General Motors recently sat down with Fox Business Network reporter Jo Ling Kent to discuss the company’s recall crisis and what it is doing to prevent a similar situation from happening in the future. Barra said the company is still committed to fixing every vehicle they’ve recalled and expressed her desire to make GM synonymous with safety.
“At General Motors we’ve set our target to be the safest in the industry and we’re taking steps, we’ve been very clear about sharing them, the way we are changing and improving the way we do engineering’s from a systems prospective,” Barra said. “The robustness of our processes, diving deep into the supply base to make sure we have quality, and partnering with our suppliers, we’re going to continue to do that.”
GM has been known for having on and off relationships with some of its suppliers. Barra has said she is working to improve supplier relations, though a recent survey from Planned Perspective ranked GM’s relationships with its suppliers the worst of the six major automakers. The company has implemented a new system for its suppliers called the “Strategic Supplier Engagement process” which ranks the GM’s suppliers based on business and cultural performance, with the idea being that it may expose where its weakest relationships may be.
Improving supplier relations is just one of many steps Barra is taking to ensure the quality and safety of GM’s products improves. Barra’s company has sent out 76 recalls so far this year, which may look bad on the surface, but the CEO says it’s a sign of the company trying to do the right thing for the customer and address even the most insignificant of issues right away.
“I think they should look and see how quickly we’re taking actions, how small the recalls are, that coupled with what we’re doing from the way we are engineering our vehicles and the improvements we are making to really take a systems approach and then look at the vehicles we have to date,” Barra explained. “These are the best vehicles that we have had in my career at General Motors and they are being externally recognized as well as industry best.”
While Barra’s goals for becoming the safest in the industry are reachable, it will take time for the company to rebound from the year’s worth of bad press they’ve received for issuing 76 recalls. The intentions behind the ongoing recalls are to improve safety and change GM’s corporate processes, but the situation looks much different from the outside looking in. Consumers may read headlines about proclaiming “GM issues yet another recall,” and understandably, relate it to
You can see Barra’s entire interview with Fox at this link.
Comments
Thats all good but how about improving reliability. I have heard nothing about plans to improve the longevity of GMs products. Surveys show GM is STILL near the bottom…
Except they kinda have. They didn’t outright say it but they are talking about improving quality and repairing their relationship with their suppliers and even changing they way they engineer their vehicles. I am skeptical too but time will tell if they are truly serious.
Truth is GM cars are some of the longest lived on the roads here in the rat belt.
We seldom see a Honda over 15 years old but still jane many Malibu’s, Grand am’s and Barrette’s on the road. They are not pretty but they keep on running.