"Rust Belt OEM's" The Supplier Killing Fields

Ian Former
Automotive Quality Consultant
TierTerror Blog 12-3-2005

As with most industries we come to a place of mergers, failures, bankruptcy and so much more. Today the supplier is faced with rising cost of quality. Our OEM wants 0 defects and PPM's of no more than 1. The reality is that many suppliers end up on 3rd party containment throughout the entire production run of a product. The mounting expense sends them into a tailspin of cost. When you anticipate a net profit of .5% to 2% then roll inspection cost that range from 2% to 9% of the part value you end up giving your profit to some containment company that does not really add value to your process.

Hemorrhaging cash to a none value added process.

Delphi, C&A, Visteon, and many more all either in bankruptcy, exiting bankruptcy or teetering on the edge. All this while the OEM wants bigger savings, higher quality and faster delivery.

This is a cocktail of destruction...... so the OEM encourages you to offshore your product to help reduce your per part cost. Now the dynamic of oversea shipping a 4-week pipeline of defects and a lack of the required quality needs of the "new" offshore supplier.

This cocktail has another dynamic that may not be seen by the bottom line guys. For every job shipped off shore that is one customer that can no longer afford the high dollar car he once drove.

Let's be honest a $6.00 an hr 30 hr a week job with no benefits does not afford the "ex-manufacturing" employee many options for transportation. Now his debt to income only allows a rusty old broken car a $400.00 a month housing payment and he is on government aid or in some sorry retraining program designed to teach a factory rat how to be a techie... something he is not geared for from the start.

What I am trying to understand is how a supplier can keep the American autoworker in a job and also make a fair profit.

Perhaps this is a sign of the globalization and the leveling of worldwide lifestyle.

What we need to do is supply the laid off autoworker with a cardboard box and a garbage dump to put it in. Then we will have the ability to work for 6 dollars a week.

Another idea.... We could use our mounting inmate population and government subsidies to prop up the American supplier base this is a recipe that works in other offshore countries.

Ian Former

Anyone seen my box...... I need to move it to another dump this one is overcrowded

GM Nissan Renault ???

What Now??

GM, Nissan and Renault????

I do not see anything good here.....

GM in trouble, Nissan in Trouble and Renault not feeling well either.... What good could come of this. None..... 2Bln buy in for each of them... not sure this is in the best intrest of the company.

This is a mix for trouble.... GM do not do it....

And now EPP is gone....... it is going to be another one of those years....


We are in a tailspin who has the controls????

More auto losses likely

More auto losses likely

Earnings reports due next week

October 13, 2005

BY JOE GUY COLLIER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

Delphi Corp.'s bankruptcy and the money-losing automaking operations of General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. mean Michigan automotive workers should brace for more layoffs and tougher times for months, if not years, to come.

The automotive companies are to begin reporting next week how well they did or didn't do for the last three months. Ford, GM and many automotive suppliers are expected to lose money, say financial experts who follow the industry.

These earnings reports spell trouble for Michigan because companies that lose money eventually have to stop the gap, often by cutting jobs or lowering wages and benefits.

Ford and GM have attempted to fight losses by offering deep discounts on their vehicles but that's just made it harder to turn a profit. It also does nothing to address the looming problems of high pension, wage and health care costs.

The bankruptcy of Delphi, the largest U.S. supplier, signals that Michigan's automotive industry is headed for a shakeup, said Patrick Anderson, a principal with the Anderson Economic Group in East Lansing.

Delphi gives Flint antoher huge blow with it's potential Bankruptcy

John M. Galloway / Special to The Detroit News

A Delphi Corp. worker at the Flint plant leaves after his shift. Talk of a possible bankruptcy for the nation's largest auto supplier has created a tense atmosphere with thousands of workers and shareholders as well as hundreds of other companies and state and local officials.

By Brett Clanton / The Detroit News
Delphi fate will ripple in region

Bankruptcy would cost pensions and local jobs, may push other suppliers to the brink

FLINT -- Like many workers at Delphi Corp., Greg Meinecke is worried about the company's threat of a bankruptcy filing and what it could mean to him.

