A HUGE ORGANIZATION.
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WE have received from the General Motors Export, Corporation an informative brochure, in which enumerated the products, the location of plants, and the functions of the General Motors Corporation and its subsidiary and affiliated companies. It may not generally be known that the General Motors Corporation is primarilyan operating company, owning the assets of its manufacturing organizations, although it is also a heading company owning part or all of the capital stock of other companice. Some conception of the General Motors family .may., be gained from a, few statistics of the corporation. There are 75 divisions, subsidiaries, and affiliated conipanies, with. plants located in 35 cities of the United States and Canada. These plants embrace over 2,000 acres of land, upon which there are over 1,500
08 buildings with a total floor space of over 32 milluen sq. ft. As an illustration of size, take the Buick plant at Flint, which is 11 miles long by e mile wide, covering a little over 2001 acme of ground, and the new Cadillac plant at Detroit, which covers 46 acres of ground ; a tour of inspection through all the Cadillac buildings would require a walk of more than six miles.
The central office building of the corporation, located in Detroit, is said to he the largest office building of its kind in the world, being 15 storeys high, and located on a plot of ground 504 ft. by 322, ft. In the building there are 1,400,000 sq. ft. of floor space, the equivalent of 30 acres.
The lorries made by divisions of the corporation include Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, G.M.C., and Samson, the respective sales during the past four years of the
first three makes, which are known to those in the industry on this side, being as follow :
1920. MP. 1918. :1917.
Chevrolet ... 13,651 6,098 384 2,664 G.M.C.... 5,137 7,729 8,997 5,861
Oldsmobile 8,239 7,782 30 15
The lorry, traotot, and private car units are largely self-contained, producing their own parts. However, to supplement this production and the production of the accessory companies thereetre 14 units specializing in inter-company parts, with factories located in seven cities. These produce, among other components, grey, iron castings, malleable castings, forgmgs, motors, axles, gears, differentials, transmissions, steering gears, crankihaf ts, and chassis parts. There are also affiliated companies specializing in bodywork, upholstery, gears, differentials, and die castings.