GM to update tech, improve safety at N.C. parts warehouse

General Motors said it will invest $23 million in a North Carolina parts distribution center to improve worker safety and update its warehouse.

The Charlotte Parts Distribution Center will be updated starting in June to add an automated storage and retrieval system and a conveyor system that can pull parts from shelves and move parts to employee work stations. The investment includes autonomous mobile robots that can move orders to employees who are processing shipments of dealership orders, GM said in a statement Monday. The technology is set to be up and running by August 2025.

"We are investing in our warehouse operations to proactively address the growing number of vehicles on the road and better support our customers and dealers," David Marsh, GM's global vice president of Customer Care and Aftersales, said in a statement. "Our goal is to create an environment which minimizes ergonomic stressors on our employees while they continue to deliver the right part, to the right place, at the right time to our customers."

GM said the technology updates are intended to help alleviate lifting and repetitive motions for employees, while the automated storage and retrieval system also should increase storage capacity by 11 percent.

The Charlotte site is smaller in size but higher in volume than other parts centers, GM said. It has more than 40,000 parts stocked and ships roughly 420,000 customer orders each month. It employs 132 people.

Last year, GM said it will invest more than $120 million at its Davison Road Processing Center near Flint, Mich., and at parts centers in Ypsilanti, Mich., and Memphis, Tenn., to update technology. Davison Road is GM's largest parts processing center.