GM Lutz'izes Vehicle Development and Design Team
FOR RELEASE: January 31, 2002GM Streamlines Vehicle Development and Design Team
- Hogan Named Group Vice President, Advanced Vehicle Development
- Design Organization Restructured, Vehicle Line Teams Consolidated
DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. today announced it will restructure and streamline its design and vehicle development organization, realign several vehicle line teams and create the position of group vice president of advanced vehicle development.
Mark Hogan, currently president of e-GM, will assume the new position immediately. Working with design, Hogan will oversee the advanced work associated with vehicle programs before they are selected for production. As a result of Hogan’s move, e-GM and OnStar will now report to Gary Cowger, GM president of North America.
Wayne Cherry, vice president of GM Design, will lead the realigned design organization. Hogan and Cherry will report directly to Bob Lutz, GM vice chairman and chairman of GM North America. Cherry also will join Hogan on the North America Strategy Board.
Lutz said the changes will speed the process of deciding which products are produced and how they are to be designed by compressing the critical, early planning stages.
“We must move with a laser-like focus at getting great-looking, low-cost investment-efficient products into our system quickly,” Lutz said. “Mark Hogan’s role in blending great designs with the other imperatives should shorten our total development times and, most importantly, ensure that we have the right products. Simply put, there’s no room in this intensely competitive environment for anything but superb vehicles that are profitable and can be moved to the market fast.”
Design/Advanced Vehicle Development Realignment
The design organization reporting to Cherry will move to an architecture-based system, led by five executive directors: Anne Asensio, design, quality and brand character; Bryan Nesbitt, unibody architecture design; Ed Welburn, body-on-frame architecture design; and Mark Reuss, design center engineering and specialty vehicles. Reuss will also report to Jim Queen, GM vice president of GM Engineering. An executive director of advanced vehicle design will be named at a later date.
Under the new system, design goals for a new product will be established up front by the new advanced vehicle development team. Once these goals are set, design teams will develop up to nine proposals. The product leadership team, headed by Lutz, will select the three best proposals and produce models for consumer clinics. This process will reduce the development process by several months and help ensure that the best designs are produced.
The advanced vehicle development teams will essentially mirror the structure of the vehicle line team organization as the initial development work is conducted. The vehicle line team will execute a program once it is approved, and will remain fully involved throughout the process.
Vehicle Line Teams Realigned
In a related move, four of the 13 vehicle line teams reporting to Lutz will be consolidated into two. The small truck team will be folded into the midsize truck team, and will be led by Tom Wallace, vehicle line executive. The premium mid-size car team will be combined with the luxury car team, headed by another vehicle line executive, Dave Whittaker.
“This is about taking a good organization that has enjoyed many significant product successes over the past several years, and positioning it to be truly great,” Cowger said. “It’s exceptional products in all segments of the market that will solidify GM’s future. We think these latest moves are a great step toward unleashing the true potential of our product development organization.”
Hogan, 50, was appointed to lead e-GM upon its inception in August 1999. He previously served two years as general manager of small car operations for the former GM North America Car Group. Hogan began his GM career in 1973 as a factory analyst with the Electro-Motive Division in Chicago, and later served in management positions on the GM Financial Staff, at the former Fisher Body Division, at the former Chevrolet-Pontiac-GM of Canada Group, at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., at the former Truck and Bus Group, and with the former North American Operations. He was president and managing director of GM do Brasil, with responsibility for GM's operations in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
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