The 47-year-old toolmaker, with a combined 28 years at Delphi and its former parent General Motors Corp., always assumed that his pension and health benefits would be there for him when he retired.

"Now, all of the sudden, the rules have changed," said Meinecke, who works at a Delphi engine components plant in Flint.

American automotive industry crashing????

TOM WALSH: Auto industry is at its worst

August 30, 2005

BY TOM WALSH
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

Is this really the worst of times for Detroit's automotive industry?

Former UAW President Doug Fraser said so last Friday. And he should know.

Fraser, 88, steered the union through the Chrysler Corp. bailout in 1980 and the severe slump that pushed Michigan's jobless rate to 16.3% in 1982, more than double the current 7% rate.

What makes things worse today for General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group is "11 years of declining market share," Fraser said, referring to the 1993-to-2004 span when the combined GM-Ford-Chrysler share of U.S. car and truck sales fell from 73.8% to 58.7%.

Back in the early 1980s, the whole U.S. economy was in the tank.

Not so now. Indeed, the best six years ever for total U.S. auto sales have been the last six. But the Detroit auto companies and their suppliers keep getting a smaller and smaller share of the pie.

Trials and Tribulations: Four Core Hurdles

Trials and Tribulations: Four Core Hurdles
Automotive News World Congress, January 16, 2002

By Dave Bing, Chairman, The Bing Group
January 14, 2002

Dave Bing Dave Bing is chairman of The Bing Group. PowerPoint presentation -- 229 KB Related Links 2002 Automotive News World Congress index

HURDLE 1: Vehicle manufacturers ("OE's") have unrealistic cost cutting expectations.

1A. The remaining, "survivor" automotive suppliers have been focused on cost cutting for the last five to ten years, pushing "new" cost cutting efforts to an ever-increasing point of "diminishing returns". Liken the industry-wide focus on cost cutting to dieting; losing the final two extra pounds is exponentially tougher than shedding the first 20 pounds. And, in some instances, some automotive suppliers are surviving by operating below normal body weight.

Supply Chain ?perfect?

Automotive Supply Chain Management: As Good As It Gets?

Many observers agree that the automotive industry is running its supply chain well. They also agree there's room for improvement.

By Larry Gould, Contributing Editor

---

The best Tier 1 suppliers, come "very, very close to 100% perfect orders," says Scott Lundstrom, chief technology officer, AMR Research (Boston, MA). They score perfect deliveries 98% to 99% of the time. Yet a 90% perfect-order score, unheard of in any other industry AMR surveyed, is considered a "failing grade" in automotive. Moreover, the difference in a supplier's "strong" performance versus another supplier's "weak" performance, as measured by perfect-order fulfillment, is a mere 6%. "That is the equivalent between an A+ and a C-. That's how demanding the automotive environment is." exclaims Lundstrom. "The demand is not so much about being an excellent supply chain company. The demand is about what's next."

US automotive supply base failing

	This article appears in the August 5, 2005 issue of Executive Intelligence Review. U.S. Auto Supplier Sector Is in the Worst Shape Ever by Richard Freeman The shake-out of General Motors and Ford Motor during 2005 has caused the most violent and widespread dismantling of the U.S. auto parts supplier sector in the more than century-old history of the automobile. The suppliers sector represents the "undercarriage" of the auto industry: It produces the brakes, electrical wiring, shocks/struts, seats, and other vital components. During 2005's first six months, Standard & Poor's downgraded 25 U.S.-based auto suppliers, while upgrading only one. Tower Automotive, Collins & Aikman, Meridian, Uni Boring, and Trim Trends, went bankrupt. The world's two largest parts suppliers, Delphi and Visteon, are millimeters from bankruptcy.

More jobs exported to china!!?? tell me who will buy them if they can not afford them

AUTO INDUSTRY REPORT: Goodyear to close plants

September 24, 2005

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., the nation's biggest tiremaker, will close plants as part of plan to reduce worldwide capacity by 8% to 12% over the next three years.

Restructuring charges will be $150 million to $250 million, the company said Friday. Goodyear has a target of $750 million to $1 billion in cost savings by 2008.

