As Cobalts Trump Hummers, GM's Factory IT Faces A Test

摘要

Anyone watching the plunging sales of SUVs and pickups can see why General Motors needs a manufacturing capability that can respond quickly to changing tastes. GM's IT teams have spent the past three years trying to help its factories do that better. GM has spent that time overhauling the IT infrastructure that keeps 160 global plants churning. Now largely complete, the massive undertaking included standardizing software and processes at every plant, updating networks, and creating four command centers-in the United States, Latin America, and Europe -each designed to let experts look into any GM factory around the world and help get idled production lines back up faster. Kirk Gutmann, GM's CIO of manufacturing and quality, met with InformationWeek at the company's Lansing Delta plant in Michigan in his first press interview about the effort. Broadly, the overhaul's goal was simplification and standardization. "Simplicity brings with it higher uptime and lower costs, and lets you focus on innovation because you have a common backbone to plug into," Gutmann says.