A Parts Supply Issue Temporarily Paused Corvette Production on Friday

If you listened to this week’s CORVETTE TODAY Podcast, you heard me say that I’ve been feeling much more confident about Corvette production continuing uninhibited by supply chain issues. But I should have “knocked on wood” as I learned that the Corvette Assembly Plant got caught with a supply chain issue on Friday that temporarily paused production of America’s Favorite Sports Car.

The cause of Friday’s shutdown is another reminder that Mother Nature can also do her thing to interrupt the best made plans for the “just-in-time” parts inventory needed by the assembly facility.

The word on the street was that Friday’s first shift was sent home early as workers ran out of a critical component. The interruption was said to be caused by a major winter storm hitting Texas earlier in the week that kept tractor-trailers and their needed parts off the roads.

The good news is that the plant reopened for second shift as the parts truck arrived, and workers were able to get back to the business of building Corvettes. The pause had little effect on the day’s total production with workers completing 147 Stingrays and an unknown number of Z06s for the day.

If you would have listened to the Podcast (and it was a good one), you would have also heard me say that the plant has the potential to build over 3,000 Z06s for its inaugural year, but you can’t hit that number without parts. That’s why we were relieved to hear this was a weather-related pause that lasted just hours and not due to a vendor unable to manufacture the parts we need in quantities.

For the 2023 model year, Chevrolet is closing in on 25,000 Stingrays and 2,500 70th Anniversary Stingray while approximately 850 Z06s and another 125 70th Anniversary Z06s have been built.

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