Communication Once Again is the Key
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| A BMW employee works on a new Z4 roadster. (Photo: BMW Manufacturing Corp.) |
At the Automotive News PACE Awards ceremony in Detroit, the BMW group was the recipient of the coveted Supplier's Choice Award. This award is presented to automakers and OEM's who encourage-solicit, reward, implement and foster supplier innovation as an element of its overall business plan.
Automotive News brought in J.D. Power and Associates to survey prospective awardees. The assessment was disseminated to the executives in the automotive supplier firms that are responsible for marketing, operations, sales, overall management, and engineering. Included in the survey, executives were asked to evaluate the automakers on a scale of 1 to 10 on forty traits grouped into five categories. The categories are: openness to new ideas, ease to work with, trustworthiness, effectiveness at implementing innovation, and willingness to award innovation.
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| Sophisticted robotics are integral to the BMW X5's manufacturing process. (Photo: BMW Manufacturing Corp.) |
Out of the 11 automakers that manufacture vehicles in North America, BMW, Toyota, and Nissan were consistently ranked in the top three of every category. BMW came out above all because of its innovative promotions with suppliers, responding to supplier ideas, the ease in which suppliers are able to introduce ideas and the encouragement of ideas from suppliers. All in all, BMW listens to what supplier firms have to say and therefore experiences symbiotic relationships with each.
Dr. Helmut Leube, President of BMW Manufacturing Corp. commented that, "without innovation and continuous improvement, there is no BMW. This drives BMW to create strategic alliances with our supplier partners, both in product and process of development."