GM Pausing Production At Lansing Grand River For Extended Period

General Motors has paused production at its Lansing Grand River assembly plant this week for scheduled holiday downtime as well as maintenance and training. The plant, which makes the Cadillac CTS and ATS and employs 1,500 hourly workers, will resume production Monday, January 14th.

However, the plant will keep some employees and team leaders carrying out line maintenance and training duties throughout the shutdown, according to United Auto Workers Local 652 president Mike Green.

Slower sales of the CTS line, which is down 12.1 percent this year through November, are a factor for the extended hiatus; it is widely believed that the new ATS is taking sales from the larger and more expensive Sigma-based CTS. Green also said that one of the objectives of the shutdown is to “stay ahead of the curve” as GM prepares to launch of the all-new CTS next year; the new midsized CTS will ride on a larger variant of the same Alpha vehicle architecture that underpins the Cadillac ATS and compete head-on with the BMW 5 series and Audi A6.

Lansing Grand River joins other GM plants, including the Fairfax, Kansas facility that assembles the Chevrolet Malibu and Buick LaCrosse, in the being shut down for an extended time during the holidays. More importantly, one of the principles driving production and subsequent inventory strategies at the New GM is keeping supply in close line with demand and to not overstock dealer lots, only to offer huge profit-sapping incentives later. The Old GM was particularly known for its practice of doing the latter.