Under Reuss, racing spurs urgency in GM engineering

[ne_one]

Under Reuss, racing spurs urgency in GM engineering
Automotive News
February 23, 2013
by Tim Higgins

When the Daytona 500 starts this weekend with Danica Patrick in the pole position driving her Chevrolet SS, General Motors will be seeking something more than a winner's trophy: adding a greater sense of urgency to GM product development.

Mark Reuss, GM's North America president since December 2009, is seeding the automaker's racing operations with engineers who spend time helping Chevy and Cadillac racing teams, eventually rotating back into product development.

Race on Sunday, engineer better cars on Monday.

GM isn't alone in looking to racing to better its product development staff.

Honda Motor Co., Ford Motor Co. and other automakers have long been active in racing.

What's new is the interest by Reuss, an engineer by training and a longtime racing enthusiast, in making sure GM executives see the experience as a career boost and rotating potential high-performers in and out of the racing teams for leadership development.

GM's racing effort has traditionally been under the company's marketing operations and separated from product development.

Full article at link.

[Nordoff]

as a fan of NASCAR I have to wonder. Is this money wasted?

Should GM be working more on Refinement and quality then on just racing?

[megeebee]

as a fan of NASCAR I have to wonder. Is this money wasted?

Should GM be working more on Refinement and quality then on just racing?

And how do you know they are working on "just racing"??? I would say that recent product is proof GM has been hard at work, and succeeding, with quality and refinement!

I swear if this were an article about GM focusing on refinement, someone would be saying they should be involved more with racing.

[nsap]

GM has a lot of great, young engineers right now. Reuss is wise to take a new path with these employees. Perhaps they won't end up stuck in the GM matrix, as Ed Whitacre would say.

Now lets do something different with the sales, service, and marketing organization.....

[richmond2000]

racing takes High focus on ONE goal and those skills at team leader / development people IMHO are good skills not to mention it "separates the wheat from the chaff"
I also think it is telling that GM MARKETING was the people concerned with racing not product devisions

[red_rider]

I think this is a good thing. I would seem to think being seriously involved in racing would do a lot for the culture instead of only caring about toasters. Just my opinion.

[BlackGTP]

I always felt like we never saw any trickle down from racing to GM's cars, now understanding that GM's racing was under marketing makes sense why. What a waste of resources and development. I'd think rotating engineers to the "racing department" is the best way for them to improve their skills. I can't believe it's 2013 and GM is just figuring this out.

[mc91]

Seems like a brilliant idea. Take what they learn in racing and apply it to design and manufacturing. The competitiveness, process, and leadership ability from racing should help them improve.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using AutoGuide.Com Free App

[goatgary]

This has to eventually have major payoffs in the safety and performance of every car GM builds.

[ne_one]

The timing on this simply couldn't be better for GM: unveil the car, start the season, drive the lead car and have the first female driver in the pole position in the SS.

Somewhere in the RenCen Mark Reuss is doing the happy dance.

[richmond2000]

This has to eventually have major payoffs in the safety and performance of every car GM builds.

NOT to mention better management/decision making skills which IMHO is lacking @ GM

[1.21 giggawatts]

Reuss for CEO. lets make it happen.

[jpd80]

I think these topics get way more ink and focus than they deserve. I have no problem with GM using
motorsport as a form of promoting vehicles and improving the relationship between engineers and
racing teams. So long as GM also keeps focus on vehicles and customers that are not race oriented.

Reuss is a good guy and has GM's best interests at heart, you can't fault a man for trying to promote
GM s strongly as he is doing across many markets, he makes Ackerson look like deadwood...

[MechEng]

I think this is a great idea.

It takes thousands of engineers to design - develop - test everything needed for a production car. It's very easy for an engineer to get focused on just their department and projects and lose sight of the big picture. NASCAR has comparably small engineering teams that are responsible for a lot more of the car. I think this will be a great learning tool and will help engineers gain a better understanding of the bigger picture and hopefully take some of the ideas generated from racing and put them into play in production.

[Hunid Racks]

The timing on this simply couldn't be better for GM: unveil the car, start the season, drive the lead car and have the first female driver in the pole position in the SS.

Somewhere in the RenCen Mark Reuss is doing the happy dance.

Naw, he's in Daytona, driving the pace car.