Not just any engineers

* GT-R engine hand built * Nissan's best engineers assemble unit * We witness process...

Not just any engineers

It isn't only the logo on their jackets that marks the GT-R engine men out from their colleagues.

Hand-picked for their experience and ability, they are known as Takumi.

Nissan describes them as 'workers with special trained sensitivity in vision, hearing and tactile sense'.

In simple terms, they are the best in the company.

Within the Yokohama plant of more than 3900 employees, there are just 13 Takumi, with another 16 semi-Takumi on the shop floor having been identified as potential stars of the future.

Each one must be highly skilled in every area of the engine building process, as they take sole responsibility for every part of it from start to finish, working their way along the production line with each unit.

It is described as 'expertise in every area', and a long way from the traditional production line method of having workers do the same job all day, before passing the engine along to the next person to do their specified task.

Of course, this also means that there is no hiding place for these men: before work begins on it, each engine block is inscribed with a number that identifies exactly which engineer will be building it.

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