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Gigacasting in General Motors SWOT analysis

Brian Asimba
University of Nebraska – Lincoln
EMGT 813: Advanced Project Management I
Dr. Tres Bishop
March 29, 2024

SWOT Analysis:
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General Motors is an automotive manufacturer headquartered in Detroit, Michigan with employees over
165,000 around the world serving six continents. Gm’s vision is zero crashes, zero emissions and zero
congestion. These lofty goals demand General Motors involvement in Research and development in fields
such as Artificial Intelligence, electric vehicles as well as new manufacturing methodologies such as
gigacasting. General Motors has the skillset, technology and knowledge required to reach its lofty goals.
One of the biggest disruptors in the automotive electric vehicle architecture is the use of gigacasting. In
this report, we will perform a SWOT analysis on gigacasting at General Motors and develop a strategic
plan based on the SWOT analysis to leverage the strengths and opportunities while addressing the
weaknesses and threats.
Currently, the automotive industry is experiencing technological advances like never before. One of the
latest advances is gigacasting which is revolutionizing the vehicle manufacturing process in electric
vehicles architecture. Gigacasting is a process that allows for the vehicle manufacturer to cast large parts
in a single piece such as rear underbody, front underbody, or battery tray. Tesla pioneered gigacasting for
electric vehicles and currently all the major OEMs are utilizing it such as Toyota, General Motors, Ford as
well as new Electric Vehicle entrants such as Lucid, Rivian and the Chinese electric vehicle startups.
The project’s objective is to enhance vehicle rigidity, reduce manufacturing costs and increase production
efficiency. The scope involves optimization of the designs, process development, tryout, and integration
into the electric vehicle manufacturing facility. This project is relevant to my field and work because
gigacasting is driving innovation in electric vehicle manufacturing. Gigacasting is reducing the number of
stamped panels which would affect the stamping team where I work on the roofs and reinforcements at
General Motors. The expectation is to utilize gigacasting at high production rates by first applying the
gigacasting technology in a low volume vehicle and apply the lessons learned both from the gigacasting
of engine blocks and transmissions and low volume gigacasting to manufacture low-cost electric vehicles
at large production volumes.
In the current engineering landscape, the shift towards electric vehicles is driving unprecedented
innovation in vehicle manufacturing, design, styling, and vehicle architecture. Startup automotive
companies, especially from China are utilizing gigacasting technology to produce electric vehicles at
lower prices and threatening entry into the US market, indicating there is an existential threat to the
legacy automakers if they do not innovate. Established electric vehicle manufacturers like Tesla are not
resting on their laurels but keep on innovating and pushing the envelope. Gigacasting is a big enabler for
building cheaper EVs at scale. For example, Tesla now builds the Model Y without a separate floor,
instead it utilized battery tray as the passenger floor.
SWOT (strength weaknesses, opportunities, and Threats) analysis is a framework used to evaluate a
company’s strategic planning by analyzing the internal and external factors. The internal analysis will
determine the internal strength and weaknesses of General Motors as it relates to the current strategies
while focusing on the factors that hinder its competitive advantage.

Strengths:
Expertise:
General Motors has experience with high pressure die casting of engine blocks and transmissions going
back more than a century. The company can leverage this skill set by applying it to gigacasting of the
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underbody. The company has the skillset required for engineering, design, manufacturing, and assembly
to ensure that the gigacasting project is a success. General Motors also can leverage the skills of the
Covette in castings repair after accidents which is always a major concern when utilizing gigacasting.

Figure 1: Image showing the Model 3 stamping compared to Model Y using gigacasting part count
reduction.
Resources:
General Motors has substantial resources in Research and Development in the casting field. The
company can utilize these resources to increase its competitive advantages by producing technologies to
cast entire underbody in future. Currently, there is a need to innovate techniques of casting the entire
underbody in one shot. Currently, technology can only utilize one shot sleeve to shoot molten metal
through the shot sleeve hence limiting the size of the gigacastings produced. Adding another shot sleeve
will enable bigger castings production, as there would be multiple shot sleeves for the molten metal.
Technologies:
The acquisition of Tooling Equipment International (TEI) will enable General Motors to produce casting
mold and casting rapidly using sand printer jetting. TEI can produce low volume vehicle builds using low
pressure die casting which has advantage over high pressure die casting because it reduces the porosity
defects in die castings due to the slow filling speed of the gigacasting. TEI is also a leader in the 3D
printing of molds and castings. This will enable the company to prototype its gigacastings rapidly once
the designs are mature and stable.

