General Motors has a team of about a dozen specialists working around-the-clock to minimize interruptions in its supply chain amid the COVID-19 pandemic, company spokesman David Barnas told The Detroit Free Press this week.
2020 Silverado HD at Flint Assembly
While the automaker has managed to prevent any major outbreaks of COVID-19 at its U.S. vehicle assembly plants, it is still finding it difficult to prevent parts shortages at the facilities as suppliers, particularly those in Mexico, face their own mid-pandemic production hurdles. The automaker has had to cancel overtime shifts or run partial shifts at the GM Arlington Assembly plant in Texas and a parts shortage at the GM Flint Assembly plant forced it to cancel a single shift there earlier this year.
These parts shortages have not had any significant impact on production yet, but the Arlington and Flint plants make some of GM’s most popular models, so any potential bigger shortages could spell trouble for the company. Arlington Assembly plant makes the automaker’s line of full-size SUVs, including the Chevy Tahoe and Suburban, while Flint Assembly produces the Chevy Silverado HD and GMC Sierra HD.
Parts shortages from suppliers in Mexico have also caused brief production delays at the Bowling Green Assembly plant in Kentucky, which builds the C8 Corvette.
Barnas said GM’s team of supply chain experts “continue to work intensely to ensure that all parts continue to flow into all of our facilities,” and said they have placed a particular emphasis on Mexico due to the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in the country and increased lockdown restrictions. Mexico has had more than one million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and at least 98,259 deaths as of last weekend.
GM has been running three shifts at both Arlington Assembly and Flint Assembly after pandemic-related factory shutdowns took a bite out of its inventory of full-size trucks and SUVs. Supply is still tight at most dealerships, however, as the popularity of the vehicles is making it hard for GM’s production lines to outpace demand. GM CEO Mary Barra revealed earlier this year that GM-developed software is helping to address the issue, allowing dealers to easily find out which vehicle combinations will sell the best so they can use their limited available orders wisely.
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Comments
Attention Mary Barra this what happens with a so called global economy. Get the jobs back to the good old USA. Be American and make American cars back in America.
Mary’s too busy playing with electric cars and dictating people to buy them.
I agree she is to busy stepping over $100 dollar bills to pick up $5 dollar bills. My engine plant in Tonawanda doing good.
Amen brother Tony!!
Or Canada. Not doing too bad up here.
Forgot about my Canadian buddies. Lot of great cars come out of Canada. Stay safe up there.
Since no one has even remotely shown convid exists, we do know that TB, Measles, Cholera, Leprosy, Typhus, Buebonic Plauge and countless other diseases are actually found in Mexico, so maybe we should be building the parts in the US. You know…where the people who pay $90,000.00 for a pickup truck actually live.
Art
Then the 3 republican Senators that tested positive this week must be lying.
Iowa’s Chuck Grassly
Florida’s Rick Scott
Georgia’s Kelly Loeffler
Tell your fellow republicans to vote against those liers.
At our plant (Lansing Delta Township) we had to cancel a Saturday 2 weeks ago and only ran one shift last Saturday due to a Mexican parts shortage. However, we have enough volunteers so that we are running Dayshift only on Sunday. The dealers can’t get enough of our vehicles (Enclave & Traverse) to meet the demand.
So Mexico has 101,000 deaths as of yesterday. US has a quarter million of deaths. If all the parts would be made in the US, the shortage would be the same or worse.
Canada has a density of people of 4 / sq Km while Mexico has 66 / sq Km. Data shows that only in 4 cities (Alberta, Montreal, Quebec and Toronto) 12,000+ people have died.
Just apply the ratio. Canada is in worse situation than Mexico and the US.
Or if the parts are sourced out of Honduras, nothing can get in or out. If it is from Europe, they are in lock down again.
Different boats. Same storm.
I can’t speak for the rest of the Canadian auto plants but I know here at the GM assembly plant I work in we’ve only had one case since this whole pandemic began. As I said before, we aren’t doing to bad up here.
As bad as this sounds I hope this forces GM to realize foreign parts are severely dependent on the governments of that part. Covid is here to stay until it’s rectified , vaccines will slowly get to these Mexican plants, but I foresee Mexico shutting down.The US isn’t having as bad as an issue as third world countries are, contrary to what the media says. We have more testing out there, a lot of other countries are no where near the amount of testing we do. GM is in trouble and they need to have contingency plans for US plants to take over these duties going forward to minimize lack of communication and practices between departments.
@GM Needs a New Marketing Team
That’s Silly. Using the testing argument Men, must be more likely to get pregnant than women because men don’t take pregnancy tests.
Winter is coming to the U.S. Along with longer nights & less indoor humidity.
Less ultraviolet sunlight to kill the virus. Heated indoor air drying out viruses. Making them lighter, allowing them to stay airborne longer
Mary’s too busy playing with electric cars and dictating people to buy them.