The halt in production will affect many of the automaker's most profitable vehicles, including the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra.

A company spokesman said that during the downtime, it will repair and ship unfinished vehicles from many impacted plants, including Fort Wayne and Silao, to dealers to help meet the strong customer demand for products,

According to the Detroit Free Press: "Although the situation remains complex and very fluid, GM was confident in our team's ability to continue finding creative solutions to minimise the impact on highest-demand and capacity-constrained vehicles."

In other words they have run out of ideas and things are looking dire.