Speaking at the Automobilwoche Congress in Berlin, Birgit Behrendt, head of purchasing for Ford of Europe, said that Ford want to achieve better economies of scale for themselves and for their suppliers, and also shorten development times.
The policy has been developed over the last four years and is now being built up further alongside global vehicle platform developments, said Behrendt.
“We are trying to build up cooperation with our strategic suppliers to achieve even more scale effects,” said the Ford manager.
Suppliers that are not considered strategic partners can expect difficult times ahead. Behrends said: “We have established that we can work more easily and more efficiently with our strategic suppliers on the joint development of global platforms.”
Behrendt said that this strategy was critical to the development of the new Fiesta platform, particularly in terms of reducing development times. Already Ford works with two thirds of its suppliers in two or more regions. This is expected to increase.
Supplying Ford Strategically
Ford are focusing more closely on purchasing from the firm’s 65 most important suppliers.