Goodyear Chief Executive Robert Keegan, who halted three consecutive years of losses in 2004 by trimming workers, closing plants and selling assets, is making deeper cuts to reduce North American costs that are limiting its competitiveness with rivals such as Bridgestone Corp.

Goodyear didn't say how many plants it would shut or disclose their location.

Keegan, who took over as chairman in June 2003, had already cut 1,400 jobs this year in addition to the 5,150, or 5.8% of its workforce, trimmed in 2003 and 2004. He has been adding production in lower-cost China.

Process and Production Improvement???

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS: CEO's aim is to improve quality

September 27, 2005

BY JOE GUY COLLIER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

Soon-to-be DaimlerChrysler AG Chairman Dieter Zetsche met with the Free Press on Monday to discuss issues at the company. Zetsche, the former head of Chrysler, took over the Mercedes division earlier this month and will head the entire company in January.

RELATED CONTENT

FIXING A CAR COMPANY: Zetsche on Mercedes: 'A lot of work is ahead'

QUESTION: What needs to be done to address quality and profitability concerns at Mercedes?

ANSWER: What you need in the first place is to improve your process. You need standardization. You need clear definition of your process and a very rigid execution across those. It's basically about doing it right the first time.

Q: You've set a goal of making Mercedes No. 1 in J.D. Power's quality ratings, a position currently held by Lexus. How soon can the Mercedes brand reach that goal?

A: It's pretty tough to make an absolute binding statement. ... It's clear the next step has to be among the top three and then ultimately we want to be on top. This is not a plan for the year 2020 but for the midterm.

'More with less' to become a goal at DaimlerChrysler ????

'More with less' to become a goal at DaimlerChrysler

September 29, 2005

BY JOE GUY COLLIER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

DaimlerChrysler AG chairman-in-waiting Dieter Zetsche, famous for cutting costs and turning around Chrysler, took his first steps Wednesday at getting Mercedes in shape.

Zetsche left Auburn Hills-based Chrysler Group this month to take over the ailing German-based Mercedes Car Group of DaimlerChrysler. He is to become chairman of the entire company in January.

DaimlerChrysler announced Wednesday that it would be cutting 8,500 employees, or about 8% of the workforce, at Mercedes at a cost in buyout packages of about $1.1 billion. The company's stock rose $2, or about 4%, to $54.83 Wednesday.

Cutting supply chain...... more savings less jobs...... can this be the new model???

Ford to slash vendors of key parts

Big shift in the way it does business could help finances

September 30, 2005

BY SARAH A. WEBSTER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

Ford Motor Co. said Thursday it will reduce by half the number of companies from which it buys 20 key parts and commodities such as seats, axles, brake systems and bumpers for its vehicles.

The move represents a major overhaul to the way Ford does business with parts makers and will impact about half of the company's annual, $70-billion production buy worldwide.

Tony Brown, senior vice president of global purchasing for Ford, refused to say how much streamlining the number of parts suppliers with whom Ford works might save the company.

The move is being made because the current way of doing business "is not working effectively for our suppliers, and it is not working effectively for us," Brown said during a conference call with journalists.

Antother Spin off???? is this our new model pass the losing buck??

Visteon spin-off firm stirs interest

CEO Ver lists about 65 companies as would-be buyers

October 1, 2005

BY SARAH A. WEBSTER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

About 65 companies have already expressed interest in buying some of the automotive parts plants and operations that Visteon Corp. officially spun off today into a temporary new holding company, the chief executive in charge of the new firm says.

The goal of Automotive Components Holdings LLC, which is managed by Ford Motor Co., is to sell off or close all of the 23 former Visteon facilities it now owns. The holding company, called ACH, will lease about 18,000 hourly workers from Ford and 5,000 salaried workers from Visteon, and most of its $7 billion in sales comes from contracts with Ford.

Finding a new model for North American Operations.....

Rumor boosts Delphi shares

October 1, 2005

BY MICHAEL ELLIS
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

Delphi Corp.'s stock shot up nearly 40% early Friday upon rumors that General Motors Corp. and the UAW would announce a deal at an 11 a.m. news conference to bail out the troubled auto supplier, then slipped back after it didn't happen.

