on component and vehicle production. Each committee tackled an assigned task, such as managing remaining inventories, boosting production at existing suppliers, identifying new rms to produce resins, and nding replacement materials. The group hosted multiple technical follow-up meetings on this issue during the subsequent weeks. This multifaceted collaboration was key to overcoming the supply challenge. Within one week of the meeting, the top OEMs had jointly drafted a plan to expedite their validation processes for alternative parts. Harmonized validation processes ensured that a supplier didn’t need to perform different validation processes for each customer OEM. Suppliers from other industries lent their capacity to automotive applications. For example, Kansas-based Invista Inc., the maker of Stainmaster brand carpets, released its contractual claims on capacity for production of CDT so more could be allocated to the automotive industry. In the end, cars continued to roll off the line even though the Evonik factory was of ine until December 2012. n
April 17, 2012, in Troy, Michigan. The summit was moderated by a neutral third party, the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG). The AIAG is a volunteer- run, nonpro t organization that provides shared expertise, knowledge, and standards on quality, corporate responsibility, and supply chain management to about 4,000 member rms in the automotive industry. Two hundred people attended the summit, representing eight automakers and 50 suppliers. Companies from all tiers of the affected sectors of the automotive supply chain came, including the big OEMs, their Tier 1 suppliers, component makers, polymer resin makers, and on down to chemical makers such as Evonik and BASF. The participants had three objectives that required the collective expertise of the entire industry. First, they wanted to understand and quantify the current state of global PA-12 inventories and production capacities throughout the automotive supply chain. Second, they wanted to brainstorm options to strategically extend current PA-12 capacities and/or identify alternative materials or designs to offset projected capacity shortfalls. Third, they wanted to identify and recruit the necessary industry resources required to technically vet, test, and approve the alternatives. The group formed six committees to help quickly create action plans that would lessen any impact of shortages
MEET THE AUTHOR Dr. Yossi She´ is the Elisha Gray II professor of Engineering Systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he serves as Director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics (CTL). He is an expert in systems optimization, risk and resilience, and supply chain management, topics he researches and teaches at MIT and other leading business and engineering schools. Outside academia, Professor She has consulted with numerous government agencies as well as leading manufacturing, retail, and transportation enterprises all over the world. He is also an active entrepreneur, having founded five successful companies, all acquired by larger enterprises.
Adapted from The Magic Conveyor Belt by Dr. Yossi Shef . Available on Amazon, Apple Books and Google Play.
When a fire at Evonik Industries in 2012 destroyed capacity of a key chemical, automotive companies banded together as an industry to overcome the supply chain challenge.
184 Inbound Logistics • July 2023
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