General Motors Global Manufacturing Heads Visit Vauxhall Plants

LUTON, UNITED KINGDOM – Sept 26, 2011: At a visit to Vauxhall’s plants in Bedfordshire and Cheshire, GM Global Manufacturing heads looked, listened and learned about state-of-the-art automotive manufacturing in the UK.

Vauxhall teams at both plants showed off to their high level guests from overseas theUK operations’ outstanding achievements in efficiency, quality and safety − also introducing them to a deeply rooted culture of continuous improvement underpinned by readily available training sessions and excellent relationships between all stakeholders… a sure recipe to success and ongoing competitiveness.

Vauxhall did not fail to impress − and Diana Tremblay, General Motor’s Global Chief Manufacturing Officer, who was accompanied by Eric Stephens, Vice President Global Manufacturing Engineering, and Tom Croskey, Executive Director Global Manufacturing Strategy & Planning, commented after having visited Vauxhall’s Vivaro Van Plant at Luton and the Astra plant at Ellesmere Port:

“I was very impressed with the knowledge, hard work, dedication and enthusiasm of the entire work force − especially after the past two years of economic difficulty. It is energising for me to see our new products, as well as the strong focus on continuous process improvement. Thanks to the entire manufacturing organisation for helping GM be a great company again.”

Production at both plants is currently running at record line speeds to satisfy high demand and growing export levels and 268 employees had been taken on as a result.

A major part of the vehicles built is bound for export all over Europe, the success of the Astra Sports Tourer reaching as far as Chile and South Africa.

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Diana Tremblay is Global Chief Manufacturing Officer at General Motors. In this role, she has responsibility for 65 facilities in North America and more than 60,000 employees world-wide. Tremblay also serves as the global process guardian for GM’s global manufacturing system.

In 2010, Tremblay was named one of the “100 leading women in the North American auto industry” by Automotive News as well as one of the Top 10 most influential women in Detroit by D Business Magazine.In 2007, she was named one of the Most Influential Women in metro Detroit by Crain's Detroit Business magazine.