Weaknesses:
Initial investment:
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To manufacture gigacastings requires a foundry, casting plant, giga presses, casting tooling and other
equipment for secondary operations, skilled personnel, etc. The initial investment in manufacturing
gigacasting is in the billions of dollars. There are tremendous risks involved and the project team needs to
ensure that an adequate risk assessment is done to ensure that the senior management team understands
the payback period and financials. This can be tough for a century old company that is risk averse and
will require management willing to take risks.
Technical challenges:
There are technical challenges in gigacasting such as controlling porosity, warping gigacastings, vehicle
integration, equipment selection. These challenges require employees with high technical ability to ensure
that the engineering, design, and manufacture is robust and project success. There is a need for change
management at General Motors to ensure that the whole organization is ready to tackle such a difficult
challenge. The company is well-versed in stamping and moving to gigacasting is a huge risk for the
business as it is unchartered territory.
Organizational culture:
General Motors has been building vehicles for more than a century. The company has been risk-averse for
a long time. For General Motors to be competitive in the new landscape, the organization must rethink
vehicle manufacturing and focus on research and development to get ahead of the competition and
translate its leadership in the internal combustion engine market share to the electric vehicles market
share. There is a need for an overhaul in the way the employees think in terms of design, engineering, and
manufacturing. It is difficult to throw away the internal combustion engine mentality and to use first
principles thinking and rethink vehicle manufacturing.

Opportunities:
Cost reduction:
The most important push towards going into gigacasting is the promise of significant cost reduction out of
vehicle projects, programs, and portfolios. Traditional stamping requires hundreds of panels requiring
welding to produce the body-in-white structure. Gigacasting on the other hand produces one casting that
replaces multiple tens of panels currently. This is because there is no assembly of panels required with
gigacastings. This reduces costs by eliminating welding guns, welding robots, factory space reduction,
personnel reduction and increase in the vehicle build production cycle time. This will enable General
Motors to manufacture affordable electric vehicles.
Market trends:
Every major OEM in the automotive industry is investing in gigacastings in their manufacturing process.
Lat year, Toyota announced it will be utilizing gigacastings to simplify its manufacturing process. The use
of gigacastings has been a big enabler on the Chinese automotive startups manufacturing cheaper vehicles
from the onset. Gigacasting coupled with electric vehicle architecture has enabled competitors to
eliminate the vehicles floors, further simplifying the vehicle manufacturing process and reducing the cost
of producing the electric vehicles. Gigacastings utilization to produce cheaper electric vehicles from
competitors such as Tesla and Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers such as BYD, Zeekr, Geely, Nio.
Currently, BYD produces the BYD Seal electric car for $9,700.
Technological advancements:
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There is ongoing advancement in casting technology, material science and gigacasting tooling.
Gigacasting utilizes aluminum as the metal for casting which contributes to vehicle lightweighting.
Magnesium is 30% lighter than aluminum and 70% lighter than steel. The latest experimentation using
magnesium in gigacasting will further reduce the weight of the vehicle which is important for electric
vehicle weight and range. The use of gigacasting has shortened production cycle time for Tesla from 1-2
hours to 3-5 minutes.
Strategic partnerships:
Collaboration with organizations such as Auto/Steel Partnership (ASP), North America Die Casting
Association (NADCA) and universities enables General Motors to access the best minds and research
with other industry experts to find solutions to the problems bogging the industry. These partnerships will
ensure that General Motors has access to the latest technology. From these partnerships, General Motors
can ensure research on the latest technologies incorporation in its processes since the employees
participate in these partnerships and return their learnings to their everyday job at General Motors.
General Motors has also partnered with international brands, which gives the company the upper hand
since the partners know the local industry better. This is a crucial factor as gigacasting is expanding
rapidly all over the globe in the automotive industry.
Benchmarking capabilities:
General Motors can benchmark the competition such as Tesla and Chinese automakers to figure out what
the competition is exceling at and use reverse engineering to understand the science behind it. For
example, the “river flowing” ribbing utilized in the Tesla Cybertruck was to enhance the flow of the
molten metal and reduce air entrapment in the casings. Due to its financial capabilities, General Motors
can have access to these processes and incorporate the best ones in its casing processes.

