In the past, when General Motors wanted to develop a product program, the process was directed by no more than three people. What resulted was a layer of management so heavy that communication could have been better using some cups and yarn. In order to fix the confusion, GM has officially restructured its Global Vehicle Line Teams to eliminate the unnecessary management and appoint a single person to oversee it all. Now the vice president of Product Programs, Doug L. Parks will be responsible for a lot less chief engineers.
“These changes allow the vehicle teams to focus on what they do best – develop industry-leading cars, trucks and crossovers that delight customers and deliver solid profit margins,” said Mary Barra, GM senior vice president for Global Product Development. Before the change, a product program was developed by line executive, vehicle line director and vehicle chief engineer. Now, the process will be taken care of by one chief engineer who will be assigned to one single program at a time. The reconfiguration will take effect August 1, 2012 and it will remove approximately 20 redundant positions globally.
Source: General Motors
