General Motors (GM) recently announced that it will invest an additional $1 billion in U.S. manufacturing operations. The new investments will cover multiple new vehicle, advanced technology and component projects. A combination of 1,500 new and retained jobs are tied to the new investments. Details of individual projects will be announced throughout the year.
The company also announced it will begin work on insourcing axle production for its next-generation full-sized pickup trucks, including work previously done in Mexico, to operations in Michigan, creating 450 U.S. jobs.
"As the U.S. manufacturing base increases its competitiveness, we are able to further increase our investment, resulting in more jobs for America and better results for our owners," said Mary Barra, GM chairman and CEO. "The U.S. is our home market, and we are committed to growth that is good for our employees, dealers and suppliers, and supports our continued effort to drive shareholder value."
GM's announcement is part of the company's increased focus on overall efficiency over the last four years. With a strategy to streamline and simplify its operations and grow its business, GM has created 25,000 jobs in the United States, including approximately 19,000 engineering, IT and professional jobs, as well as 6,000 hourly manufacturing jobs.
In addition, the company has added nearly $3 billion in annual wages and benefits to the U.S. economy over that period. At the same time, GM has reduced more than 15,000 positions outside the United States, bringing most of those jobs to America. During that period, the company moved from 90 percent of its IT work being outsourced to an insourced U.S.-based model.
"We will continue our commitment to driving a more efficient business, as shown by our insourcing of more than 6,000 IT jobs that were formerly outside the U.S., streamlining our engineering operations from seven to three, with the core engineering center being in Warren, Michigan, and building on our momentum at GM Financial and in advanced technologies," said Barra. "These moves, and others, are expected to result in more than 5,000 new jobs in the U.S. over the next few years."
GM has also been facilitating its supplier base to do the same. The company has been executing a strategy to create supplier parks adjacent to its U.S. manufacturing sites and will continue to expand this effort. Supplier parks located near assembly plants result in significant savings from reduced transportation costs, higher quality communications and continuous improvement activities.
GM also confirmed that another supplier has committed to make components for GM's next-generation full-sized pickup trucks in Michigan, moving 100 supplier jobs from Mexico to the United States.
For more information, visit www.gm.com.