GM taking interiors in-house

General Motors has decided to begin designing its interiors completely in-house, rather than allowing seat makers to do the design and production work and then subcontracting out a portion of the production to their own vendors. This way, GM can deal with the vendors directly and cut out the middleman. The middlemen in this case are Lear Corp., Intier and Johnson Controls, Inc., who are none too happy about the decision. Each company will have to reevaluate its long-term strategy in the wake of struggles being experienced by the Big 3. Lear, for instance, plans to focus on supplying more parts to import manufacturers to make up the difference.