Threats:
Economic factors:
The current economic climate is challenging due to the high interest rates and elevated inflation numbers;
this is exerting pressure on the customers in terms of vehicle pricing. Economic factors impact the
automotive market tremendously due to the cyclical nature of the industry. Automotive manufacturers are
seeking ways of reducing manufacturing costs in electric vehicles. Gigacasting has been one of the
enablers for reducing the vehicle cost in electric vehicles.
Competitive landscape:
The competitor automotive companies are newer entrants pivot quickly and are unafraid of taking risks.
Tesla, who is leading the electric vehicles in market share, is constantly pushing the envelope of
technological innovation in the automotive electric vehicle space. For General Motors to be competitive,
it needs to focus on change management and changing the organizational culture of the company.
Competition is getting cutthroat which has resulted in price wars in the electric vehicle space with
competitors cutting prices tremendously to increase market share and remain competitive in the slowing
economy. The use of gigacasting has been an enabler of these price decreases through reduction of
manufacturing costs. It is therefore important to utilize the technology to be competitive in the
marketplace or face an existential threat.
Reliance on suppliers:
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There is reliance on casting suppliers in the young industry of large gigacastings and there is no mature
supply chain in the United States. There are only a handful of giga press equipment suppliers such as
Buhler, LK and Idra that have the capacity to build these machines, majority located in China. Due to the
lack of a robust supply chain in the United States, the waiting times for the gigapress are long, up to 2
years, and the equipment is extremely expensive because it requires specialized suppliers, the demand for
this equipment are high with supply being low.
Regulatory changes:
The current administration in the United States is pro electric vehicles but the past administration was not
pro-electric vehicles. The regulations have a drastic effect on the electric vehicle industry. The current
administration has championed incentives for the electric vehicle automotive manufacturers are providing
rebates to electric vehicles’ customers, building the electric vehicle infrastructure such as charging
stations. This in turn has led to the increase usage of the gigacasting technology to the overall weight
reduction advantages from using the technology. This will be an area to watch as this is an election year.
Safety concerns:
Gigacasting plants contain foundries where the molten metal for the gigacasting process. This molten
metal is moved to the gigacasting press using forklifts with the molten metal in the ladle at around 700
degrees Celsius. It is therefore a safety hazard for the workers and safety protocols must be adhered to, to
prevent accidents. In addition, the use of magnesium in the gigacasting is a big safety hazard because
once it catches fire, it is difficult to extinguish, therefore magnesium usage in the foundry needs extra
care.

Strategic plan:
Next, we will propose a strategic plan to leverage the strengths and opportunities and address the
weaknesses and threats. From the SWOT matrix, the matching was done to determine the strategies as
follows: Strength-Opportunities (SO) strategies, Weaknesses-Opportunities (WO) strategies, Strength-
Threats (ST) strategies and Weaknesses-Threats (WT) strategies as shown below.
General Motors can leverage its strategic investments such as university and organization partnerships to
prioritize research, development, and implementation of gigacasting technology while focusing on the
areas with the highest potential to reduce cost, improve vehicle performance and market differentiation.
The engine and transmission team in the propulsion department have knowledge that is transferrable to
the underbody gigacasting projects such as simulation, Design for Manufacturing (DFM), structural
analysis, tooling, and equipment knowledge. These prior skills will reduce the learning curve in the
organization when moving to body structure gigacasting. In addition to this, the acquisition of Tooling,
Equipment International (TEI) gives General Motors access to fast prototyping of molding and castings
which would ensure that General Motors can prototype tooling much faster using 3d printed sand casting
compared to the competition using traditional sand-casting methods. Finally, General Motors can use its
benchmarking capabilities combined with its Research and Development teams to understand the science
behind the competitors’ groundbreaking technologies.
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The investment in the gigacasting plant, tooling and equipment is quite high and a business case for going
with gigacasting compared to stamping is difficult. This is because it would take a couple of years to
recover the initial investment while the current supply chain for stamping provides General Motors with
parts at cheap prices due to the relationship with the suppliers through the decades and the risk associated
with trying innovative technologies after decades of comfort with stamping. General Motors can optimize
the gigapresses usage by commonizing the gigacastings among its vehicle lineup to reduce the need to
build new tooling and exchange dies in the gigapress. It is important to focus on the enablers from
gigacasting, such as elimination of the traditional floor in the electric vehicle and the possibility of casting
the entire underbody in one shot in the gigapress in future. These are tremendous cost saving initiatives
that would further revolutionize automotive manufacturing.
Establishing an innovation pipeline can ensure there is continuous improvement in the casting technology.
This is essential to ensure that the organization is always ahead of the competition. General Motors is
more than 100 years old and is risk averse, by ensuring that it is constantly innovating, can ward off the
competition, especially the startups that are comfortable taking risks and are constantly innovating and
using the state of the art in their product lineups. The current workforce skilled in propulsion casting can
translate to body engineering, giving the company an advantage over the new entrants. General Motors
can also utilize the lessons learnt from building engines and transmissions to enhance the understanding
of casting body structures, such as porosity reduction and the essential equipment required for gigacasting
to be successful.
General Motors has been in the automotive industry for decades, therefore it has trust from its customers
acquired through the internal combustion engine vehicles. By including the gigacasting in the General
Motors electric vehicles, the organization will be expanding into new markets, especially the environment
conscious customers which is a theme in the new generation. The gigacasting technology will enable the
company to offset the prohibitive cost of electric vehicles through the cost savings realized by the plants
and ensure affordability of the electric vehicles.

