Faces of GM

Ryan: Interacting with Customers

January/5/2010 at 2:09 pm

Ryan and the whole fam

Ryan LaChappelle

Family life: I am happily married to my wife of 2 years, girlfriend of 13!  We have a daughter, Lydia, who is approaching 5 months and a dog (Morkie – Maltese and a Yorkie, the wife always gets her way!) named Chloe.  

Third-Generation GM:  I grew up in a General Motors household – my father worked at GM for 25 years as a Material Planner and my grandfather for 30 years as a Truck Repairman.  I’ve driven and owned GM all my life. 

Go Blue! I’ve also grown up a Michigan fan and am in the process of gaining a Master of Science in Engineering Management from the U of M Ann Arbor.

Favorites: My favorite food is potatoes of any style, favorite color is silver, and my lucky number is 27. 

Guitars, Games and Grills: I love to play guitar, play the X-Box (mainly Call of Duty) with friends, have cook-outs on the grill, and once in a while go back to the old high school track to do some pole vaulting. 

My name is Ryan LaChappelle and I’ve worked for GM about five years. After spending my initial years in various manufacturing assignments I am now a controls engineer with GM’s Flint Powertrain Operations in Michigan. When people think of an engineer they usually picture someone at a desk working on a fancy computer all day.

My job, though, entails more hands-on work. In fact, I figure I spend 90 percent of my time on the factory floor working with our production and maintenance teams to ensure the equipment that makes pistons for a 5.3-liter engine in a Chevy Silverado and torque converters in a Chevy Impala transmission are of the highest quality.

During my time at GM, I’ve spent time in many different areas of the manufacturing world including production, maintenance, quality and of course engineering. Personally, I believe that any project I am involved in will only give me the opportunity to expand on my abilities through trial and error as well as to learn from those that have prior knowledge of the application. 

On top of my engineering priorities I am also dedicated to our local Professional Managers Network Flint Powertrain Operations, where I currently serve as the chairman. The PMN is volunteer group of managers focused on improving their business and problem-solving skills while devoting time outside the workplace to promote GM products and gather customer feedback. We are fortunate to have a great group of individuals involved from many different aspects of the company to provide a well rounded approach to all of our efforts. 

Some of our most recent activities include a blood drive with Red Cross in which we were able to donate 54 pints to the cause. We also met with the Genesee County Indian Doctors Association to talk about why GM deserved a spot in their driveway. That meeting led to four sales.

More recently, we put together a Drive and Ride experience in collaboration with other local Professional Managers Groups from Flint Metal Center and Flint Assembly.  The event was a huge success as we were able to get 147 people in our vehicles to experience why we’re so passionate about our products. In fact, the event was so successful, we were able to track 30 sales to people who test drove a GM product.

As we move forward in the new GM we need more personal interaction with the consumer on an employee level.  A lot of people don’t understand what’s behind a GM product, and the best part of General Motors is its employees.

Final thoughts, words of wisdom:  Happy wife, happy life.  : )