“Strong supplier relationships are embedded in the principles of the ONE Ford plan,” said Tony Brown, group vice president, Global Purchasing. “By increasing our ABF network Ford is building a strong foundation of suppliers that are helping us transform our products into a global portfolio of high-quality, class-leading cars and trucks.”
The ABF list was established with seven companies in September 2005, having the aim to develop a new collaboration pathway between Ford and its suppliers. The company has constantly added new partners to this project, with the development now including 67 production and 23 non-production global suppliers.
The automaker is relying of its ABF suppliers to develop its vehicle globalization process, Last year, ABF suppliers accounted for around 50 percent of Ford’s global production purchases, a figure that can be translated into a 16 percent compared to the one posted in 2006.
“ABF companies enter into long-term relationships with Ford to strengthen collaboration and drive mutual profitability and technology development. Ford’s commitments to ABF companies include long-term sourcing, improved parts commonality and more information sharing of product and manufacturing plans, as well as forecasts. Supplier commitments include increased financial data transparency, commitment to minority- and women-owned suppliers and bringing leading-edge technology innovations to Ford,” stated the press release.
The new group of ABF suppliers includes Akebono, Automotive Lighting, Benteler Automobiltechnik, Brembo, Federal Mogul Corporation, Gentex, GKN, Hayes Lemmerz International, Key Safety Systems, Michelin, Ronal, Samvardhana Motherson Reflectec and Takata Holdings.
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