LANSING, Mich. (WILX) – General Motors’ Lansing Grand River assembly and stamping plant will be closed for at least a week.

The shutdown will begin on April 4 and the plant is expected to resume on April 11.

Context: GM Lansing Grand River Assembly will be closed for a week

It’s a supply chain shutdown, but it’s not due to the chip shortage. Experts said whichever party caused the shutdown is a problem Mid-Michigan will have to get used to.

“What happened was due to some supply base disruptions,” said Dr. Ravi Anupindi, of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

Other experts said the main issues are limited parts and higher requirements. The automaker cut orders when sales were slow and now that customers are coming back, they can’t increase their parts orders.

“What you have now is limited capacity, excess demand,” said Dr. Steven Melnyk, of Michigan State University’s Broad College of Business. “It takes time to build capacity, so we’re not going to see anything change in the near future.”

Melnyk said the parts shortage will continue unless companies find a way to track where products are, when and for how long.

“It’s going to become a really interesting situation,” Melnyk said. “Because we are discovering that we have very tightly integrated supply chains that we have limited visibility into.”

He added that companies like Toyota weren’t having the problems because they had planned ahead.

The factory is expected to reopen on April 11.

Related: Lansing Community College offers courses in electric vehicles and charging stations

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