TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. -- Ford Motor Co.’s purchasing chief today highlighted some of the innovations created with suppliers on the all-new Mustang sports car and F-150 pickup.
Ford is in the midst of a year with 23 global product launches, including 16 in North America.
Like other automakers, Ford’s relationship with its supply chain varies year-to-year. Ford this year ranked fourth out of six North American automakers in the annual Planning Perspectives Inc. survey of how auto suppliers view their customers.
The survey rated Ford’s supplier relationships as “adequate,” behind Toyota, Honda, and Nissan. Ford ranked ahead of Chrysler and General Motors.
Hau Thai-Tang, group vice president for Ford global purchasing, appearing in front of the supplier community at the 2014 Management Briefing Seminars here, showcased these technologies appearing on the 2015 vehicles:
“Considering the impact suppliers have on our business, with 70 percent of the value of the vehicle being purchased from our supplier partners, our suppliers are critical to our ability to offer attractive solutions to our customers,” Thai-Tang said in a statement.
Ford said it has relationships with more than 1,100 production suppliers operating at more than 4,600 manufacturing sites. Those operations make 130,000 parts for inclusion in Ford vehicles, the company said.
