Lear, Intier, Venture Get GM Interiors

General Motors Corp. has selected three additional suppliers as part of its strategy to hand off a major portion of the development of future GM vehicles (see WAW — July '01, p.45).

Lear Corp., Magna International Inc.'s Intier Automotive and Detroit-based Venture Industries Inc. each will be assigned a specific GM platform and be responsible for developing interiors for next-generation vehicles from the platform, Bo Andersson, executive in charge of worldwide purchasing at GM, tells WAW.

Mr. Andersson made his remarks in mid August after his speech at the automotive Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, MI.

Lear, Intier and Venture join Johnson Controls Inc. as lead interior integrators. In May GM named JCI to develop interiors for its next-generation minivans. With its extensive GM truck business, it is believed Lear will handle interiors for GM pickups.

As with JCI, the three others will take on some GM engineers as part of the interior outsourcing strategy. “I'm very cautious as we move forward because this is a big thing,” Mr. Andersson says.

Union officials are lukewarm to the concept because of concern that JCI, if given the authority, would select non-union Tier 2 and 3 suppliers. For now, GM will remain responsible for selecting all suppliers, Mr. Andersson says. But as the strategy moves forward, the lead systems integrators may gain clout in influencing those sourcing decisions.