General Motors Distribution Center Opens In Chattanooga, Tenn

Autoparts Report, Feb 14, 2000

Norfolk Southern Corp. has opened a $2.5 million distribution center in Chattanooga's Southside for General Motors vehicle parts. The distribution site, which started operating last month and employs 40 people.

Larry Collingwood, Norfolk's assistant vice president of industrial development, said the company has a contractor that uses trucks to pick up the parts made by firms in the region for General Motors.

The parts are put into box cars and shipped by rail to GM vehicle assembly plants, he said. "It takes trucks off the road and puts the parts on rail," said Mr. Collingwood. "It's a warehouse on the rails."

Norfolk operates four such just-in-time distribution centers across the eastern United States for the nation's biggest automaker. The first was built in Detroit in the early 1990s. Chattanooga was picked for the distribution site because of its central location amid a number of parts makers in the region, said Mr. Collingwood.

In Chattanooga, for example, Wheland Foundry produces gray iron and ductile castings used in brakes on General Motors vehicles. "Anywhere there's a concentration of auto parts that go into GM vehicles," said Mr. Collingwood. "We're a logistics and physical provider."

Collingwood said GM likes the distribution centers because it doesn't have to warehouse the parts at its assembly plants. "There's no warehousing for the parts at all," he said.