General Motors plans to sharply reduce the number of suppliers to its truck plants as the automaker's light truck sales plunge.
GM purchasing chief Bo Andersson said the automaker is looking at how many truck plants it needs and he is determining how many of its 400 truck suppliers are required.

"Where we have four suppliers, we will go to two; where we have two, we will go to one," Andersson, group vice president for purchasing and supply chain, told the Management Briefing Sessions here today.

"If we used to build 7,500 trucks a day and we are now building 3,750, we need to adjust."

Andersson said he has yet to determine which suppliers will be cut. GM will decide the winners based on "best price, quality, delivery, technology and best landed cost." He's also looking for those with the best geographic location.

Some of the winning suppliers stand to double their content on GM's light trucks.

GM, for example, has four suppliers for instrument panels on its light trucks and four for stampings.

"The effort is proactive," he said, "to be sure that we get the best suppliers."

Among the suppliers with the most content on GM's light trucks are Magna International Inc. of Canada and American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. of Detroit.