Spaciotempo’s temporary space helps Nissan’s LEAF to roll off the production line

Nissan has overcome a lack of space at its Sunderland plant by investing in a temporary building, which has allowed it to accommodate the production of its brand new electric LEAF.

The 1,966sqm building, supplied by Spaciotempo UK Ltd, is being used to store finished axles for the company’s Juke and Qashqai models, as well as the LEAF, which started rolling off the production lines at the end of March.

Last year the Sunderland factory, which is one of British manufacturing’s success stories, built more than 510,000 vehicles – a UK car industry record. Its success is the result of heavy investment in new production facilities which now means that space at the 750 acre plant, opened in 1986, is at a premium – which caused a problem when it came to accommodating the LEAF.

Darrell Stansfield, senior engineer at Nissan Sunderland plant, said: “Five years ago we extended the axle plant to accommodate Qashqai production but in order to increase production further we needed to find further space to install two new welding lines.

“We decided we would use the space currently used to store the axles, which meant we needed to find somewhere else to keep them in turn. We considered two options: an extension to the existing plant or storing the parts off-site, neither of which proved suitable.”

Darrell was aware that some of Nissan’s contractors used temporary buildings at Sunderland and contacted Spaciotempo to find out more.

He said: “I knew that it wouldn’t take long to erect and could prove to be a cost-effective option.”

In both cases, Darryl was proved right and within weeks the aluminium-framed temporary building, which was installed on a specially made concrete base, was in place.

To ensure that it fitted in with Nissan’s development policy of dividing the plant’s floor-space into 18m span bays, the temporary building’s 1,944sqm framework was created in bespoke six metre sections, rather than Spaciotempo’s standard five metres.

Scott Jameson, director of sales at Spaciotempo, said: “Having already supplied a number of Nissan’s contractors, we are very pleased to have been able to provide Nissan with extra, tailor-made storage capacity.

“Expansion is excellent news for a company, but running out of room can be a real problem, because of the cost of building new facilities, re-locating or storing stock elsewhere.

“However, if the company has a spare patch of land, a temporary building can solve these problems at a fraction of the cost, with a minimum of disruption and within a matter of weeks.”

Money and customer demands are named as the biggest challenges for the materials handling industry

Worries over finances and increasing customer demands are the biggest challenges facing the materials handling industry, according to a survey we carried out at this year’s IMHX exhibition.

Just over a quarter of people taking part in our survey said that rising costs, banks refusing to lend money and ongoing economic uncertainty were their biggest concerns.
Behaviour of customers - including those who make increased demands and others failing to pay – was another major challenge, according to 13 per cent of people, along with health and safety legislation, competition from cheap overseas imports and a lack of storage space.



Other visitors said that a lack of skilled labour, handling issues and the struggle to keep up with technological advancements were significant worries.

We dealt with a steady stream of visitors during the show and Scott Jameson, Spaciotempo’s director of sales, said that he recognised many of the concerns from conversations with their own customers.

He said: “Our survey was designed as a snapshot of how the industry was feeling and it certainly uncovered plenty of perceived challenges.

“There were one or two unexpected replies, but the concerns over finance, low confidence in the economy and a lack of space are certainly challenges that we have heard customers speak about before.















“Indeed, we are currently experiencing record demand for our temporary buildings, simply because they are ideal for companies who want to grow but don’t want the heavy investment that comes with building new premises or seeking off-site storage at a time when the economic outlook remains uncertain.”

For more information visit us online.

www.spaciotempo.co.uk

Planning Permission for Temporary Buildings

If you are looking to get planning before you have your temporary building installed then you should know that it usually takes a minimum of 4 weeks, however it can take longer depending on the planning meeting dates. Local authorities are often extremely helpful when applying for planning permission for temporary buildings as they believe that requiring a temporary building indicates your business is growing. For more information on planning permission for a temporary building structure and how we can help you, visit us online.

Temporary Buildings

The temporary buildings that we supply here at Spaciotempo can be used in a wide range of industries and for many different applications. Some of the main industries that use our temporary buildings include retail, sports and warehousing. All our buildings are cost effective and they can be individually tailored to meet your specific demands. The temporary buildings we supply include loading bay canopies, temporary warehouses and more. Visit us online.