The stock climbed to $3.53 in the morning; it closed up 24 cents at $2.76 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Meanwhile, Delphi declined to make a voluntary payment on a loan, and said Friday it was considering talking to lenders to arrange a potential waiver or amendment to the loan. Delphi also said Friday that it will make regular monthly payments to its suppliers by Oct. 4, despite its financial troubles.

Delphi said that it had violated the terms of a $1.8-billion bank loan by failing to meet a financial target that serves as a warning sign of the company's health. As part of a financing agreement reached with lenders this summer, Delphi was required to meet a ratio of secured debt to EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

Delphi....... in trouble??? GM bailout??

A spokeswoman for Delphi declined to comment on the note or the stock activity, but said discussions were continuing.

Delphi, the largest U.S. auto-parts supplier, has asked GM and the UAW for help in cutting high wage and benefit costs that are choking U.S. operations. It has set October 17, the day U.S. bankruptcy law changes take effect, as an informal deadline for an agreement.


Can Delphi make it in our new global auto econ?????

Woman Sends Crude Message After Pay Error

Source AP

Woman Sends Crude Message After Pay Error

37 minutes ago

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - Kootenai County commissioners have suspended a public defender who allegedly sent them a crude message in a greeting card about a mistake in her pay increase.

Public defender Linda Payne delivered the missive after the county miscalculated pay benefits and told county attorneys they could expect about $5,000 more per year than was actually approved — then retracted it the next day.

Payne's hand-delivered greeting card was accompanied by a jar of petroleum jelly and a tube of red lipstick.

"The next time you choose to give us something please lubricate and/or kiss first," she wrote in the June 9 note.

Read More Here

NPR and PBS are in Trouble

Dear MoveOn member,

You know that email petition that keeps circulating
about how Congress is slashing funding for NPR and
PBS? Well, now it's actually true. (Really. Check the
footnotes if you don't believe us.)

A House panel has voted to eliminate all public
funding for NPR and PBS, starting with "Sesame
Street," "Reading Rainbow," and other commercial-free
children's shows. If approved, this would be the most
severe cut in the history of public broadcasting,
threatening to pull the plug on Big Bird, Cookie
Monster and Oscar the Grouch.

Sign the petition telling Congress to save NPR and
PBS:

http://www.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/?id=5663-1523677-EMNpO7bXxfOAXQaL4Vqyvw&t=3

If we can reach 250,000 signatures by the end of the
week, we'll put Congress on notice. After you sign the
petition, please pass this message along to any
friends, neighbors or co-workers who count on NPR and
PBS.

OHSAS 18001:Health and Safety Standard

Source: Quality Digest

by Roderick A. Munro, Ph.D., and William J. Luka

As anyone working in the United States knows, occupational health and safety is highly regulated in many industries. There are so many local, state, and national laws and regulations that it's difficult to keep them all straight. We even find conflicting compliance issues that are virtually impossible to resolve. This might be one reason why many Americans haven't heard much about the British Standards Institute's new standard, Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series 18001. However, it will likely become important for any manager who's concerned about employee health and safety.

This article looks at OHSAS 18001 and its possible applications in the United States.

Demand rising for employees

Source: Crain's Detroit

Demand rising for employees, staffing firm says

By Sherri Begin
June 14, 2005 5:10 PM

Demand for employees in the Detroit area, specifically in automotive-related industries, is up, according to a report released by staffing firm Adecco Staffing USA.

The company said it is seeing an increase in hiring by vehicle manufacturers and automotive parts makers, primarily on the production, maintenance and quality-inspection sides, Detroit Area Branch Manager Barry Gray said in a release.

Scandal-ridden automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp.

Source: Japan Times

MMC hit sales target -- by selling to own dealers

Scandal-ridden automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp. inflated its new vehicle sales figures in Japan in the last business year by selling about 10 percent to dealers instead of consumers, industry sources said Friday.

MMC managed to clear its domestic sales target of 220,000 in fiscal 2004 by selling about 227,000 vehicles. But nearly 20,000 of them are believed to have been purchased by affiliated dealers, the sources said, raising the possibility the sales target was not truly achieved.

