Your AIAG membership comes with many benefits intended to support your business—so many, in fact, that you might not remember all of them.

Here are a few suggestions. Are you using them to full advantage?

Sponsored Memberships

Did you know that AIAG offers free sponsored memberships to qualifying automotive and diversity suppliers that fall under $20 million in total annual sales? If you are not a member, you can start the process of joining here!

OEM and Tier One customers know that the resources, standards, and industry best practices created at AIAG benefit everyone. Sponsored memberships are a way to share that knowledge with smaller organizations.

AIAG’s sponsored memberships provide a free membership for automotive companies whose material, component, or secondary and finishing become part of the finished vehicle. All employees gain access to industry-developed best practice publications, e-learnings, self-assessments, and trainings — all free or at a discount.

• Free electronic Corporate Responsibility manualsincluding the Automotive Guiding Principles to Enhance Sustainability Performance in the Supply Chain, Conflict Minerals Microsite and Reporting Checklist, and the Automotive Water Benchmark.
• Corporate Responsibility training optionssuch as Supply Chain Sustainability eLearning, IMDS Training, and On the Job with GHS eLearning.

CMRT 5.11

Major changes to CMRT 5.11 include:

• Available for download
• Corrections to all bugs and errors
  • Update to ISO country, state, and province lists
• Enhancements that do not conflict with IPC-1755
• Updates to the Smelter Reference List and Standard Smelter List
• Name changes to reflect the organization's rebrand

The next version of the CMRT is anticipated to be released in November 2018.

Regulatory Updates Page: C2P

As an additional member and industry benefit, AIAG has rolled out a new online resource for automotive professionals: a Regulatory Updates page that automatically pulls in new and relevant content as it becomes available. The content is brought to you via Compliance & Risks and their knowledge partner network. 

This RSS feed-driven page is geared toward individuals involved with corporate responsibility and sustainability (CR/S), those performing quality functions that require reporting into IMDS, and all others dealing with global substances of concern and waste regulation. The page’s simple and straightforward format allows users to quickly skim through content if desired, but also makes it easy to find more information. Clicking on any particular update’s title takes the user to the source page, where more detail is available. 

Resources like this help support proactive and reactive measures automotive organizations take in response to changes in global regulations. Since the page populates with fresh content as regulations are updated and customer requirements change, the process of staying informed is made stress-free. Checking back often will help individuals stay up to date on the latest need-to-know regulations and requirements and stay better prepared for compliance challenges. Additionally, although new content appearing at the top of the page will displace older updates, the latter will still be readily available simply by scrolling down.

Value of Joining the Supplier Alliance

The Supplier Alliance is comprised of AIAG (North America), CLEPA (Europe), and JAPIA (Japan and Asia Pacific). Its purpose is for the three associations to collaborate and share information on laws, regulations, and materials compliance rules coming out of their regions. It allows suppliers to get their voices heard on issues regarding materials reporting.

If you can’t get involved in the Supplier Alliance itself, get involved in AIAG’s Supplier Alliance Work Group, which is just for North American suppliers. The work group is involved in what the Supplier Alliance brings to the IMDS Steering Committee meetings. Most of the Supplier Alliance meetings take place via conference call, and there are two face-to-face meetings each year that occur somewhere within the three regions served. Typically, the meetings are tied to other automotive events or conferences where Supplier Alliance members may be in attendance.

AIAG members might not realize that participation is open to any automotive supply company. There is no limit to the number of companies that can be individually represented on the Supplier Alliance.

For more information on the Supplier Alliance, contact Lecedra Welch, AIAG’s program manager for environmental sustainability, at CR@aiag.org. Welch recently spoke on behalf of AIAG members at a Supplier Alliance meetings in Germany and in China.