Who Needs Innovation? GM To Cut A Quarter Of Research And Development Jobs

General Motors plans to cut about a quarter of the workers at its r&d facility at the Warren Technical Center in suburban Detroit, part of a broader reorganization of its r&d operation.

GM plans to lay off about 100 of the roughly 400 r&d workers at the Warren complex, according to a person with knowledge of the plans. Another 90 r&d people at a GM research facility in India will be let go, the source said.

Most of GM’s global r&d employees are based in Warren.

Read Article

bfghemicuda - 5/1/2012 7:24:12 PM

+3 Boost

Yea Blazinboy, Like the R&D Diamler did for Chrysler??? called pillaging!! Taking profitt from the Chrysler's end and directing it to Merc. In return Chrysler vehicles got lac-luster interiors. When the transmissions from Merc were on the assembly line if there was a questionable issue, those went to Chrysler and the good ones went to Merc. De-funding the Viper project and taking the Chassis from SRT and using it for the SLS AMG That kind of R&D ?? Diamler is the reason Chrysler needed bailing out. And as far as Fiat is concerned, Sergio has given the Chrysler people back there dignity. Currently Chrysler is saving Fiat.

Steve - 5/1/2012 7:47:33 PM

+4 Boost

Does anyone remember Nortel Networks?

Under the leadership of Paul Stern, profits soared while slashing research and development expenditures. Stern made off like a bandit with bonuses and stock options. Unfortunately, that model collapsed a few years later, and Nortel had a hard time retaining customers and selling outdated products. Today, people ask if anyone remembers Nortel Networks.

Hit your history books, GM!!!

Agent009 - 5/2/2012 8:28:50 AM

+3 Boost

R&D is the lifeline of most manufacturing companies, you only cut when you are having issues.

It doe s make you wonder just how they are going to meet the new Cafe' standards without investing in the future.

vdiv - 5/2/2012 3:03:16 PM

+1 Boost

Sell more Volts! :P

Cutting R&D is extremely short-sighted. The people who made this decision should be fired on the spot. If they are trying to rely on Delphi and outside work they will lose any competitive edge they may currently have.

Steve - 5/2/2012 3:50:36 PM

+1 Boost

Agent009 writes "...It doe s make you wonder just how they are going to meet the new Cafe' standards without investing in the future."

Simple. They'll lobby the feds to change the Cafe standards to accommodate them. Unfortunately, many of us still believe "What's good for GM is good for America," and so, we'll go along with that plan. We did that when the feds donated a ton of our money in the form of bailouts.

vdiv - 5/2/2012 5:24:33 PM

+1 Boost

Except that GM is not the only auto-maker interested in delaying/lowering the CAFE standards. Also don't think the Feds will bail out GM again if it comes to that. The argument that they would have to in the current economic state would not work as it did in the depths of the recession.