GM's Global Manufacturing System - A System To Build Great Cars and Trucks
GM's Global Manufacturing System (GMS) is an important building block of an integrated strategy to develop and build great cars and trucks.
GMS is a system built around people. The system stresses the value of teamwork, and is based on an underlying philosophy that everyone, in every position, adds value. At the heart of the system is the operator in the plant – the person who builds GM’s great products. Plants and processes are designed around providing support for the operators and teams on the plant floor, so they can build great vehicles that provide our customers with higher quality, value and responsiveness.
Several factors played a role in the evolution of GMS. The experience gained through NUMMI, a joint venture with Toyota, provided GM the introduction of the Toyota Production System.
GM's plants in Eisenach, Germany; Shanghai, China, Rosario, Argentina and Lansing Grand River also helped lay the foundation for today's GMS. These new plants take the experiences from NUMMI to the next level. These plants embody best-in-class manufacturing techniques and serve as models for all of our plants.
Manufacturing performance is improved through the consistent adoption of five principals—people involvement, standardization, built in quality, short lead time and continuous improvement. The principals are interrelated and implemented as a complete system.
The GMS principals maximize performance in the areas of people systems, safety, quality, customer responsiveness and cost.
People: Products, plants and processes are designed to allow GM’s people to use their skills and abilities as efficiently as possible. Workers are organized into small teams and trained and empowered to run their areas.
GM is working with the UAW and its other unions on many aspects of GM’s people systems strategy. This includes maintaining a high level of communication and cooperation with the UAW, IUE and other unions. The communications process and environment are dedicated to helping employees understand their work and allowing them to have input into improving their jobs.
Improved people systems, with a focus on the operator, and improved material handling help to attain world-class competitiveness. The system allows more efficient delivery and presentation of material to the assembly line operator, eliminating the need for costly inventory while providing a safety benefit through the reduction of forklift traffic in the plant.
Safety: GM is the industry benchmark in safety, a goal achieved through a strong partnership between GM and its unions. Because GMS is built around people, safety is a top priority. Providing a safe working environment is an essential part of creating an organization where each person is important and critical to the overall success.
Quality: Developing vehicles that are simpler to build and use fewer parts enhances quality. The team concept is a critical part of managing quality by making each team responsible for managing quality in their area. Team members receive extensive training in identifying and solving problems and in quality systems such as Andon to request assistance and even stop production in their area if necessary to remedy problems. Error proofing strategies and implementing standardized work also enhance first-time product quality.
Responsiveness: GM’s manufacturing strategy maximizes customer responsiveness, by responding fast to customer and market trends. GM is shifting from a “make-and-sell” to a “sense-and-respond” organization. A make-and-sell organization predicts what the market will want, makes it and then tries to sell it. It’s a system based on high-volume manufacturing.
Sense-and-respond is all about moving with speed in a market that is evolving to fragmented, niche products with less volume per entry, and being flexible enough to deal with uncertainty and generate options for the product and the customer.
Another fundamental of the system is an emphasis on responding fast to customer and market trends. This flexibility begins with developing vehicles that are simpler to build. Flexible global vehicle architectures allow GM to more easily build cars, trucks and crossovers off the same architecture in one or more plants.
Cost: GM’s manufacturing system concentrates on cost savings by eliminating all forms of waste that detract from our ability to be competitive and support the assembly line operator.
Machinery and equipment are purchased as integrated systems, not as bits and pieces. A lean, more efficient plant structure requires lower capital investment and allows GM to run its business more competitively.
Computer technology is also helping GM reduce costs. Virtual reality technology is being used to reduce development costs and improve overall efficiency. To help ensure that equipment and processes support the assembly line operators, GM uses 3-D math modeling to create a “virtual factory” that helps planners integrate equipment, tools, fixtures and machinery that will be used in the plant.
GM's Global Manufacturing System - a system to build great cars and trucks.
For more information about GM Manufacturing and Labor, visit http://www.gmmanufacturing.info
Contacts:
Tom Wickham
GM Global Manufacturing and Labor Relations
Office: 248-753-5187
Mobile: 810-964-5525
Tom.Wickham@gm.com
Pam Reese
GM Global Manufacturing and Labor Relations
Office: 248-753-2272
Mobile: 586-246-8683
Pam.Reese@gm.com