A MMC spokesman denied the allegation.

"We've never forced our sales affiliates to purchase our vehicles to achieve a sales target," he claimed.

Ford recalls nearly 260,000 trucks, SUVs, vans

Source: Detroit News

Monday, June 13, 2005

Ford recalls nearly 260,000 trucks, SUVs, vans

Reuters

Ford Motor Co. is recalling nearly 260,000 vehicles, most of them large pickup trucks, to fix safety defects that include sudden stalling of diesel engines, U.S. federal safety regulators said on Monday.

Hertz IPO (AP)

Industry

Source (AP)

• Ford Says Hertz to Pursue $100 Million IPO AP

  DEARBORN, Mich. - Ford Motor Co., racked by financial problems and a credit downgrade, said Monday its Hertz Corp. car rental unit has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering.

• 
  Ford to spin off car rental unit Hertz AFP - 2 hours, 13 minutes ago

  DEARBORN, United States (AFP) - Struggling US auto group Ford Motor Co. said it would spin off car rental unit Hertz after a share offering for the division is completed.

Autoline Detroit This Week An in-depth discussion and analysis of the recent GM announcement regarding consolidation of divisions and product lines.

Autoline Detroit:
A half hour discussion program hosted by industry observer and expert John McElroy. John moderates a panel of reporters as they discuss the week's news and interview a top industry insider.

Email From John McElroy @ Autoline Detroit

This email edited for privacy

John McElroy <********************> wrote:

Ian,

Thanks for turning us on to your website. Very up-to-date, with good
information. Congratulations!

John McElroy
Blue Sky Productions
39201 *****************
******, MI ******

T: ***-***-****
M:***-***-****

UAW President Gettelfinger on GM Request to Give Concessions

Press Release

Source: Newsweek

NEWSWEEK: UAW President Gettelfinger on GM Request to Give Concessions on Benefits: 'If We Don't Fix Some of the Basic Problems That Exist When It Comes to the Product, ...No Matter What We Did, It Wouldn't Be Enough. Ever.'
Sunday June 12, 12:19 pm ET

Says the Company Has Some Issues, But He 'Wouldn't Rate It as a Crisis'

NEW YORK, June 12 /PRNewswire/ -- United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger tells Newsweek that although GM CEO Rick Wagoner says the automaker's turnaround is threatened by accelerating health-care costs, there's more to be done than just give concessions on the medical benefits. "If we don't fix some of the basic problems that exist when it comes to the product," Gettelfinger says in the current issue, "then it seems to me that no matter what we did, it wouldn't be enough. Ever."

The Rust Belt Definition From Wikipedia

Rust Belt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Rust Belt, highlighted in red

"The Rust Belt, also known as the Manufacturing Belt, is an area in the northeastern and north-central United States whose economy was formerly based largely on heavy industry, manufacturing, and associated industries. This area is roughly defined as comprising the northern sections of Indiana and Ohio; the northeastern corner of Illinois; the Lower Peninsula of Michigan; the Lake Michigan shoreline"

Find More Here

Visteon doubletalk

Source: Detroit News

Sunday, June 12, 2005

Visteon doubletalk irks autoworkers, undermines trust

By Daniel Howes / The Detroit News

"They said they were in danger of being unable to pay their bills, but their CEO publicly denied that Visteon Corp. ever seriously considered filing for bankruptcy.

They said they couldn't be competitive paying Big Three wages and benefits to their union work force, even as they shelled out $3 million to sign a new chief operating officer and much more in retention bonuses to keep officers from bolting.

They said they needed a deal"

www.detnews.com

Can the Midwest ward off a Rust Belt slump?

Source: Detroit News

Saturday, June 4, 2005

Can the Midwest ward off a Rust Belt slump?

By Dee-Ann Durbin / AP Auto Writer

DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., the nation's two biggest automakers, ordered fresh production cutbacks this week after they again lost business and valuable market share to Asian rivals in May. Some of their key suppliers have seen orders dwindle so much they've had to declare bankruptcy.

