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Assembly Plants

Nissan's Decherd Powertrain Plant

Nissan Motor Company recently took automotive journalists on a tour of its Decherd Powertrain Plant in Decherd, Tenn., in conjunction with its media launch of the TITAN XD V-8 gasoline model. The Decherd Powertrain Plant produces more than 1 million engines for nine of the OEM's models it sells in the U.S., in addition to the Patrol, which is sold in Japan. Read our driving impressions here. Photos by Chris Wolski.

Fleets Scramble to Cope With Extended Plant Shutdowns

The dramatic decrease in sales has prompted automakers to make significant adjustments to production schedules. A number of fleets are affected by the unanticipated, longer-than-normal, plant shutdowns. These fleet managers expect order-and-delivery (OTD) times to increase in 2009 due to revised production schedules. These fleet managers say the extended plant shutdown schedules, for all intents and purposes, shortens the 2009 model-year, which early-order cut-off dates will only aggravate.

Impact of Plant Shutdowns on Ship-Thru Deliveries

With a dramatic decrease in retail truck sales, some fleets are concerned that assembly plant closures and production slowdowns may delay truck deliveries and ship-thru upfits. In addition, there are further concerns about potential fleet allocation issues, availability of transportation, extended lead times caused by shift eliminations, and reduced special equipment runs. One challenge is moving completed upfit vehicles back into "traffic" when an assembly plant is shutdown.