SHOPSMART AUTOS – CUSTOMER INFORMATION – JULY 20, 2021 (PT.2)
Dropped shifts, disappointment
The news surprised and disappointed some workers at Spring Hill Assembly.
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Fuel your hometown passion and plug into the stories that define it. Create Account “We’ve been working nine hours a day and weekends, just reduced us back to eight hours this week and canceled Saturday and Sunday,” said an assembly line worker at Spring Hill. “We’ll finish out this week with over 10,000 cars in repair waiting on chips.” The worker asked that his name not be used because he is not authorized to speak to the media and fears retaliation. “The three SUVs we’ve been building here are way up in sales, so it’s kind of disappointing,” the worker said. In the second quarter, sales of the XT5 rose 83% compared with the year-ago quarter, the XT6 rose 73% and the Acadia was up 72%. GM has been following a strategy of directing chips it could get to the hottest-selling vehicles and biggest profit makers and those are mostly full-sized SUVs and full-size pickups. “The global semiconductor shortage remains complex and very fluid,” said GM spokesman David Barnas. “But GM’s global purchasing and supply chain, engineering and manufacturing teams continue to find creative solutions and make strides working with the supply base to maximize production of our highest-demand and capacity-constrained vehicles, including full-size trucks and SUVs.” Barnas said GM expects this to be “a near-term issue.” GM CEO Mary Barra has said the automaker expects the chip shortage to start to improve before the end of the year. But last month, GM’s CFO said the chip shortage and rising inflation will increase GM’s expenses during the second half of the year by up to $3 billion.
Hitting production target
Since early this year the auto industry has had to either idle assembly plants or build vehicles shy of all the parts and then park them to await the arrival of chips. The result is comparatively empty dealer lots. The chips, made mostly in Taiwan, are used in a variety of electronics. They are in tight supply after demand for them rose during the COVID-19 pandemic as people bought laptops and other personal electronics that also use them. The chips go into a variety of car parts. At Wentzville Assembly in Missouri, where GM makes its Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon midsize pickups and full-size vans, GM has about 30,000 unfinished pickups parked in various locations awaiting chips parts since late April. Make It A Champion Day!
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