A shortage of seating foam caused by the recent winter storms in parts of the southern United States is threatening to hamper domestic auto production.
According to Automotive News, the seat foam shortage could force some seating suppliers to bring their assembly lines to a halt by as early as next Monday. An executive at a major OEM, who spoke to media on the condition they remain anonymous, said the seat foam shortage “is bigger and closer than the semiconductor issue,” that has been affecting auto production output in recent months and could force manufacturers to put certain production lines on pause.
General Motors spokesman David Barnas told AN that it does not expect the seat foam shortage to affect its production output in the short term, although it will be actively monitoring the situation over the course of the next few weeks.
“GM continues to work closely with the supply base to mitigate the impacts caused by the significant winter weather that affected a large portion of the country the week of Feb. 15,” Barnas said. “We don’t anticipate any immediate production impacts.”
Last month’s uncharacteristically cold temperatures in Texas ground the state’s petrochemical plants to a halt, creating a supply pinch for automotive seating manufacturers. An anonymous automotive executive that works in purchasing with a major OEM told AN they expect seat foam supplies to remain at regular levels until the second half of March, at which point automakers may begin to feel the impacts of the constraint.
GM has had to navigate numerous parts shortages so far in 2021. The semiconductor supply shortage has forced the automaker to pause production at three of its North American plants and has also impacted output at one of its facilities in South Korea. A shortage of transmission parts for the C8 Corvette Stingray forced the automaker to halt production at the Bowling Green Assembly plant in February and early March as well.
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Comments
With the shortage of the foam for the seats, can production continue to build vehicles without seats? So that when foam seats are available just install the seats later? This way no need to stop production of the vehicles and lay off workers.
Potentially yes, but not forever. You run out of parking space, and you run out of money (since the cars can’t be shipped) and there’s severe logistics issues, it also costs more in labor and causes potential quality issues.
Specifically, seats normally go on before the doors do, so assembling out-of-order risks damaging the door trim and requires more labor. Of course, you can’t store the car without doors on. On top of that, you need a driver’s seat to drive the car off the line to store it, so you’re going to have to come up with a way to tow them or play musical seats.
The seats go in before the doors go on so they’re not going to do the unnecessary things to build them then take them back a part to install seats.
It seems to me GM makes all kinds of excuses to slow down production, take the chip shortage or could it be GM was increasing chip production for EV’s and backing off gas vehicles.
Had to laugh at some of the comments above. Love the one from Daniel about the MB 240 seats. I’ve actually seen those before. Plus, I’m old enough to remember the old coiled spring seats that would become so uncomfortable once they started going bad. Ah, the memories both good and bad!
But my vote for most comfortable seats would go to the 1989 Cadillac STS I had. Supportive enough and yet soft enough to be fantastic for long days of travel.
Most all seats in today’s vehicles are to firm for the long trips.
WAINE HERE. WOW NOW SINCE U GUY VOTED 4,, OL JOEY . IT SEEMS THINGS HAVENT GONE SO GOOD … WELL G M NEEDS TO BRING BACK PRODUCTION LINES BACK TO CANADA . WHERE WE REALLY KNOW HOW TO BUILD QUALITY VEHICALS. NOT . G, eneral . M exica , C .rap. jusy sayin cheers . you guys down there dont no what snow is happy sledding
Maybe stick to commenting on cars, “Waine.” You think manufacturing in Canada was better under Joey’s predecessor? I assure you, it wasn’t.
Looks like somebody is going to have to grab a rubber mallet and start pounding farts out of old ones and sell as reman.
Yes , what gives my back is in need of an adjustment from my 2018 chevy Colorado zr2. I always was informed that seats were the most expensive to test and build , what happened?
These seat are very hard and uncomfortable in a short and long ride. I love the truck dislike the seats, but some comfort back in gm soon.
I think most companies will re-think JIT and Single Source Supply lines. But supply does not create demand. Once supply lines re-gain their inventory we should see things return to the “normal” demand curve.