etc. are managed by software written in-house. Most of the software resides on an IBM mainframe computer. This mainframe is not just responsible for NMUK; it controls business functions across the Europe region, including NMUK's sister plant, NMISA, based in Barcelona, Spain. The mainframe is located within the European Data Centre (EDC), which houses and maintains the mainframe and over 50 servers. Workforce and productivity NMUK is one of the most productive car plants in Europe, producing more cars per worker than any other factory. There are 7000 staff directly employed by NMUK, and approximately 500 contracted, indirect staff. Employees at NMUK work a standard 39-hour week. While Office staff work on a fixed day shift basis, manufacturing staff work alternating morning and evening shifts. Morning shifts run from 7 am to 3:18 pm. Evening shifts run from approximately 4:35 pm to 12:53 am. Shift times can vary depending on requirements. When required, overtime is worked, although it balanced out during the year with planned downtime. A 3-shift system has been introduced at times of high demand, meaning that the factory is active 24 hours a day. This is something that is only introduced if NMUK officials can be sure demand is high enough. Line 1 ran three shift production from August 2008 to the start of January 2009 to meet unprecedented demand for the Qashqai, however due to the credit crunch and falling orders the third shift was suspended and people released by voluntary redundancy. Line 1 reintroduced the 3rd shift from Jan 2010 until December 2019. This was removed due to the volatility of the car market. Staff at NMUK use a number of methods to ensure productivity remains high. Three of the main ones are Kaizen, Just in Time and Job Rotation. In July 2011, Nissan announced that it would be recruiting a further 200 jobs at the plant to deal with "record" levels of production. Kaizen Kaizen is a Japanese word meaning Continuous Improvement. NMUK encourages all of its workforce to seek out areas in which improvements in their working environment, no matter how small, can be made. For example, a line-worker may have to bend down to pick a part out of a box as each vehicle goes past. This could have health and safety implications, as well as wasting time. Kaizen teams would then investigate, and possibly introduce a method in which the box