Addressing weaknesses and threats:

Currently, General Motors relies on a handful of suppliers on the market for gigacasting equipment and
tooling. Since gigacasting is a new undertaking, experience in the gigacasting space is scarce. There are
only a handful of large giga presses manufacturers in the world; this coupled with the lack of specialized
experience in body gigacasting places General Motors at the mercy of the suppliers. General Motors can
reduce this by strategically acquiring leaders in the gigacasting space such as TEI, as well as training the
workforce on how to deal with the large gigacastings. There is a need to retrain the workforce from
product engineering, manufacturing engineering and manufacturing operations on how to design castings
for electric vehicles. This requires a unique way of thinking and might require change management in the
organization to ensure realization of the benefits of electric vehicle architecture and gigacasting. General
Motors will need to mitigate potential risks through planning, diversification, and collaboration.
The regulatory environment is a crucial factor to watch due to General Motors being in a cyclical
business. The regulation on emissions has a drastic effect on the types of vehicles that General Motors
should build to be compliant with the emissions regulations. With the current push for electric vehicles by
the administration, there is a big push for automotive companies to pivot towards electric vehicles. This
coupled with the current economic climate is pushing the customer to be price conscious. For General
Motors to be competitive, it should be able to produce electric vehicles at low costs while maintaining
profitability to be competitive in the market. It is therefore important for General Motors to stay abreast
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of the regulatory developments and proactively engage with the policymakers to advocate for supportive
policies, incentives, and standards for electric vehicles and gigacasting technology.
It is important to ensure that the organization optimizes the cost, especially in the current climate marred
by high interest rates. With the automotive business being very capital intensive and the giga press,
tooling and equipment requiring heavy investments, the company should ensure that there is
standardization in the gigacasting to ensure that it can be commonized across the vehicle lineups. This
will improve the economies of scale and scope and enable production of low-cost electric vehicles.

Implementation:
The strategies can be implemented through establishing a project management team with expertise on
gigacasting technology, automotive engineering, and supply chain management to oversee the project
implementation of the strategic plan. The AKDAR (Awareness of need for change, Desire to participate
and support the change, Knowledge of how to change, Ability to implement required skills and
Reinforcement to sustain the change) methodology can be used for change management to ensure that the
whole organization culture is changed from the old culture that was all about internal combustion engines
to one that is capable of designing low-cost compelling electric vehicles using gigacasting. The mentality
should change from the vehicle design to manufacturing and sale of electric vehicles. A culture of
innovation, collaboration and continuous improvement within General Motors should be incentivized by
knowledge sharing, cross-functional teamwork, and employee development initiatives. Lastly, to ensure
that General Motors is heading in the right direction, it is critical to have detailed milestones, timelines,
and metrics to track progress and monitor risks.
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References:

Gilboy, J. (2023, September 22). Toyota will adopt Tesla-style cast bodies that might be
impossible to fix. The Drive. https://www.thedrive.com/news/toyota-will-adopt-tesla-style-
cast-bodies-that-might-be-impossible-to-fix

Hardigree, M. (2023, September 15). How tesla made “gigacasting” the most important word in
the car industry. The Autopian. https://www.theautopian.com/how-tesla-made-gigacasting-
the-most-important-word-in-the-car-industry/

Joire, M. (2023, October 25). Here’s how gigacasting will make your next EV more affordable.
TechRadar. https://www.techradar.com/vehicle-tech/hybrid-electric-vehicles/here-s-how-
gigacasting-will-make-your-next-ev-more-affordable

Kenton, W. (2023, October 30). SWOT analysis: How to with table and example. Investopedia.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/swot.asp

Papadopoulos, L. (2023, July 7). Chinese scientists engineer giant magnesium parts for cheaper,
lighter cars. Interesting Engineering.
https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/chinese-giant-magnesium-parts-for-cheaper-
lighter-cars

Reuters. (2024, March 6). BYD deepens EV price war in China with latest cut for its cheapest ...
BYD deepens EV price war in China with latest cut for its cheapest car.
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/chinas-byd-lowers-starting-price-
its-lowest-priced-ev-model-seagull-by-54-2024-03-06/

Shirouzu, N. (2023, November 15). Exclusive-GM Snatches key tesla gigacasting supplier.
Exclusive-GM Snatches Key Tesla Gigacasting Supplier.
https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2023-11-15/exclusive-gm-snatches-key-
tesla-gigacasting-supplier
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