first put into operation in 1986, this vast factory sees highly trained workers paired with finely tuned robots to create up to 113 cars every hour. It was the first UK plant in history to reach the 1 million mark with a single model -- the Nissan Qashqai.
The Qashqai, Juke, Note and the all-electric Leaf are all produced here. Thanks to a strict eye on efficiency and state-of-the-art mechanised production lines, all models can be built alongside each other.
Click through the gallery and see how Nissan's cars go from being a huge lump of metal to driving off the production line.
The machines are capable of pressing with up to 5,000 tonnes (over 1 million pounds) of force. I suggested using it to compress coal into diamonds, but apparently that's frowned upon -- they love their coal here in the North East.
These vast warehouses store row upon row of car parts. It's like going into an enormous shop, except the only things you can buy are car parts and they're not actually for sale.
This trolley drives itself around, following the black marking tape on floor. It picks up finished panels and deposits them in the storage rooms before returning for more.
Although there's quite a lot of sparks flying around, the machines are designed to create as few sparks as possible -- sparks mean wasted energy, my Nissan guide explained.
You can just walk around the tracks as the cars pass. You really have to keep your eye on where you're going though -- if I was to fall and hold it up, the entire production process would be delayed.
The plant operates using a "just in time" production method, meaning that components are only made and brought over as and when they're needed. This method requires all parts of the factory to work in strict cooperation, but means that huge stocks of spare parts aren't required.
For those of you not up on your British geography, Sunderland is a city of 175,000 people in the North East of England, near the larger city of Newcastle. It has a proud manufacturing tradition -- people from Sunderland are known as "Mackems", reputedly from the local pronunciation of "make 'em". It should be noted that it's not usually this sunny.
The plant employs teams of people whose job it is to monitor the efficiency of the workers. It's not to pick out anyone who's not pulling their weight, but to see if there are easier ways of doing things -- does a worker need to walk that 6 feet to his tool chest, or could that be alongside him? Why have the worker bend over to pick something up when it could be placed at waist height?
This sealer is applied by hand. It takes a lot of practice to be able to apply it accurately and consistently in the tight time-frames the workers have to stick to.
The cars are then taken through these dusters. They're similar to the big rollers in a car wash, but they're made from ostrich feathers and are designed to dust off any detritus that may cause imperfections in the paintwork.
I was able to hold my breath, sneak inside and grab some pictures -- with mild concern for getting my expensive camera clogged up with paint particles. It seemed fine.
It's at this stage where I nearly brushed against a still-wet car, almost completely ruining the paintwork and meaning it would have had to go through the whole process again. I wouldn't have been too popular.
More robot arms pick the car up from the paint shop and move it on to the trim and chassis shop -- that's where all the internal bits of the car are put into place.
This is one of the batteries that slots inside the all-electric Nissan Leaf. The batteries are made on-site as well, but it's a closely guarded secret and Nissan wouldn't let me see. Boo.
Nissan makes everything on site, including the engines. There's a casting factory where the cylinder heads are made, but I sadly wasn't allowed inside.
This endless line of tiny components would be extremely confusing to understand, but green lights appear above each box as the worker pushed the trolley down the alley so they know exactly which pieces to take.