Could “Old” GM bring down “New” GM with the recent recall news?
Is the “Cinderella” story about the turnaround all a “fairy tale?” Are the poor workmanship practices of “Old GM” haunting “New GM?”
For want of a $0.57 switch will GM’s Kingdom be lost?
Recently in the news there has been an alarming fact about General Motors automobile products that have caused a loss of property and more importantly loss of lives, while most admit a simple design flaw could’ve been repaired with a $0.57 switch. This paper will touch on the history of GM dating back to 1899 where you will see a history of boom and bust cycle all the way up to the collapse and rebirth of GM in 2009 and subsequent success years since. The examination of some of the decisions made will help to paint a picture as to why GM failed, declared bankruptcy and ultimately had to be bailed out by the US government and taxpayers via TARP This paper will also pose two questions; “Were the roots of the bankruptcy and restructuring to blame in the current recall proceedings?” Should “New GM” be held accountable for actions of “Old GM?”
The History of General Motors Corporation the one time “largest automaker in the world” had its start in 1899. At that time over one thousand companies had attempted to improve the “horse drawn carriage” to that of an automobile and failed. William Crapo Durant; Durant had been in the horse carriage business in Flint Michigan since 1886 selling over 75,000 in 1895. In 1904 Durant bought into the Buick Motor company many other auto makers also had operations in Flint, MI; Chrysler, Buick, Nash to name a few. The economic downturn of 1907 bankrupted many of the smaller auto manufacturers and to protect the company Durant sought out Henry Ford and Ran...
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...e will also look at how this has sweeping implications
Mark Hood an engineer in Florida was hired by the family of Brooke Melton, she was driving a Chevy Cobalt that failed to deploy the airbags in a head on collision causing a fatality of her and her son. Mr. Hood had originally looked at a the part from a 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt but after hours of testing was unable to discern why it failed.
References:
Flint, city, United States. (2013). Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, 1.
James R. HealeyUSA, T. (n.d). 100 YEARS OF CHEVY. USA Today.
Another Buick first for the trivia lover: Buick was the first car to wear a price sticker. The Automobile Price Labeling Act became effective in the 1959 model year, and Buick was the first 1959 line to be introduced.
Teahen Jr., J. K. (2003). Buick was bellwether that led GM in early years. Automotive News, 77(6037), 34
This paper will focus on the future of the U.S. Automobile industry as the United States recovers from the worst recession we have experienced in the past 75 years. I will provide information on the following topics pertaining to the U.S. automobile industry:
The automaker Chevrolet has experienced much technological change in the past 104 years. Although it, Chevrolet, is a French name, it is an American car company. It was primarily founded by William C, Durant, along with Louis Chevrolet, on November 3, 1911. It wasn’t until six years of existence that it became part of the Automotive Division at General Motors, otherwise known as GM. Durant had previously tried to buy out Ford and failed. This caused him to resort to co-founding Chevrolet. The first car sold by the company commonly called Chevy was the Classic Six, at the price of 2,500 dollars. Chevy started producing these vehicles in 1912-1913. The car’s value may seem like pocket change but that is the common day equivalent of roughly 57,000
Entering the 1950s, no corporation even came close to General Motors in its size, or it's profits. GM was twice as big as the second biggest company in the world, Standard Oil of New Jersey (father of today's Exxon Mobil), and had a vast diversity of businesses ranging from home appliances to providing insurance and building Buicks, Cadillacs, Chevys, GMCs, Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs and trains. It was so big that it made more than half the cars sold in the United States and the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust division was threatening to break it up(to prevent Monopolies, Like how Standard oil was broken up). In the 21st century, it's almost hard to imagine how powerful GM was in the 50s and 60s. Sports cars from Europe were getting popular, because of servicemen coming back from WWII, and wanted sports cars, but American Automakers didn't make sports cars, so they would either buy foreign, or go without. A man named McLean would still try to make a low priced sports car. But it didn't work. The idea of a car coming from GM that could compete with Jaguar, MG or Triumph was pretty much considered stupid and insane. C1:Generation: Bad but valuable. Just 300 Corvettes were made in 1953. Each of these first-year Corvettes was a white roadster with red interior. The Corvette was made of fiberglass for light weight, but the first cars were made with a really weak, (and kind of pathetic for a “sports car”) 150 horsepower 6-cylinder engine and an automatic transmission. The result was more of a look at me, I’m rich car than a race car. The first generation of the Corvette was introduced late in 1953. It was originally designed as a show car for GM's traveling car show, Motorama, the Corvette was a Show Car for the 1953 Motorama display...
Standard & Poor’s. General Motors (GM). (1999) Standard Corporation Descriptions. (pp. 6000 – 6003) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Henry Ford realized his dream of producing an automobile that was reasonably priced, reliable, and efficient with the introduction of the Model T in 1908. (XXXX) “This vehicle initiated a new era in personal transportation. It was easy to operate, maintain, and handle on rough roads, immediately becoming a huge success.
