Parts Facility Slated to Close Will Become Assembly Plant : GM to Renovate Michigan Factory
General Motors Corp. said Friday that it plans to turn a Lansing, Mich., parts facility slated for closing into a specialty car assembly plant by 1987, saving at least 500 jobs.
GM’s announcement was the latest in a series of moves by the domestic auto industry aimed at expanding capacity to keep up with strong demand for U.S.-built cars.
The industry’s willingness to make such costly investments in new plants also seems to underline its growing belief that it can compete with the Japanese even if it continues to build many of its cars in the United States. GM, in particular, has been aggressively rebuilding its manufacturing base since the recovery began in 1983.
GM said Friday that it will convert an Oldsmobile axle plant into a relatively small assembly facility to build a new line of front-wheel-drive specialty cars beginning in 1987.
The plant, which now employs about 800 workers, has been building rear-drive axles and is scheduled for closing in June because GM plans to de-emphasize rear-wheel-drive cars in the late 1980s.
GM said the renovation will begin after the plant closes down this summer, adding that about 500 workers will be kept on during the plant changeover.
The company said a “major factor” in its decision to renovate the Lansing plant was its success in reaching an agreement with local United Auto Workers leaders on ways to reduce costs and improve productivity at the facility.
Although GM refused to identify the model it plans to build in Lansing, it did say that the plant’s production levels will be extremely low by Detroit standards--just seven units per hour. That indicates that GM will build a low-volume, expensive specialty car there.
GM has acknowledged that it has been considering building a luxury two-seat coupe for Buick and possibly Oldsmobile, to go along with an Italian-designed luxury two-seater planned for Cadillac.
But a GM spokesman refused to say whether such a Buick-Oldsmobile coupe would be produced at the new Lansing plant.