Add to that Friday's news of fewer jobs in the U.S. manufacturing sector as a whole, and it raises a disturbing question: Could the Midwest be falling back into the Rust Belt malaise of the early 1980s, when Michigan's unemployment rate topped 16 percent and GM, the world's largest automaker, saw its market share tumble nearly 10 percentage points?

Ward's Reports Estimated Production

Source: Ward's Automotive Reports

Ward's Reports Estimated Production
Friday June 10, 1:26 pm ET

SOUTHFIELD, Mich., June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Vehicle production this week in the U.S., Canada and Mexico is expected to hit an estimated 348,038 units, up 15.4 percent from the 301,656 cars and trucks built last week, according to WardsAuto.com

Auto suppliers feel carmakers' pain

By Sharon Silke Carty, USA TODAY Wed May 18, 6:31 AM ET

Automotive supplier Collins & Aikman filed for bankruptcy-court protection Tuesday, evidence that financial troubles at the automakers are having a rapid and dramatic effect on the companies that make car parts. A May 5 decision by Standard & Poor's to downgrade General Motors and Ford Motor to junk bond status had little near-term impact on the carmakers, but automotive suppliers are suddenly facing a cash crunch that could put their very existence at risk.

Collins & Aikman, for one, said last week that the move trimmed its available credit line by $70 million. By seeking bankruptcy court protection, the supplier was able to secure a $300 million debtor-in-possession loan from J.P. Morgan.

Read More Here

Auto parts makers relations with GM worsen-study

From Reuters.com - No Spin. No Agenda. Just the Facts. As they happen.

Auto parts makers relations with GM worsen-study

Tue May 31, 2005 06:50 AM ET

By David Bailey

CHICAGO, May 31 (Reuters) - General Motors Corp.'s (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) relationships with its U.S. parts suppliers, never particularly cordial, have worsened, a study released Tuesday has found.

Suppliers gave GM, struggling to stem market share losses, lower marks for timely and candid talks with parts makers than last year, according to the annual study by consulting firm Planning Perspectives Inc.

"General Motors' supplier working relationships are now clearly and unequivocally the worst they have ever been," study author John Henke told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"The level of trust that suppliers have of General Motors is at the lowest we have seen in 15 years of doing this," said Henke, chief executive of Planning Perspectives.

Read More Here

The demise of Michigan's wire harness industry

From: The Detroit News

Sunday, November 21, 2004

Driven Abroad

The demise of Michigan's wire harness industry is a global tale of economic survival and the endless quest for cheap labor

One Michigan company. One auto part. Four countries. Thousands of lives forever changed.;

By Ron French / The Detroit News

Huang Wei's future and Deb Coverdill's past are linked by a bundle of color-coded wires.

Coverdill had seen hundreds of co-workers laid off and machinery shipped overseas from her automotive wire harness plant in Michigan. In October, Coverdill's plant was for sale and her job in jeopardy.

More from this article

Production Mind

Hey how's your product quality??

How bout your production??

I am mystified by the deliniation between quality and production.

Tell me why we inspect quality into a part instead of manufacturing it into the part.


What is up with that..........

The Cost of Quality

From: Quality Digest

Quality Management
Cost of Quality Revisited
by A. Blanton Godfrey

Perhaps it is time we rethought
the cost of quality concept.

Nearly 50 years ago, a new concept was introduced into quality management: the cost of quality. For many years, this concept has been used to identify opportunities for significant savings. Increasingly, though, leading quality professionals argue that the original ideas have outlived their usefulness and it is time we rethought the whole idea.

Two basic ideas have been used for these many decades. The first is the idea of an optimum quality level, which is the point when total quality costs are minimized. The second is the characterization of quality costs into four parts: prevention, appraisal, internal failure and external failure.

Cost of Quality Article


This is an illusive measure. What are the tangible aspects of the cost of quality??

Many feel it is the defect rate that comes out the end of the process. This is a true statement however can the tangable cost be driven upstream?

At what point is the defect introduced into the process. I think many recordable defects are introduced by the system as well as the people. The do not pass it on concept may be one way to detect and remove the added defect. What can we do to bring the culture to the level of in process inspection??

