Watch: GM’s Marcio Lucon on agility, packaging strategy and EV logistics transformation

Agility and flexibility have become essential to automotive supply chains, yet achieving them requires new approaches. Speaking on the Red Sofa at Automotive Logistics and Supply Chain Global, Marcio Lucon, executive director of global logistics and containers at GM, explained how the OEM is building resilience across packaging, EV distribution and aftersales.

Lucon said logistics can no longer be planned only for the lifecycle of a vehicle programme. Volatility demands early involvement of logistics in product and production decisions. 

"In the previous environment, we were planning logistics for the life cycle of the program. We had variations but not so much. Today is a completely different world. What we plan today might not work next month or even in the afternoon," Lucon said.  "So, the way we need to do it is move our decisions ahead of everything. We are now playing a key role in the early phase of the development of all strategic decisions of the company and the objective of that is just to make sure that the whole company has visibility of the complexity or volatility of our environment, and together we can build up solutions together." 

He added that these solutions need to be considered alongside other internal divisions of the company, as well as the wider supply chain. 

"We build up a solution that considers the volatility, considers the flexibility, at the same time enables us to adjust through the life cycle and make changes very fast and very quick. And the other important thing is that we'll never be able to do that [by ourselves]. It's not only a GM piece of the story, it is something that we do in collaboration with internal stakeholders as well as external stakeholders, so suppliers are also part of that journey with us."

Packaging at the centre of strategy

GM has moved packaging decisions into the early phases of development to avoid costly inefficiencies. By consolidating responsibility into one team, the carmaker ensures packaging design supports efficiency and transportation. 

How logistics has become key to GM’s growth and footprint

GM's executive director Marcio Lucon highlights how smarter investments, a resilient network and strategic alignment are reducing risk and boosting results.

Christopher Ludwig

Emily Uwemedimo

"Packaging is always a high investment in the company and there are two kinds of packaging. The packages we call standard, and the ones that are specialised. When we put the focus on investment, we end up going all specialised, which is less efficient in cost, less efficient in maintenance, less efficient for use, less efficient for transportation, and that was happening because we were not taking decisions in the right moment, and secondly because we were taking decisions by multiple leaders in the organisation where packaging was not their priority," Lucon explained. 

"If you have packaging as a second priority, it becomes second as a decision, and probably becomes second as an efficiency. So what we did very quickly was put all the team together under one group that collaborates a lot. So there is a lot of cross-functional alignment learning to make sure that we can optimise not only the process and the development but the solutions in a way that we have the right business model."

EV logistics and fulfilment

The rapid growth of GM’s EV volumes has required new approaches to vehicle logistics. He noted that EVs are heavier and more volatile in demand compared with ICE models. To avoid overburdening dealers, GM created EV fulfilment centres to store vehicles and allow dealers to pull stock dynamically. “If an EV customer loses the window, you basically lose the sale,” he said.

Automotive Logistics & Supply Chain Global

23-25 September | Plymouth, MI

Aftersales transformation

In aftersales, customer expectations require speed above all. Lucon said GM is balancing customer care with opportunities to reduce cost, drawing inspiration from e-commerce models. The company is exploring greater synergies with production logistics to improve parts availability and efficiency.