Ford of Europe
Supply Chain
Ford’s suppliers are critical allies in helping us to achieve success in the marketplace and meet our sustainability goals.
The basis of our work with suppliers is the Ford Code of Human Rights, Basic Working Conditions and Corporate Responsibility, which applies to our own operations as well as our $75 billion supply chain. The Code addresses workplace issues such as working hours, child labor and forced labor, as well as nondiscrimination, freedom of association, health and safety, the environment and other issues.
We work to ensure that Ford and our suppliers have management systems in place to mitigate potential risks, ensure continuity of supply and improve the overall sustainability of the complex global automotive supply chain. Our aim is to leverage our supply chain – and our industry – to make a positive impact in the markets in which we do business.
We take a three-pronged approach to supply chain sustainability:
- Building capability at individual supplier facilities by requiring sustainability management and conducting supplier training, assessments and remediation
- Engaging strategic production suppliers to align approaches to a range of sustainability issues
- Collaborating within the automotive industry to develop common approaches to sustainability issues
In 2011, the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) jointly sponsored with participating OEMs supplier training sessions held in Brazil, India, Mexico and Turkey. A total of 387 suppliers attended these sessions; 111 of those were Ford suppliers, and may also have been a supplier to other participating automotive manufacturers. This brings the global total for trained Ford suppliers to 1,766. (This figure includes dedicated Ford supplier training sessions conducted with the AIAG as well as industry training sessions in which Ford participated along with the AIAG and other automakers). The industry total for the AIAG training sessions across five countries (Brazil, China, India, Mexico and Turkey) now exceeds 1,650 suppliers trained. In 2012, we plan to conduct additional supplier training sessions in conjunction with the AIAG in China, Mexico, Brazil, India, Turkey and Thailand.
For a discussion of our global commitment to supply chain sustainability please see the Supply Chain section.