GM voted worst customer by tier 1 suppliers

[280Z Turbo]

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/05/12/tier-1-suppliers-call-gm-worst-oem-work-with/

I'm feeling a little relieved today.

They're vindictive, they steal your work and call it "best practice", and they have hoards of useless SQE's who do nothing but make you feel like the worst company in the world.

[MrH]

Lol, GM's "best practices" are a joke.  It's more like GM's "ideas that once worked in a very specific situation that will be applied to everything and needlessly box in designs with incorrect design criteria"

[280Z Turbo]

Lol, GM's "best practices" are a joke.  It's more like GM's "ideas that once worked in a very specific situation that will be applied to everything and needlessly box in designs with incorrect design criteria"

Tell me about it.

The refreshed Equinox tail lamp looks like an assembly disaster because GM's best practice is to use mechanical fasteners to hold parts in.

[Secret Chimp]

Tell me about it.

The refreshed Equinox tail lamp looks like an assembly disaster because GM's best practice is to use mechanical fasteners to hold parts in.

Wuh? It's not all molded in? Why do you want fasteners anywhere in a lamp aside from the mounting studs?

[MX793]

Wuh? It's not all molded in? Why do you want fasteners anywhere in a lamp aside from the mounting studs?

They probably had a bad experience once with molded/bonded parts, perhaps on something other than a lamp assembly, and now require everything be held together with fasteners.

[2o6]

That sounds both complicated and expensive

[280Z Turbo]

What? You can't just poop lamps out of a molding press.

GM doesn't like snap fit or sonic welded inner lenses and bezels.

[MrH]

Another classic GM "best practices": their leather spec literally makes it impossible to build a part. Every supplier knowingly violates it, and GM has never found out.

[2o6]

Wow.

[MexicoCityM3]

Lol, GM's "best practices" are a joke.  It's more like GM's "ideas that once worked in a very specific situation that will be applied to everything and needlessly box in designs with incorrect design criteria"

Curious: which car company is the best client in your opinion?

[FlatBlackCaddy]

With every day that goes by I'm more convinced that GM has no idea what they are doing. It's comical and kind of sad all at the same time.

[Secret Chimp]

What? You can't just poop lamps out of a molding press.

GM doesn't like snap fit or sonic welded inner lenses and bezels.

See I don't know WTF I'm talking about, you gotta throw in some tidbits like this...

[MrH]

Curious: which car company is the best client in your opinion?

Oh wow.  That's tough to say.  I've worked with a good portion of the OEMs on some level ( at the very least, communicated back and forth and quoted some things for them, so I at least saw how they design, costing systems, overall company structure, etc).

I'd say Toyota is hands down the most cooperative.  They're really supportive and communicate well.  If you have an issue, they work directly with you to solve it and find the root cause, and constantly thank you for trying hard.  A lot of OEMs will just yell and throw a fit.  Toyota I've always had completely open communication with, walked them through my thought process, and they've been great.  They're also very fair in their pricing.  If you can adequately justify why your costs, they'll work with you and not beat you up.  Very reasonable material economic policy (ie if the price of plastic resin goes up drastically, you can ask for a price increase so you don't eat all of that).  They expect a very lean operation, but that's a good thing IMO.  Biggest downside is they are very risk sensitive, so they're not going to let you push the boundaries of design a lot of times.  Also, they're kind of ancient with some of their systems.  Very well organized processes, but I was stuck working with 2D prints to quote things.  That's incredibly difficult for interiors, where the curvature of the surface dictates process & price drastically.

It all goes back to how the Japanese treat their suppliers.  They mostly use "keiretsu" suppliers, which are basically sister companies they usually have a vested interest in.  They want their suppliers to stay profitable, because the success and stability of their suppliers is critical to keep them going.  Other OEMs swing their big-dick purchasing power around, and suppliers chase after it and take it at a loss to try and thin some fixed costs.

On the completely opposite end of the spectrum, I like working with Tesla a lot.  Complete no non-sense "tech start up" kind of vibe.  They basically insist on timelines that are 2 or 3 times quicker to implementation than other OEMs, but it pushes your company in a good way.  They will always push to move faster, and makes you really realize how to make your company get things to market quicker.  Also, they've always been incredibly honest with me.  If they tell me something in passing on the phone or a quick note in an e-mail, it's golden.  I don't need to wait for official documentation to get started on a design change.  Finally, they use awesome tech shit.  Cloud based timing charts and open item lists, crazy fast FTP uploads for designs directly to the designer I'm working with.


But Mercedes Benz is my best client, because they're our biggest one.  I worked with them a lot at my last job, and I'm a program manager for one of their products right now.  They're the best in that they pay the bills

[GoCougs]

Not surprising; cooperation and value is at the heart of the Toyota Production System.