Sales lead to OT at Lansing GM plant
Shrinking Cadillac inventories increase hours at Grand River
By Barbara Wieland
Lansing State Journal
Advertisement
Shrinking stock
A 60-day inventory is ideal for the industry. GM's Lansing-made cars have experienced declining inventory in the past months. This chart shows how many days of inventory GM has for certain models.
Vehicle Feb. 1 July 1 Aug. 1
Cadillac CTS 134 days 41 days 37 days
Cadillac STS 138 days 76 days 55 days
Cadillac SRX 129 days 102 days 39 days
Chevrolet SSR 201 days 138 days 112 days
Source: Automotive News
Related news from the Web
Latest headlines by topic:
• Cadillac SRX
• Cadillac CTS
• Chevrolet SSR
• Cadillac
• Chevrolet
Powered by Topix.net
Workers at General Motors Corp.'s Lansing Grand River plant soon will be working overtime to replenish the stock of Cadillac CTS, STS and SRX vehicles.
Starting in mid-September, a half-hour of overtime will be added to every shift at the three-year-old plant, meaning that each worker can expect to see 2.5 hours of overtime per week. The plant has 1,800 workers.
In addition, five Saturdays will be added into the production schedule. GM spokeswoman Heidi Magyar said the extra shifts will be added between the end of September and December.
These will be the first Saturday shifts at the plant in nearly a year.
The overtime is needed because vehicle inventories have been depleted by GM's Employee Discount for Everyone program, which began in June.
"We're meeting the market demand for our product," Magyar said. "We're very excited about how our vehicles have been selling. The STS is taking off, especially."
The overtime follows a slowdown of the plant line in June.
Magyar said previously that slowing down the rate of production gave workers more time to check the vehicles' quality.
"They just derated the line and then they add more cars back in," said Thomas Hankins, a skilled trades worker at the plant.
"The number of cars we make (with overtime) is going to be about the same thing as what we made before the derate."
The increasing demand for the Cadillacs is a positive for the plant's workers.
"Everybody likes the OT. It shows we're holding our own in the market," said Mike Green, vice chairman of United Auto Workers Local 652, which represents the factory's hourly workers.
Contact Barbara Wieland at 267-1348 or bwieland@ lsj.com.
