Toyota tops in annual supplier relations study

Toyota Motor Corp. had the best working relationship with its North American suppliers, according to an annual study from accounting firm Plante Moran, while Honda Motor Co. showed the most improvement, and views on Jeep-maker Stellantis NV soured.

This year’s North American Automotive Oem-supplier Working Relations Index was ripe for change given the supply-chain disruptions ongoing for more than a year that have halted vehicle assembly, depleted inventories and increased the costs of production. But the results, whose positioning was consistent with last year, show decreasing trust in those relations that represent 75% of the value of a vehicle isn’t a foregone conclusion, said Dave Andrea, a principal and automotive strategist at Plante Moran. Maintaining that cooperating can be an indicator of navigating future crises.

“Supplier relations don’t need to dip or weaken in that these situations like that,” he said. “When you look at both Honda as well as Nissan, it showed they could improve their overall relations in an atmosphere of the same deck of cards that were dealt with all six of the OEMS and improve their supplier relations.”

Honda improved by 18 points to 334, narrowing its gap to 11 points with No. 1 Toyota, which fell by two points year-over-year and sold more vehicles in the United States last year than any other automaker. Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. at No. 5 with 219 points rose by eight points.

Honda showed strengths in timely resolution of issues and accessibility, and it recently appointed a new senior vice president of purchasing, Andrea noted. Supplier relations also is a key point of the Nissan Next corporate strategy.

The evaluation from mid-february to mid-april came from 673 responses from 436 supplier companies representing more than half of the six automakers’ spend, according to Plante Moran.