AAPC Celebrates Manufacturing Day
American Automakers Continue Significant Investment in the U.S. Economy
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Tomorrow we celebrate Manufacturing Day and the extraordinary impact the automotive industry has on the manufacturing sector.
General Motors Co. CEO Mary Barra has been crowned tops in a new Fortune magazine list of the Most Powerful Women.
The Detroit automaker’s top executive since early 2014, Barra, 53, was cited by Fortune for leading the carmaker “out from under the shadow of its 2014 ignition-switch recall.”
The ignition-switch recall tied to 124 deaths has cost GM billions of dollars and it faces multiple lawsuits and investigations by the Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission, 50 state attorneys general and Transport Canada.
The General Motors Foundation today announced grants totaling $1 million to fund Hispanic education and science, technology, engineering and math initiatives to help empower young Latinos to join the workforce of the future.
Grace Lieblein, General Motors vice president of Global Quality, announced the grants during a press conference at the National Press Club, where she was joined by GM Foundation Vice President Lori Wingerter, Chief Diversity Officer Ken Barrett, U.S. Rep. Tony Cárdenas, D-Calif., and representatives from Hispanic organizations.
No sooner had employees at Flint Engine Operations reached one milestone – 1 million 1.4-liter engines produced – that transition began to production of a new global engine for the next-generation Chevrolet Cruze and Volt.
Flint Engine, which opened in 2002, is in the midst of a $200-million upgrade that will see 1.4-liter engine production end this week and the new Ecotec small gas engine production start by year’s end.
11 local non-profits and numerous GM employees met at the Boys and Girls Club of Bowling Green Wednesday morning.
The GM Foundation will award grants totaling $50,000 on Wednesday to eight local nonprofits in the Detroit and Brownstown communities as part of its Plant City Grants program.
At the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant, GM Foundation President Vivian Pickard presented the grants on behalf of the local GM facilities — Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly and Brownstown Battery Plant.
General Motors will spend $877 million to build a new body shop and assembly equipment at its Flint Truck Assembly plant.
The investment announced Tuesday is the latest announced portion of GM's $5.4-billion capital improvement initiative at 40 U.S. plants.
“This investment will allow us to use a more innovative approach to deliver material between two critical facilities, reducing handling and the time it takes to ship parts,” said Cathy Clegg, GM vice president for North America manufacturing and labor relations.
General Motors' plan to invest $5 billion in a family of technology-rich small cars reflects the industry's changing attitudes toward opportunities in emerging markets, where consumers and regulators are increasingly demanding more advanced vehicles.
In the past, Western automakers typically served these markets with low-cost, bare-bones cars, or produced stripped-down versions of vehicles that had reached the end of their product lives in mature markets.
GM President Dan Ammann said the company believes neither approach will work in the future.
FCA US powers STEM pipeline with diverse talent
