Value added
to the max
or some, Nissan’s
presence in the UK
is represented solely
by its Sunderland
super-factory, where
a Qashqai, Juke or Leaf rolls off the
line every two minutes. But when
Autocar-Courland Next Generation
Award winner Lewis Campbell
was sent to spend a month working
with the Japanese car maker, he was
directed towards the lesser-known
Nissan Technical Centre, an R&D
facility in Cranfield, Bedfordshire,
that is responsible for major
development work on the Qashqai
SUV and Leaf EV. We’ve caught up
with Campbell, now at the end of his
second of five four-week placements
really challenged. On the first week
there was a lot of information to
absorb; I was pretty nervous about
coming but the team have been so
good to me and whenever I needed
advice they were always there and
always made time for me – I never felt
like a chore to anybody.”
Jones also took the time to
take Campbell to the Sunderlandfacility. “It was awe-inspiring,” says
Campbell. “Getting a tour of the place
and seeing the cars starting as a few
pieces of pressed metal to 15 minutes
later rolling off the production line as
a completed car was insane. I felt like
a kid in a candy shop.”
Campbell has also visited the
company’s Paddington-based
design studio, a facility responsible
for penning the Juke and Qashqai
concepts. “Being in the rooms where
some of the most recognisable
Nissans today were designed was
Autocar-Courland Next Generation Award winner Lewis
Campbell is at the end of his Nissan placement, during which
he learned valuable lessons in R&D, he tells Harry Roberts
PHOTOGR A PHY TEJ BHOLA
F
Lewis Campbell
worked on exterior
electronics at Nissan
he r e c e i v e d a s a r e s u lt of w i n n i n g t he
competition, to find out what he’s
been up to at Nissan.
“It’s been a million times better
than I could have imagined,” grins
the mechanical engineering student.
“I never thought I’d be able to see all
the different elements that make up
a brand with a global outreach as
great as Nissan’s.”
Campbell spent most of his four
weeks with the value engineering
team, a branch of R&D that, as he
explains, aims to “give more value to
the customer by adding new features
or r e - e n g i ne e r i n g a pa r t t o m a k e it
more efficient”.
More specifically, Campbell has
been working with the exterior
electronics department, which
has responsibility for anything
found on the exterior of a car that
is electronically operated such as
wing mirrors, wipers and cameras.
According to exterior systems senior
engineer Nicholas Jones, Campbell
w a s a ble t o “ t a k e a n ide a t h at w e
already had for a changeable part,
do the critical engineering and
development work with the supplier,
manage the timing plan, look at costs
and technical feasibility and then
bring it to the point where we’re now
ready to deliver that onto the car”.
T h i s c om me nd at ion of C a mpb e l l’s
performance virtually mirrors
c om me nt s he r e c e i v e d du r i n g
his first placement at McLaren
Automotive. “We gave him a real
technical problem to solve,” says
Jones. “We asked him to use critical
thinking and technical ability and
he’s really showcased his potential.”
Jones added his team has been“very impressed” and that Campbell
has a “real critical eye for detail.
His ability to work not only as part
of a t e a m but a l s o i nd i v idu a l l y w it h
suppliers is second to none.”
However, it wasn’t all plain sailing
for the student whose anti-cloning
registration identification device
won him the Next-Gen Award. When
asked about the struggles he’s faced
ov e r t he pa s t fou r w e e k s , C a mpb e l l
s ay s: “I a c t u a l l y fe e l l i k e I ’ v e b e e n