General Motors is restructuring its engineering and design operations to better leverage global resources, accelerate product development and, ultimately, reduce expenses, according to Reuters.

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The report said the most significant changes place three top North American executives in new positions with global responsibility: John Smith assumes the position of group vice president for global product planning, Jim Queen becomes vice president of global engineering and Ed Welburn takes over as vice president for global design, responsible for all product design initiatives.


The company reportedly said the moves involve no job cuts.


“GM’s future success in the global automotive marketplace will depend heavily on our ability to fully leverage our broad and deep resources, especially in the critical area of product development,” GM chairman and chief executive Rick Wagoner said in a statement cited by Reuters. “These changes will accelerate our efforts to get more great cars and trucks to market faster, to provide more value to our customers and to increase our global sales.”


The news agency said Smith, 54, has been group vice president of North American sales, service and marketing, and Queen, 56, has overseen engineering for GM North America. Welburn, 54, will retain responsibility for North America design.

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Reuters said all three will report to Bob Lutz, GM’s vice chairman of global product development and chairman of GM North America – one of Lutz’s tasks in recent years has been evaluating GM’s global resources and devising ways to use them more effectively and efficiently.