GM will invest $6.5M in Burton, Ypsilanti parts processing centers

Employees at work in General Motors' new ACDelco and GM Genuine Parts processing center Monday, August 5, 2019 in the Flint, Michigan, suburb of Burton. The facility will employ more than 800 hourly and salaried employees. The 1.1 million-square-foot plant is triple the size of the facility that it is replacing. The increased capacity allows for greater efficiency and output as employees unitize and package as many as 120 million service parts a year. (Photo by Jeffrey Sauger for General Motors)

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BURTON, MI -- General Motors is investing more than $20 million at three of its Customer Care and Aftersales parts and distribution centers, including two in Michigan.

GM announced the investments on Thursday, Jan. 26, saying that the spending is designed to modernize its warehouse operations as the company prepares for higher demand for vehicles and to ready its facilities for increased electric vehicle production.

GM’s Davison Road Processing Center in Burton is in line to receive automatic boxing machines valued at $3.5 million -- equipment that will allow for the creation of custom-sized boxes to fit parts, according to the announcement. Installation is expected to begin by March and be operational by April.

The company will also spend $3 million to implement robotic technology with powered conveyors to lift and palletize material at its Ypsilanti Processing Center. Installation of the equipment is scheduled to begin by October and is expected to be operational by December.

A third warehouse -- the Memphis, Tennesee, Parts Distribution Center -- will receive the largest of the investments -- $14 million to implement an automated parts storage and retrieval system. GM said it has also awarded a $10,000 community grant to the University of Memphis Foundation.

The 1.1-million-square-foot Burton facility opened in July 2019. The $65-million warehouse employs more than 1,200 hourly and salaried workers. Its opening coincided with the closing of another Davison Road CCA facility, which was nearly three times smaller than the current complex.

The Ypsilanti facility, which opened in 2008, is 412,500 square feet and is located Tyler Road. The warehouse employs more than 150 salaried and hourly workers.

“As we continue to invest in our workforce by modernizing our warehouse operations, implementing technology allows our organization to prepare for industry growth, especially as we expand for the electric vehicle future,” John Roth, GM global CCA vice president, said in a statement from the company. “Combining the talent of our workforce with new technology, we can help minimize ergonomic stressors and reduce the physically demanding work, which will help us prepare for increased demand as we support more vehicles on the road. It can also help increase order fulfillment speed and ensure our customers continue to receive the right part, at the right place, at the right time.”

Read more at The Flint Journal:

GM officially opens new $65M Flint-area parts processing center

GM to invest $579M in Flint, $216M in Bay City for next-generation V-8 engine

What’s that? Historic Flint home on I-beams is slowly on the move

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