Nissan – the Company
Nissan is a renowned car, truck and bus manufacturer represented throughout the world. Based in Yokohama, Japan, the company has been producing vehicles under various names since 1914, and with the passing of the years has grown into one of the world’s largest corporations.

Today the group has a workforce of over 120,000 (including consolidated subsidiaries), and builds vehicles in numerous production facilities around
the globe.

Nissan’s Printing Problem
This operation requires much internal printing work such as the printing of materials orders for the production line, internal invoicing and document exchange. Such critical printing issues would require a solution of the highest calibre.

 

When Océ was first considered as a solution provider to Nissan, a range of challenges were faced. The first was the printing environment. The PDL (Page Description Language) used was LCDS, a Xerox format, but this would only be for a limited period since Nissan was considering migrating their applications to PCL due to the high degree of standardization of this page description language.

To complicate matters, the data comes from a IBM S/390 mainframe located in the United Kingdom, so an efficient output management system was needed to control printing production. This had proved difficult to control directly from the UK in practice. Communications were based on a multi-channel line using DTE/DCE equipment. This communications configuration was also due to be changed, a standard TCP/IP environment being under consideration.

The customer was not thinking just in terms of hardware or software, but sought a global solution, able to run within both the current environment (LCDS, multi-channel), and a future environment (TCP/IP, PCL). The solution must, of course, also be productive, easy-to-operate and completely reliable.

The provider to be chosen had to be in a position to provide the installation and educational services required to efficiently implement and
operate the solution.

 

The Océ Answer
Océ quickly emerged as the supplier of choice due to its open standards environment and the reliability and productivity of its solutions.

 

Océ PRISMAproduction® (LCDS module) was finally chosen for data reception from the mainframe in the UK, with PCL coming along in the near future. On the hardware side, two printers were installed: an Océ VarioPrint® 5115 and an Océ VarioPrint 3090. Both printers are driven from a central point of control, i.e. Océ PRISMAproduction, with these printers receiving IPDS data from it.

Océ ’s installation and educational services quickly had the solution up and running with fully-trained operators, maximising productivity right from the start.

 

The Benefits to Nissan
The main advantages for Nissan were the following: