General Motors' Lordstown plant has weathered a year of turmoil - with added production shifts, the announcement of a new car line to be built there, and then the subsequent elimination of its late shifts.
But industry experts still believe the plant's future is as secure as any in the company.
Kim Hill is the Associate Director of Economics at the Center for Automotive Research in Michigan.
KIM HILL: "Lordstown's kind of in that category of just in a slowdown. The product that it has coming up is going to be a highly desirable one in an environment that's going to demand more fuel efficient vehicles; so Lordstown's positioned pretty well."
GM faces a deadline of next week to report to Congress on how it's restructuring plans are proceeding, and how it will repay money it was loaned by the federal government.
Hill says the management reductions are part of that re-tooling, and the first of several changes he hopes will strengthen GM and solidify its future as an American automaker.