As the automobile industry made its first appearance in the early 1900s, General Motors had already slowly begun its formation. GM was founded in 1908 by William C. Durant, a carriage manufacturer of Flint, Michigan, and today operates manufacturing and assembly plants and distribution centers in many countries, including Canada . Its major products include automobiles and trucks, a wide range of automotive components, engines, and defense and aerospace materiel. General Motors has a long history of business and technological innovation designed to deliver ever-increasing value to their customers and society. GM today has manufacturing operations in more than 30 countries and its vehicles are sold in about 200 countries.
I think General Motors is responsible for the economic problems of Flint, Michigan. The Chairman and CEO of General Motors announced that ten plants would be closing, including one in Flint, Michigan. The reason behind this is to ship business and jobs to cheaper countries such as Mexico, where workers do not have to be paid much for the same amount of work. This saves the company millions of dollars. The General Motor plants closing was the catalyst that caused more problems for the working class economy of Flint. Plant workers did not have extra money to spend, causing local shops to close or move to different cities. People lost their main source of income, their house and their trust in General Motors. While this might have been a great
Achieving world class business performance is a major challenge in today’s society. Manufacturing companies continue to face increased competition and globalization from its competitors. (1, p. 148). The automotive industry is one of the most volatile manufacturing industries that we have, which was evident in the 2008 – 2010 automotive industry crisis. (2) This global financial downturn served notice to the American automotive manufactures to raise the bar, in order to achieve word class business performance. General Motors, one of the country’s largest automotive manufactures, had to receive a government bailout to survive. During this time many with the corporation asked themselves, if we were a world class business, would we be facing this pending crisis. The answer was a resounding “NO”. General Motors has come out of bankruptcy and is focused on being a world-class business organization.
General Motors is one of the world's most dominant automakers from 1931. After 1980s economic recession the main goal for automobile companies was cost reduction. Customers became more price-sensitive. Also Japanese competitors came into market with the new effective system of production. So market was highly competitive and directed toward price reduction. The case states that in 1991 GM suffered $ 4.5 billion losses and most part of the costs of manufacturing was due to purchased components. GM NA hired Lopez in order to find the way from "extraordinary" situation and reduce costs.
Independent automakers such as Auburn, Hudson, Nash, and Studebaker served a focused market, catering to small car drivers, not covered by the "Big Three" makers: Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler. Many of these independent automakers saw their last days during the Great Depression. After World War II, there was just a handful left.
Roger & Me shows that GM's board of directors used company profits not to create new jobs, but to buy already existing assets, such as data processing companies (EDS) and weapons manufacturers (Hughes Aircraft) at inflated prices, and to automate their current assembly lines, and build new plants in Mexico and in Asia -- destroying jobs in the United States in the process. In Mexico, GM pays the worker...
Entering the 1950s, no corporation even came close to General Motors in its size, or it's profits. GM was twice as big as the second biggest company in the world, Standard Oil of New Jersey (father of today's ExxonMobil), and had a vast diversity of businesses ranging from home appliances to providing insurance and building Buicks, Cadillacs, Chevys, GMCs, Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs and trains. It was so big that it made more than half the cars sold in the United States and the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust division was threatening to break it up(to prevent Monopolies, Like how Standard oil was broken up). In the 21st century, it's almost hard to imagine how powerful GM was in the 50s and 60s.Sports cars from Europe were getting popular, because of servicemen coming back from WWII, and wanted sports cars, but American Automakers didn't make sports cars, so they would either buy foreign, or go without. A man named McLean would still try to make a low priced sports car. But it didn't work. The idea of a car coming from GM that could compete with Jaguar, MG or Triumph was pretty much considered stupid and insane. C1:Generation: Bad but valuable. Just 300 Corvettes were made in 1953. Each of these first-year Corvettes was a white roadster with red interior. The Corvette was made of fiberglass for light weight, but the first cars were made with a really weak, (and kind of pathetic for a “sports car”) 150 horsepower 6-cylinder engine and an automatic transmission. The result was more of a look at me, I’m rich car than a race car. The first generation of the Corvette was introduced late in 1953. It was originally designed as a show car for GM's traveling car show, Motorama, the Corvette was a Show Car for the 1953 Motorama display at...
When you look at the history of General Motors, you will find a long, rich heritage. General Motors came into existence in 1908 when it was founded by William "Billy" Durant. At that time Buick Motor Company was a member of GM. over the years GM would acquire more than 20 companies, to include Opel, Chevrolet, Cadillac, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile. By the 1960's through 1979 was known as a revolution period for General Motors. Everyone was focusing on environmental concerns, increased prices of gasoline lead to the unprecedented downsizing of vehicles. The smaller cars lead to one the largest re-engineering program ever taken in the industry. By 1973, General Motors was the first to offer an air bag in a production car.
This paper takes a look at the ways in which the ideas of Fordism and Taylorism helped the success of the U.S motor vehicle industry. The motor vehicle industry has changed the fundamental ideas on the process of manufacturing and probably more expressively on how humans work together to create value.
Henry Ford began a family automobile business in 1903; this was during the industrial revolution. This business has become the most famous automobile brand in the world. Over the years the business structure had adapted to changes in leadership, markets trends and the economic conditions. The Ford family still controls the company through multiple voting shares, even though it owns a much lower proportion of the equity