The second paint shop, System 2, is a newer, water-borne system, built to paint the Nissan Altima midsize sedan in 1992. This, of course, would beg a comparison. But rather than delineating their differences, it's probably most important to mention their biggest similarity. After priming, a quality inspection is made by line operators. If possible, they use knives to knock off imperfections rather than sanding them out.
Knives do the job quickly without creating dust.
Part of what gives Nissan its edge is its history. When they built System 1 in the early 80s, they designed it with the combined expertise of both Japanese and American manufacturing managers. So when they set out to build System 2, they had years of experience working with their robots. From the beginning, operational knowledge in the paint shop has been well documented, first in hard copies, now in a computer database. When Nissan built the second paint shop, they used this knowledge.