General Motors, stung in recent years by critical parts shortages, is setting up a $4.5 billion safety net designed to keep critical components flowing through supply-chain troubles.

The automaker aims to avoid future parts crunches by securing supplies of high-risk components through a financing arrangement where it pre-funds the purchase of essential parts.

The move, which GM disclosed Tuesday in a regulatory filing, aims to give suppliers enough capital to maintain production and potentially stockpile parts. GM in turn can keep its assembly lines moving amid supply-chain disruptions, without tying up large amounts of capital.

GM Chief Executive Mary Barra has pledged to remake GM's supply chain and create a system more capable of managing disruptions.

"Our industry has experienced significant supply chain disruptions in the past for various reasons, and it's safe to assume they will happen in the future," GM said. "This program will help ensure that we are prepared for multiple scenarios."

Under the deal, supply-chain management firm Procura will receive funding through a bank syndicate led by JPMorgan Chase and Santander. Procura will prepay certain suppliers on GM's behalf, giving them capital required to make and store inventory set aside for the Detroit automaker.

The substantial commitment underscores GM's push to avoid a repeat of the severe shortages that have dogged the industry in recent years. A postpandemic semiconductor shortage cost GM billions as the automaker was forced to sporadically idle assembly plants across North America.

Beyond semiconductors, GM and other automakers have wrestled with supplier bankruptcies, logistics delays across rail and freight networks and volatile raw-material pricing that have strained the industry's parts network.

GM, in its filing, said the deal aims to lock down parts in the event of a range of events, from cyberattacks to demand spikes to natural disasters.