Nissan has developed “dual-sided dieless forming,” a technique using robots to make car parts out of sheet steel. This could make replacement parts for discontinued models more widely available for customers. Thanks to its flexible production, short lead times and minimal upfront costs, the new technique could make it commercially viable to produce and sell a wide variety of after-service and replacement parts in small volumes for cars that Nissan no longer makes. This was previously not possible due to the high upfront costs and long lead times to develop and make dies for stamped parts.