GM Powertrain Case Study

Issues About Powertrain

High capital investment plant and facilities with highly specialized products, the TCC (Torque Converter Clutch) with high investment in improvement plans.

-New "cell" in the assembly area is the proposed model. There is a lot of resistance to this model from the employees and from the Union structure to support successful transition and cost cuts in the operation.

Definitely the human resources factors have a key influence on the survival of that specific operation. It is obvious that in order to obtain a better performance out of the workers in the factory a lot of work has to be done with the union leaders and with the workers themselves in terms of stimulation.

Antecedent

1. GM have integrated engine, foundry and transmission operations because the identify an opportunity to take advantage of the synergy of the three divisions together

2. The plant has a variety of 26 models of different TCCs and a volume of 22,000 units a day.

Ms Sarada Muraleedharan, Director, Kudumbashree is...

United Auto Workers

Prozessphasen CIP = Continuous Improvement Process...

There are some additional innovative features introduced in the process like the friction material and the bonding process modifications. This new process and product design introduced an improvement in the final product. This is by far, a good advantage in terms of performance on the parts and on the vehicle itself. This performance improvement could justify investment in hard technology and also in improvement tools and training.

3. In terms of quality the Fredericksburg plant has been audited and passed all the evaluations to obtain the Automobile Industry QS9000 certification for high standards of quality and reliability. This certification included internal and external suppliers of production and service parts and materials.

4. Labour and the UAW (United Auto Workers)

Some of the salary comes form overtime and people is used to that (USD 18,000 cost of...