The Conflict-free smelter program (CFS) is a program aimed to help companies identify conflict minerals in their supply chains and ensure that they are being responsibly sourced. This program was developed by the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) in order to audit automotive companies and their suppliers. To ensure that the automotive industry is not sourcing from irresponsible suppliers, reporting the location of where automotive suppliers are buying minerals has become a requirement.
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Acronyms can look like alphabet soup, so we’ve compiled a list of some of the most commonly used acronyms to help you out.
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When working in a specialized field, it’s vital to understand the industry jargon. We decided to pull out some of the most important key terms that everyone needs to know in order to be successful in the auto-industry.
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Monitoring performance is essential to make sure all parts of the process are working as efficiently as possible. When selecting a sub-tier supplier OEM’s and Tier 1 suppliers will monitor key performance indicators using defined criteria for acceptable performance. These indicators will vary based on the supplier but there’s a general checklist of questions when assessing system quality. These questions fall into six categories: facilities, profile information, logistics, manufacturing, quality, and technology.
Once a supplier is awarded business, it is time for the Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) phase to begin between the supplier and customer. Typical parts of this process are definition of scope, feasibility, process design and development, product and process validation, feedback and assessment, and control plan methodology. These aspects are pulled from the AIAG Advanced Product Quality Control Plan reference manual. This manual also identifies which pieces of APQP applies to the different types of suppliers and gives plan templates.
Made it through the pre-selection phase, great, but now what? Duringthe Selection phase customer organizations will consider the different bids submitted and perform a number of evaluations. One of these evaluations is of quality requirements. Are you able to meet all of these minimum requirements?
There are many parts to the Pre-Selection phase, but one essential piece is the Bid List. Here are some tips that will help your organization stand out from the competition.
OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers need their Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers to help them be competitive in today’s automotive market. But what do the OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers really want and need from their suppliers? AIAG and leadership of OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers came together to identify the key issues of quality supplier resources:
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It was 1973. He was a Cuse college student driving a 1964 Buick convertible. And gas prices had quadrupled - to 30 cents a gallon. J. Scot Sharland, executive director of AIAG, recalls the OPEC oil embargo - and hearkens on Will Rogers - in our latest Why We Do What We Do feature.
