FinancialAdvisor's College Class (FACC)

[FinancialAdvisor]

GM, Ford Lose By Treating Suppliers as Adversaries: Doron Levin

GM, Ford Lose By Treating Suppliers as Adversaries: Doron Levin

June 29 (Bloomberg) -- Top executives at General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. can't be surprised by a new survey showing what they know to be all too true: Many of their suppliers can't stand doing business with them.

If that sounds like a big hurdle for Detroit as it tries to rebound from financial setbacks and market-share losses, it's also something the bosses can fix if they want.

They'll need humility, since GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group -- the Detroit-based U.S. automakers -- once more must study at the feet of Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., whose supplier relationships are the envy of the industry.

Toyota will be happy to explain, for the umpteenth time, that suppliers must be treated as valued partners, almost as family members, with the goal a mutual regard for the other's welfare.

The simmering animosity between the U.S. automakers and their suppliers is highlighted in a survey released last month by a Detroit-area professor, documenting what automakers and suppliers acknowledge under their breath. Suppliers are wary of publicly criticizing automakers for fear of losing a contract or customer.

The Survey

About 85 percent of the 259 suppliers responding to the Fifth Annual North American Automotive-Tier 1 Supplier Study reported a poor working relationship with GM, while only 3 percent said they had a good to very good relationship. Among suppliers to Ford, the proportion was 78 percent poor and 5 percent good to very good.

Over at Toyota, by contrast, only 17 percent described their relationship as poor, while 63 percent said it was good or very good. Toyota's supplier relations were superior to those of all other automakers.

``The transplants, foreign automakers operating in the U.S., realize there's a lot to be gained showing their suppliers they want to work with them,'' said John Henke, whose consulting firm, Planning Perspectives Inc. in Birmingham, Michigan, conducted the survey.

``The U.S. automakers show a disdain for their suppliers,'' Henke said. He also teaches marketing at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.

GM, Ford Respond

Responding to the results of Henke's survey, GM called them ``highly subjective'' and said ``surveys often don't provide the level of detail needed to improve supplier-OEM (original equipment manufacturer) performance and relationship.''

GM's statement also credited its suppliers for recent gains of its vehicle models in various quality and productivity surveys.

In a statement responding to the survey, Ford said, ``We acknowledge we may not be where we want to be, but we have been actively working with our suppliers to improve relationships.''

Some suppliers confidentially say that it has become too risky to pitch their best ideas for products or cost savings to Detroit. Automakers, they say, sometimes show their parts designs or describe ideas to rivals in expectations of increasing competition to drive parts and materials prices even lower.

Alienating suppliers does substantial harm for U.S. automakers, crippled by a steady loss of U.S. vehicle market share. They need suppliers' latest and greatest for new models in order to keep up with their non-U.S. competition.

Looking Elsewhere

Suppliers to U.S. automakers -- the thousands of companies that manufacture everything from brakes to windshield wipers to massive stamping presses for factories -- are increasingly convinced GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler don't care if they can't earn a fair profit.

Financially pressed automakers often insist on lower prices than those agreed upon contractually. If suppliers don't comply they risk exclusion from future business.

The upshot is that more U.S. auto suppliers now look to Toyota, Honda, Nissan Motor Corp. and newcomers like Hyundai Motor Co. of South Korea for business and to sell innovative products.

``Suppliers can see that their business is more stable and profitable with Japanese automakers than Ford, GM and Chrysler,'' said Thomas Stallkamp, former president of DaimlerChrysler and former chief executive of MSX International, a supplier of engineering and other services to the auto industry.

Detroit's Fallout

The relentless demand by the Detroit automakers for price cuts and discounts have hurt many suppliers' financial condition and helped to push some of them into bankruptcy.

In May the U.S. auto industry was rocked by the bankruptcy filing of Collins & Aikman, a Troy, Michigan-based maker of carpets, door panels and other parts with $4 billion in sales last year. Almost half of the company's sales were to GM and Ford. Earlier this year, Tower Automotive Inc. and Meridian Automotive Systems Inc. also filed for bankruptcy protection.

In the same way that Toyota and Honda altered the rules of automaking in the 1980s with the quality and durability of their vehicles, they likewise are changing what it takes to win in manufacturing by virtue of their ties to suppliers.

Unlike when U.S. automakers ruled the market and dictated prices and forced suppliers into cut-throat competition, Japanese automakers try to collaborate with suppliers early in a vehicle's design phase.

The Japanese automakers will share sensitive data with suppliers, in part to build trust. They often assist suppliers with engineering expertise, sometimes stationing their own engineers in supplier's plants.

Japanese automakers like Toyota, poised to pass GM as the world's largest automaker, cooperate with their suppliers and say those relationships are key to maintaining quality. Does anyone in Detroit care to argue the point with Toyota?

To contact the writer of this column:
Doron Levin in Southfield, Michigan, at [e-mail].


LINK: http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000039&refer=columnist_levin&sid=aZFL.4GR801I