General Motors Retooling Orion Lake Assembly Plant

---

Researched by industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). General Motors Corporation (Detroit, Michigan) (NYSE:GM) is currently retooling its Orion Lake, Michigan, plant to assemble the next-generation Pontiac Grand Am, one of its most popular vehicles.

The $325 million retooling project, which began right after the plant's two-week July shut-down, will equip the plant for production of the 2004 model Grand Am. The project is part of GM's emphasis on its new range of mid-sized cars, which will be built on the "Epsilon architecture", using common group parts and platforms for the various models, thus allowing for leaner production.

Sales of GM's larger cars made at this plant, Buick's LeSabre and Park Avenue, Pontiac's Bonneville, and Oldsmobile's Aurora, had been decreasing, and the Orion Lake plant had seen a huge lay-off of workers early this year - some 1,700 workers - with the loss of a second shift. With production of the new Grand Am, the second shift will be restored and employment will rise to 2,500, which is still far short of the 4,200 employed at Orion earlier this year.

GM is also considering producing a hardtop convertible version, according to Michael Robinet, vice president of global forecast services of CSM Worldwide.

Production of the Grand Am and the Chevrolet Malibu will be moved from the Lansing assembly plant to Orion, which will leave Lansing with only the Malibu Classic production line and one production shift.