Supply chain collaboration drives Subaru plant's paint line conversion
Automotive firm teams up with chemicals supplier to streamline move to new paint line.
By Richard Weissman -- Purchasing, 7/16/2009 2:00:00 AM
Supply chain collaboration is one of those terms that is easily defined but hard to put into action.
Often these efforts occur by happenstance rather than through careful planning and execution. Yet there are enlightened organizations, on both the buy and supply side that not only see the intrinsic benefits of supply chain collaboration but embrace it. An excellent example of this buyer supplier partnership occurred recently during an accelerated paint line conversion with BASF Coatings North America and Subaru of Indiana Automotive (SIA).
Collaboration between Subaru and BASF is not a new phenomenon. The companies have had a 20-year partnership in Japan, which helped to lay the foundation for an important North American project—the recent conversion of Subaru's Lafayette, Ind. plant from solvent-borne to water-borne paint. For its work in the accelerated line conversion BASF was awarded the Subaru of Indiana Automotive Supplier Award for "outstanding achievement and excellent service."
"We took an on-site conversion procedure that typically takes months and compressed it to two weeks," says Ted Morris, an account manager in the North American region for Southfield, Mich.-based BASF Coatings, a tier 1 automotive supplier. "While in total this was about a 15-month process, our two companies worked very closely together to accelerate the actual plant conversion, including equipment changeover, and we had Subaru up and running in a full production start-up within two weeks of when we could access the paint line."
Morris did his best to leverage existing knowledge and inter-company relationships but part of the challenge was that there was limited access to the factory as BASF was not the current paint supplier. "Much of the work needed to be done in labs and we needed to depend on our experience and knowledge of the process that had already taken place in Asia," says Morris. Because BASF did not have complete access to the factory prior to the changeover they were even unsure about how some of the equipment worked.
While Subaru and BASF had worked together on plant conversions in Japan, their relationship in North America had only been in existence since July 2008. Subaru chose BASF as the supplier for the Lafayette project to leverage global supply chain continuity and maximize existing relationships and technical expertise. "BASF Coatings has clearly shown us that we made the right decision in choosing it as our supplier," says Robert Ryder, manager of manufacturing engineering of the paint section at Subaru of Indiana.
Morris was enthusiastic about the cross-functional team approach to the project and feels that the conversion would not have been successful without team members from BASF's technical services, planning, and supply chain organizations. "We had a launch coordinator head our launch team and we also relied on resources from North America and Japan," says Morris, strong in his praise for the project team. "Our ability to plan and execute this project was critical and our planners played a key role in the conversion's success."
While representatives from supply chain management were involved, Morris felt "we should have gotten the supply chain people involved earlier in the process than they were. They were able to pull rabbits out of the hat on a regular basis and were critical to our success." Morris was especially complimentary of how the procurement team performed during the actual two week conversion. "There are always challenges with materials and construction during the conversion and the first few weeks of production," says Morris. "Our suppliers performed very well under pressure and I attribute that to the relationships that our buyers have with our suppliers."
It seems that the enthusiasm Morris has for the supply chain team was well founded. "At BASF, the supply chain team is an integral part of launching a new plant," says Don Cole, the group logistics manager. "From coordinating delivery of samples, to making sure the product is delivered to the plant on time, the supply chain team drove the launch of our new OEM paint shop."
Materials coordinator Sarah Kenny took a customer focus approach to her involvement in the launch team. "I worked with transportation, account management, technical services and manufacturing on this project," says Kenny. "It was great to be part of a diverse, cross-functional group pulling together toward a common, very aggressive goal. The tight timeframe was quite a stretch compared to the norm and underscored the importance of proper execution and teamwork to be a successful supplier."
Morris noted other important areas of supply chain performance. "In addition to supply management, the supply chain representatives on our project team needed to understand our global platform, get involved in environmental issues, compliance and regulatory concerns, and import/export matters," says Morris.
Adding to the complexity of the project team was a cross-cultural element: Morris says they worked with BASF counterparts in Asia as well as Subaru on technical, environmental and regulatory issues.
Demonstrated project success like this builds momentum for the collaborative process and BASF is already working with customers and suppliers on other projects. "We learned to quickly flatten the learning curve of projects like this," says Morris. "Up front planning is critical and the lessons we learned in this project with Subaru will not be lost on us."
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