Mercedes 2003 Annual Report Download - page 79
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Awards for the best suppliers. The EBSC is also the basis for
our Global Supplier Awards. These awards are given in recognition
of selected suppliers’ outstanding commitment and excellent
performance. In addition to the quantitative EBSC criteria of cost,
quality, technology and supply reliability, the evaluation criteria
also include readiness to assume responsibility and transparency
in joint activities. Only suppliers that have provided goods and
services worth a total of at least €1 million to Chrysler Group,
Mercedes Car Group or Commercial Vehicles Division over the past
year are eligible. Awards are presented to suppliers in the following
commodity groups: chassis, electrical, exterior, interior, powertrain
and raw materials. Awards were also presented to the best logistics
suppliers and to the best suppliers of non-product materials (goods
such as machinery that do not become part of a vehicle but are
needed for the production process).
Involvement of Asian suppliers in the logistics network. The
implementation of a global sourcing strategy requires an efficient
and flexible logistics network. This network must guarantee the
supply of production parts, components and service parts as well
as providing for the distribution of finished vehicles worldwide.
To meet increasing demands in market requirements, it has
become essential to shorten delivery times, optimize costs and
improve quality. DaimlerChrysler is continuously improving its
logistic processes and applies planning and controlling tools to
realize any optimization potential. Having successfully implemented
logistics networks in Europe and NAFTA, we now plan to integrate
Asian suppliers into the global network.
Improvements in supplier quality. To ensure the conformity of
our vehicles to internal quality standards and to the quality
expectation of our customers, the parts we use during assembly
must be top-quality and flawless. We have therefore established
the Global Supplier Quality Management Council, whose task is to
identify the best quality assurance processes, procedures and
guidelines and to implement them uniformly across all business
units. This enables us to make better use of our resources, further
improve quality and cut costs simultaneously.
Utilizing cost advantages with non-production materials
and services. Since July 2002, the global purchasing organization
known as International Procurement Services (IPS) has been
systematically exploiting further cost-cutting potential. Global
strategies for commodity groups and volume bundling for the
Group are just a few of the tools we use. In 2003, IPS steadily
continued with its policy of internationalization. Cooperation
with our ten biggest subsidiaries outside Germany was put onto
a new, common basis, and offers scope for additional savings
in the future. More progress was achieved in the field of supply
management. The quality of procurement decisions and thus
also of collaboration with our partners in the supply industry was
further improved, particularly as a result of consistently
evaluating our suppliers’ performance and by setting agreed
targets with the use of the balanced-scorecard method.
Efficient logistics processes guarantee a smooth flow of materials