GM Names 184
Suppliers 'Best of the Best' for 1998
WARREN, Mich. January,
1999 - General Motors has named 184 companies that provide everything
from steel to seats and logistics planners that ferry parts to assembly
plants as winners of the 1998 Supplier of the Year award.
The suppliers are being
honored by geographic region in a series of four events beginning with
Latin American suppliers in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The other events are
scheduled in Ruesselsheim, Germany (Europe); Detroit (North America)
and Shanghai, China (Asia-Pacific).
The winning suppliers were
chosen from among more than 30,000 companies that receive part of GM's
$86 billion in annual spending.
Twenty-five of the companies
on this year's list were recognized for the sixth or seventh time.
Teams of purchasing, quality,
engineering and manufacturing experts from GM operations around the
world selected companies recognized - including 43 first-time winners.
The measurements for the first time included technology - using it to
improve what the supplier does or provides for GM.
The emphasis on technology
and getting it into GM cars and trucks is leading to more supplier integration
- where GM provides the functional requirements and the supplier with
the creative solution uses its expertise to deliver the component or
system. GM takes that strategy a step further with co-development where
a supplier's best technical people team with GM's best minds to create
game-changing technology.
In co-development, many
of GM's standard rules of supplier engagement are suspended in exchange
for exclusive use of a supplier's breakthrough innovation or a supplier
lending its expertise to develop a GM innovation. In both cases, the
supplier is guaranteed the business that comes from the collaboration
for a set period of years, after which the supplier can market that
technology to other companies.
One example of that occurred
last November when GM signed a 10-year multi-billion dollar agreement
to buy aluminum from Alcan Aluminium Ltd. at predictable prices. As
a result of the agreement, GM and Alcan engineers will work together
over the next five years at the GM Technical Center in Warren, Mich.,
exploring new and expanding uses for aluminum, including aluminum-intensive
vehicles.
1998 General Motors
Suppliers of the Year (Listed by Country; Number of Awards
Received Noted)
