On the 24th and 25th, General Motors (GM) Executive Vice President of Global Production, Gerald Johnson, visited GM Bupyeong, where the Chevrolet Trailblazer and Trax crossover, which are receiving explosive orders from all over the world, are produced. He visited the factory and the Changwon factory one after another, emphasizing the importance of thorough quality control and uninterrupted production and supply.
Executive Vice President Johnson’s visit to Korea is his first overseas business visit this year, emphasizing the importance of the Korean business that produces and supplies core products in the compact crossover and SUV segments of GM’s global vehicle portfolio to customers, and GM Korea, which has achieved global success. This was done to recognize the hard work of employees at the workplace.
Executive Vice President Gerald Johnson, who visited the Bupyeong plant on the 24th and the Changwon plant on the 25th, closely examined facilities and technologies to maintain the highest quality and improve productivity of the Chevrolet Trailblazer and Trax crossover. In particular, Executive Vice President Johnson toured the latest facilities installed at the Bupyeong Plant to prevent worker injuries and increase the competitiveness of the assembly process, and personally confirmed the background to the Bupyeong Plant’s excellent production quality and the safety of the workers’ working environment.
At the site, Executive Vice President Gerald Johnson told GM Korea executives and employees, “The Trax crossover and Trailblazer are playing an important role in the growth of the profitable internal combustion engine portfolio, which is one of GM’s key business strategies for this year, along with all-electrification. “There is strong global demand for these strategic products produced at GM’s Korean operations, and we are grateful for the dedication of all Korean teams who are responsible for smooth production and supply based on excellent quality control,” he said.
Hector Villarreal, president of GM Korea, said, “The Trailblazer and Trax crossover have made a significant contribution not only to our Korean business, but also to the development of the Korean economy and automobile industry, ranking first and fourth in the Korean passenger car export market last year. “Continuing from last year, GM Korea will operate its annual production capacity of 500,000 units to its maximum this year to respond to the explosive global demand without a hitch,” he said. “Through this, we plan to further strengthen the sustainability of the Korean business.”
At the Bupyeong factory, Vice President Johnson’s first visit, derivative models of the Trailblazer (including derivative models) and Trax crossover are currently being produced. The Bupyeong plant recently received high evaluations in its problem-solving ability, process, and evaluation system in GMS (Global Manufacturing System) BIQ (Built In Quality), a global factory evaluation system of global GM, and BIQ, which means ‘a stage where defects do not leave the process’. By once again obtaining Level 4, we have proven our competitiveness in manufacturing quality at the highest level in the world. The reason why the Trailblazer, which is produced at the Bupyeong plant and sold overseas, maintains explosive popularity around the world, achieving No. 1 domestic passenger car exports in 2023, is thanks to the outstanding product competitiveness based on the excellent quality control held by the Bupyeong plant. am.
Next, the GM Changwon plant, which Executive Vice President Johnson visited, applied GM’s latest global standard technology based on a recent large-scale investment worth approximately KRW 900 billion, and is capable of producing 60 units per hour based on ergonomic process design and automation of major processes. Efficiency, flexibility, and excellent manufacturing quality were secured. The Changwon plant, which supplied a total of 204,910 Trax crossovers to the global market last year, is currently increasing its factory operation rate as much as possible to respond to the explosive global demand for the Trax crossover, and supplied a total of 25,968 units in December last year, the highest performance since launch. and continues to rise.
Meanwhile, GM’s Korean business sold a total of 468,059 units (based on completed vehicles) in 2023, recording a 76.6% increase compared to the previous year, recording the highest annual sales volume since 2017. In order to continue this growth trend, GM plans to fully operate its annual production capacity of 500,000 units this year as it did last year, solidifying its firm position in the global compact crossover and SUV segment.
