Supplier Relations with GM, Ford continue to Slip

Autobeat Daily May 13, 2003

Japanese automakers continue to improve their relations with top-tier suppliers by pursuing a fundamentally different philosophy, reports an annual survey by Planning Perspectives Inc., a management consulting firm in Birmingham, Mich.

The survey rates Toyota Motor Corp. best and General Motors Corp. worst in supplier relations. This year’s scores improved for Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Chrysler Group. They worsened for Ford and GM.

Overall, the domestic OEMs “have done virtually nothing to change their working relations with suppliers over the past two years,” declares John Henke Jr., the firm’s president. “The Japanese Big Three continue to improve. Both groups are reaping what they sow.”

Planning Perspectives measures supplier attitude in 17 areas such as trust, willingness to share technology and rewards for cost-cutting ideas. It then distills results into a single rating for each OEM.

Here are the firm’s rating for 2003 and the percent improvement over last year (higher numbers are better):

Toyota 334 (+7.4%)	Chrysler 177 (+3.5%)
Honda 316 (+7.5%)	Ford 161 (-1.2%)
Nissan 259 (+15.1%)	GM 156 (-0.6%)

Planning Perspectives says Detroit’s Big Three automakers alienate suppliers, don’t involve them in their business and refuse their help. Japan’s Big Three OEMs do the opposite by applying to supplier relations on the same continuous improvement techniques they use on manufacturing processes, it says.