Automotive Supplier Quality Awards and Scorecards – How the Right ERP Software Solution Leads to Supplier Success

Updated July 27, 2024 · Originally published January 5, 2011

The very foundation of the automotive business is focused on the component suppliers’ success. These manufacturers are over-lean, red-lined in some states, and faced with ever increasing logistical requirements for the Supply Chain integrity. Automotive suppliers must adhere to strict quality standards that include participating in Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) including efforts such as Engineering Change Controls, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), and Production Part Approval Process (PPAP).

Goals of the Automotive Supplier include being the best of the best – earning the Ford Motor Company Q1 Preferred Quality Award, Chryslers’ Gold Pentastar Award or Quality Excellence Award, GM’s Supplier of the Year Award, Honda’s Supplier Performance Award, or Toyota’s Gold Quality Award.

How does one achieve these high standards? By having excellent ratings on the Supplier Scorecard.
The supplier scorecard is called different things by different OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. For example: Quality Management Systems Score, Supplier Quality Rating System, Supplier Scorecard, or OEM Scorecard Assessment Criteria. No matter what it is called, they all have core principles of Quality, Cost, Delivery, and Technological Capabilities that the suppliers are expected to meet. In fact, suppliers are often expected to have zero incidents and zero disruptions, provide products with zero defects and have flawless delivery performance and on-time responsiveness to issues.

For large suppliers these are intense demands, but for smaller suppliers this can be a monumental task. Clearly the small to medium sized automotive component part suppliers need to comply with logistic and quality demands, but without some type of automation it can get very difficult, if not impossible to capture, stage, execute, and record the movement of shipments to multiple destinations on time for Tier 1 and OEM use. This is why a “standard” ERP system won’t deliver to their full daily requirements. It’s not as simple as MRP. They need a solution that incorporates such standards as AIAG QS-9000, Global Materials Management Operations Guideline Logistics Evaluation (MMOG/ LE), and ISO/TS 16949.

If you are an automotive supplier and are interested in reviewing your ERP requirements, contact us here at AIM Computer Solutions, Inc. We are a Michigan-based Microsoft Gold Certified ISV Partner with automotive-centered ERP and SCM solutions that are certified for Microsoft Dynamics.

by AIM Computer Solutions, Inc