Supplier Diversity Development

Ford remains strongly committed to utilizing and developing supplier companies that are owned by minorities and women. Our Supplier Diversity Development Office works with business leaders, trade associations and community-based organizations that represent the interests of diverse businesses. In 2009, Ford purchased $2.7 billion in goods and services from approximately 200 minority-owned suppliers and more than $539 million in goods and services from more than 200 women-owned businesses. Tangible accomplishments like these have earned Ford a seat at the "Billion Dollar Roundtable," an exclusive group of 17 companies that purchase a minimum of $1 billion annually from diverse suppliers. Despite a challenging economic environment, Ford is unwavering in its commitment to incremental year-over-year percentage increases in sourcing from diverse suppliers. We encourage similar actions across our supply chain. In 2009, more than 400 of our largest Tier 1 suppliers purchased more than $1.03 billion from minority- and women-owned enterprises in support of Ford business.

In 2009, Ford expanded its leadership role in supplier diversity by adding two companies to the Joint Technology Framework (JTF), a special program aimed at improving the technical expertise of diverse suppliers. We added Piston Automotive, LLC, and Saturn Electronics & Engineering, Inc., to the JTF, bringing the number of minority- and women-owned companies in the program to eight.

We launched JTF in 2008 to assist suppliers in developing innovative products and technical expertise. Under the program, suppliers are given access to specific product and process intellectual property from Ford Research and Advanced Engineering. Suppliers are then licensed by Ford to develop the technologies and processes for potential future use by Ford, other automakers or manufacturers in other industries.