Quistem’s Cathy Fisher and I are having the best time co-hosting the Auto Supply Chain Prophets podcast. And we’re thrilled to share that with our 10th episode, we have also recently reached 1,000 downloads — we’re delighted to have so many new followers and listeners! It encourages us to continue meeting with automotive industry experts about supply chain issues that resonate with so many listeners.
Here’s a wrap-up of the latest episodes.
Episode #6: Electrifying the Automotive Supply Chain
With three decades of hands-on automotive experience, Paul Eichenberg, Chief Strategist, Eichenberg Consulting, L.L.C., talked with us about the auto supply chain challenges that Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and Electric Vehicle (EV) organizations face, the unexpected speed of progress in new battery technologies, and the type of auto supply chain leader that the electric vehicle industry demands.
While building an EV requires a significantly smaller manufacturing footprint than what an ICE vehicle requires, many EV manufacturers lack the business systems and connections to support their production. Paul explains:
“Forecasting vehicle release dates are a ‘huge problem’ for EV manufacturers because they don’t have the value chains that their ICE counterparts do to make forecasting reliable” … “You start dealing with these new entrants and these new organizations and what you find is, these organizations, like Tesla and Rivian, really have huge advantages.”
Click here to listen to the full episode.
Episode #7: Reflections of the Auto Supply Chain Prophets
Sometimes you need to look back before moving forward. In this short episode, Jan Griffiths, former farm girl turned automotive Vice President of Global Supply Chain Management at a leading automotive tier one supplier, reviews the first six episodes and summarizes the actionable “one thing” from each episode.
Jan also describes how the podcast is built around the insights from QAD and Quistem’s 24 Essential Supply Chain Processes. She encourages supply chain leaders to review the 24 processes and evaluate their supply chains to identify any gaps and uncover potential solutions.
Click here to listen to the full episode.
Episode #8: School’s in Session: Learning (and Teaching) the Automotive Supply Chain Ropes
Finding and shaping tomorrow’s supply chain leadership is a challenge happily undertaken by Lori Sisk, automotive supply chain veteran and Assistant Professor at Wayne State University’s Mike Ilitch School of Business Global Supply Chain Management program. She’s laser focused on raising awareness of supply chain career opportunities, as she shared in this episode.
By offering students a real-world educational opportunity in rotational programs with employers, Lori’s program introduces students to all facets of supply chain management, from purchasing to logistics to materials management to production planning. Her students tend to focus on purchasing, logistics and consulting.
She would tell supply chain leaders that students achieve more in an environment that encourages continuous learning. And, she adds, “the industry is looking to this next group to make these processes we have less tedious by incorporating more technology.”
Click here to listen to the full episode.
Episode #9: Moving Parts: A Framework for Improving Automotive Supply Chain Performance
In this episode, Cathy Fisher and I were delighted to discuss with Jan Griffiths how to improve the supply chain, focusing on IATF 16949 and MMOG/LE. We’ve created an easy-to-implement framework that integrates and summarizes these two sets of professional standards and guidelines. Our framework for improving performance focuses on the value an organization achieves by identifying 24 essential processes that are essential to the automotive supply chain. We’ve created a five-step, easy-to-follow roadmap to optimize supply chain performance. Cathy suggests:
“We can speak to automating or adding technology to improve individual processes, but if we’re not looking at those processes holistically, and where they connect to each other and developing a system that connects those processes together from a technology standpoint, then you’re not going to have the visibility of what’s happening in your supply chain.”
Click here to listen to the full episode.
Episode #10: Maps & Metrics
Jd Marhevko, a well-known and award-winning quality expert, joined us on our 10th episode to talk about how suppliers can improve delivery performance. Jd has decades of experience in the automotive industry and is currently Vice President of Quality for a major Tier 1 automotive supplier. In addition, she is an ASQ fellow, a Shainin medalist, was named a “Notable Woman in Manufacturing” by Crain’s Detroit Business in 2018, and in 2020, was inducted into the Women in Manufacturing Hall of Fame.
She told us that automotive suppliers can improve delivery performance from a quality perspective by applying lean management to their systems because it will enable them to understand what their exact position is, and what they can do from an agile perspective.
She also recommends that automotive suppliers track leading and lagging indicators and should focus especially on overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), maintenance KPIs and the upfront supply chain.
Click here to listen to the full episode.
Supply Chain Fundamentals
All of our podcast guests come at supply chain from a variety of different perspectives but the key themes that run through all the episodes are good communication, deliberate process management built on the structure identified by our 24 Essential Supply Chain Processes, preparing for the supply chain of the future and digital transformation.
To download and catch up on all the latest podcast episodes, please visit the Auto Supply Chain Prophets website.
