UTC hosts minority supplier development event
Staff -- Purchasing, 1/12/2006 2:00:00 AM
The fourth annual UTC Minority Business Exchange (MBX) was held recently at the United Technologies Research Center in East Hartford, Conn., to help United Technologies get to know potential diverse suppliers. More than 200 people from tier-one suppliers, minority business enterprise (MBE) suppliers and UTC commodity managers attended.
"United Technologies is a different company than it was in the 1990s," George David, chairman and CEO, told attendees at the MBX. "We are more demanding of ourselves and our suppliers. We’re tougher. It’s harder to satisfy us. Yet working with UTC will make your company stronger." David, who has served as chairman of the National Minority Supplier Development Council, was on hand to present the company’s diverse Supplier Excellence Award to Willie Arnold, president, Arnold-Hanafan Corp., Boca Raton, Fla. "Growth through Operations Transformation" was the theme of the conference, expressed by Jothi Purushotaman, vice president, operations, UTC. "We want to grow our business successfully and you do too," he said, pointing out that UTC intends to do this through "operational excellence."
Picking up on this theme was Ralph Thomas, assistant administrator for small and disadvantaged business utilization at NASA in Washington, D.C. He told attendees to view the event as an opportunity "to get the information you need to get a contract or subcontract, understand UTC better and ensure you are going in the right direction. In order to do this, you have to keep asking these four questions: Do you buy what I sell? How do you buy it? When do you buy it? Who buys it?" Thirty-one percent of NASA’s annual spend is with disadvantaged and women-owned businesses.
Jack Akey, senior account executive at UTC supplier Triple Incorporated said the $7.5 million manufacturer of matched valves, nearly shut its doors in 2002 after 50 years of business. However, new owners dedicated to Lean manufacturing processes earned $4 million in business from Hamilton Sundstrand in 2005 and is expected to do another $6 million in 2006. The company’s long-term contract includes a regressive pricing clause. "We have to figure out how to make parts cheaper," says Akey, adding that Hamilton has taught Triple how to implement Lean tools which it uses to eliminate waste—or what the customer doesn’t want to pay for—from its processes. Scott Singer, director of global supply management at UTC, explained to MBE suppliers attending the "How to do business with UTC" workshop, the decentralized structure of the company’s supply chain management operation.
While decentralized supply management means that each UTC business does most of its own purchasing, especially of direct materials, Singer said that a good entry point for suppliers interested in selling indirect goods and services to UTC is through the supply management operation located in Farmington, Conn. Each of the commodity managers on his staff has a supplier diversity goal and the businesses have goals as well. Mary Lombardo, director of global supply at Carrier, said she has a projected $28.5 million annual spend with diverse suppliers.
At the session for tier-one supplier attendees, "Second-tier program and reporting," Ronald Dapkunas, director of the customer and vehicle services division of PHH Arval said, "We build supplier networks to meet customer requirements." While at first glance, most people would not consider fleet leasing a candidate for spending with diverse suppliers, more than 50% of UTC’s $245 annual spend with PHH goes to tier-two MBE suppliers, which include MBE dealers and repair facilities. Susan Spence, director of supply management, general procurement, UTC, led the session. In it, she explained supply management’s supplier scorecard and its performance goals that include MBE spend targets.
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