GM Revs Up New Vehicle Launch Center to Solve Problems

Over the decades, General Motors Corp. has tried numerous methods of developing vehicles, many of them at the same time.

The result has been redundancy, cost overruns, and cars and trucks hitting the market too late to appeal to customers.

With its new Vehicle Launch Center--a business “incubator” formed last year that monitors projects when they are most vulnerable to cost overruns--GM thinks it is on the way to less expensive vehicles, developed faster.

GM’s far-flung development processes allowed the company’s different divisions and a variety of executives to have a say in what happened at any point along the way. The higher-ranking the executive, the later he or she could order a change, delaying a car or truck’s arrival in showrooms.

“One of the beauties of the launch center approach is that it takes that out of the business,” said Gerald Collins, director of the center, which operates at GM’s sprawling Technical Center in Warren.

In designing a new car or freshening an existing model, GM is now focused on what the customer wants, not the whim of engineers or meddling executives.

How do customers see the results of the center’s work?

One way is through GM’s recent move to so-called value pricing. That’s when models are offered with a package of popular equipment at a discounted, no-haggle price, instead of stripped models with a long list of options.

Collins reviewed how the center operates at the University of Michigan Automotive Management Briefings on Thursday.

The center takes vehicles from the rough-idea stage to the point at which the company decides whether or not to build them, he said.

Right now, that’s 15 months to 16 months, but Collins said GM hopes to reduce it to 12.

During the incubator period, a program develops:

* Specific customer needs.

* Vehicle specifics, such as whether it will be front-, rear- or all-wheel drive; and its size.

* Projected capital spending and profit projections.

* Technical specifications and clay and computer models.

Five vehicles due in 1997 and beyond are now in the launch center, Collins said.

GM is also striving to reduce engineering and manufacturing time to 23 or 24 months from the current 29 months. If both efforts succeed, GM could develop a new vehicle from start to finish in 36 months, compared to about 44 months now.

That would put it on par with the best in the industry. Chrysler, for instance, is bringing its new subcompact, the Neon, to market in 32 months.

Collins said the cost savings from the launch center are not easily counted because its work is linked with other manufacturing tasks. Collins said the launch center is as much a process as a place.

“This is critical, especially since the early stages of a product program determine 70% of the program’s timing, cost, quality and customer satisfaction levels,” he said.