Third-party logistics companies with experience in Mexico and strong partnerships with leading Mexican carriers and customs brokers can make cross-border shipping a truly seamless activity, says Dennis McCaffrey of XPO Logistics.
"New business reality." That's an apt way to describe the position of any company that has just emerged from four years of reorganization under Chapter 11 of U.S. bankruptcy law. And it's precisely the challenge that Delphi Automotive faced back in 2009, when it sought to reinvent itself and shore up relations with an army of suppliers.
The UK government and the automotive industry are investing £500m ($755m) each to double the number of jobs created or secured in the automotive supply chain by developing an Advanced Propulsion Centre.
A combination of rebounding sales and an unprecedented number of new models in the works has stretched the auto parts supply chain so taut that the entire industry is holding its collective breath that it does not snap and jeopardize the recovery.
The non-profit Automotive Industry Action Group is partnering with automotive manufacturing associations representing the states of Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee to assist in accelerating development of the industry's supply base in the South.
The automotive manufacturing industry is becoming more complex than ever before. More models, including hybrids, are being introduced, and there are now more features and options, with technology used to drive end-market price and model differentiation.
The latest spate of auto recalls came last month when auto giants Honda, Nissan, Toyota and Mazda were focused to recall more than 3.4 million vehicles as a result of faulty air bags originating from Takata Corp in Japan. Since the initial announcement, BMW has come forward with a related recall action of more than 200,000 of their cars.
Automakers like Ford rely on thousands of tier-one suppliers to provide the materials, parts and services to make its final products. Many suppliers serve numerous automakers, and each of those suppliers, in turn, has multiple suppliers. Other industries' supply chains (such as electronics) are intertwined into the automotive supply chain. There are often six to 10 levels of suppliers between an automaker and the source of raw materials that eventually enter the manufacturing process. The breadth, depth and interconnectedness of the automotive supply chain make it especially challenging to effectively manage business and sustainability issues.
Mercedes-Benz U.S. International (MBUSI) plans a new $70m logistics hub that it expects will create 600 new jobs from the automaker and its contractors and service providers at its Tuscaloosa County, Alabama campus.
Epicor Software Corp. has incorporated a number of new features into Epicor Vision, its business-management application for automotive aftermarket distributors and jobbers.