The employee driven kiazan can also assist in reduction of handling and systemic defects.

When will we get to this point??

What are your thoughts?

Ford Citizenship

From: Ford Motor Company

Suppliers

Suppliers are an integral part of our business, and our success is interdependent with theirs. We rely on more than 2,000 production suppliers to provide many of the parts that are assembled into Ford vehicles. Another 9,000 suppliers provide a wide range of nonproduction goods and services, from production equipment to computers to advertising.



Environmental Management and Human Rights

It is important that our suppliers share our commitment to corporate citizenship. In 2003, we concluded a four-year joint effort aimed at extending the ISO 14001 environmental management standard throughout our supply base. Nearly all of Ford’s Q1 production suppliers worldwide have now achieved ISO 14001 certification. We also extended to our suppliers the Code of Basic Working Conditions that was adopted in 2003.

These standards for environmental management and human rights are an integral part of revised terms and conditions for production suppliers that became effective in January 2004 and are employed throughout our global supply base. Similar requirements will be integrated into the updated terms and conditions (currently being drafted) for nonproduction suppliers.

More on this topic

Visteon Honors Detroit Scholar

From: theautochannel

Visteon Honors Detroit Scholar

VAN BUREN TOWNSHIP, Mich., April 26 -- Jennifer C. Salis, a senior at Detroit's Davis Aerospace Technical High School, was named Visteon Corporation's first Visteon Scholar at the National Association of Black Automotive Suppliers' (NABAS) 17th Annual Scholarship Awards Banquet on April 25 at Cobo Center in Detroit.



Paul Radkoski, Visteon's vice president, North American materials management, presented the $20,000 scholarship to Salis.

"We are pleased to contribute to this year's NABAS Scholarship Fund and to announce the first recipient of the Visteon Scholar Award," said Radkoski. "Jennifer reflects the next generation of automotive leaders; she is focused, creative and dedicated to pursuing excellence."

Business is bleak near shuttered GM factory

By Tom Lambert | Lansing State Journal

Up until about three weeks ago, Gus Caliacatsos couldn't wait to get to work for another 18-hour day, serving customers at his Michigan Avenue bar.

But on May 6, his world came crashing down. That's when his business, Gus's Bar, lost 95 percent of its customer base when General Motors Corp. shut down its Lansing Car Assembly plant on Verlinden Avenue.

"Now when I come in here, I get depressed," said Caliacatsos, who has been across from the plant since 1982. "I don't know how I am going to pay the bills. I am going to try to make it work, but I am only going to give it a couple of months."



Another one bites the dust. Is our industry heading south and east......

What is next....

Lansing Journal

Chrysler Plant

Here is where our industry is heading.

Autoline Detroit (The Local Pulse on Our Industry Awarded)

From Autoline Detroit Web Page

"Blue Sky Productions Takes First and Second Place Honors in International Wheel Awards Competition

LIVONIA, MI -- Blue Sky Productions has earned first-place honors in the Detroit Press Club Foundation’s 2005 International Wheel Awards competition for its television documentary “Bibendum Challenge”.

The Blue Sky crew of John McElroy, Dan Dancer, Peter Hickman, Carmen Erickson and Michael Purcell earned first place in the Television-News Program/ Documentary category for the program, which appeared last fall on Speed Channel.

Autoline Detroit, North America’s only weekly automotive television-news program, earned second place honors in the same category for Detroit Public Television and Speed Channel.

The International Wheel award was established by the 40-year-old press club foundation as an extension of its charter to promote excellence in journalism, and in recognition of the global significance of Detroit and Michigan in the automotive industry. The awards were presented during recent ceremonies at the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Mich.

"We are extremely proud of this recognition by our peers,” said McElroy, editorial director of Blue Sky Productions, which produces Autoline Detroit and the Bibendum Challenge special presentation. “The crew is dedicated to producing quality content and programming that’s thought provoking and relevant to our large national viewing audience.”

Find More Supplier and OEM articles information and streaming web content at Autoline Detoit

Welcome

This Blog is a Supplier outlet.

I want to focus on the tough world of automotive tier suppliers