Supplier Diversity Development

Ford remains strongly committed to working with and developing supplier companies that are owned by minorities, women and veterans. Our Supplier Diversity Development office works with business leaders, trade associations and community-based organizations that represent the interests of diverse businesses.

Our annual goal is to source at least 10 percent of U.S. purchases from minority-, women-, and veteran-owned businesses. In 2013, Ford purchased $6.5 billion in goods and services from approximately 250 minority-owned suppliers and $1.8 billion in goods and services from more than 150 women-owned businesses and $600 million from veteran-owned companies. Our 2013 results demonstrated the fourth consecutive year of improvement and exceeded our sourcing goals for both minority- and women-owned suppliers.

Ford launched its Supplier Diversity Development program in 1978 with the goals of supporting minority businesses, creating business opportunities for diverse suppliers to grow into profitable enterprises and further strengthening the Ford supplier network to reflect the company’s work force and customer base. In the early 1990s, women suppliers were added and in 2013, veterans were included in our Supplier Diversity Development program. Since 1978, we have sourced more than $74 billion to minority-, women-, and veteran-owned businesses.

Ford’s diverse suppliers are playing an important role in the company’s revitalized and expanding portfolio of high-quality, safe, fuel-efficient products equipped with smart technologies. The following are examples of the success of our supplier diversity program:

• ABEL Services LLC, a woman owned company based in Louisville, KY, is a general contracting and construction management company. For the last six years, ABEL Construction Company has supported Ford Motor Company’s Louisville Assembly Plant and Kentucky Truck Plant. ABEL is a member of the United States Green Building Council.
• Husco Automotive, a Hispanic company based in Waukesha, Wisconsin, produces engine controls such as actuators used for variable camshaft-timing components across various Ford vehicles. These controls improve the vehicles’ gas mileage and reduce pollutants.
• SET Enterprises, Inc., an African American and Veteran owned company based in Warren, Michigan, provides blanking and slitting services to support multiple vehicle lines including the Ford Explorer and Ford Escape at the Chicago Assembly Plant.
• SourcePro Inc., an Asian-Indian owned company that has expanded its service offering with Ford from Inventory Management to new model program data analysis and bill of material scrubbing. Spare parts management programs have helped to drive accurate and timely part specifications and have been utilized globally to drive inventory optimization.

In 2013, Ford received many awards for our diversity efforts including:

• The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council named Ford a Top Corporation for Women for the second consecutive year. The award honors the company’s best-in-class practices to proactively integrate women-owned businesses into its supply chain at all levels. Ford was the first automaker to earn this honor in 2011.
• The Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council awarded Ford Corporation of the Year for Supplier Diversity for the fourth consecutive year.
• Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce named Ford the Corporation of the Year.
• Black EOE Journal named as the Ford Best of the Best Top Supplier Diversity Program.
• DiversityBusiness magazine named Ford to their list of America’s Top Organizations for Multicultural Business Opportunities for 2013. We have been on the list since 2001.
• HispanicBusiness magazine awarded Ford the Top Supplier Diversity Program.
• Hispanic Network Magazine named Ford in their Best of the Best for both Top Diversity Employers and Top Supplier Diversity Programs for Hispanics.
• The U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce named Ford to its “Million Dollar Club,” a group of 39 corporations recognized for outstanding support for Hispanic suppliers.
• MBN USA listed Ford on their MBN USA Corporate 100 for supporting diverse enterprises and understanding of the positive impact supplier diversity makes on the economy.
• MBN USA Magazine listed Ford in its 2013 Corporate 101 Award for Supplier Diversity.
• Women’s Enterprise USA Magazine listed Ford in their 2013 100 Corporations of the Year for supplier diversity.
• Professional Women’s Network named Ford on their Best of the Best lists for Top Employers for Women and Top Supplier Diversity.
• U.S. Veterans Magazine named Ford Best of the Best for Supplier Diversity.

Our record of minority supplier development has earned Ford a seat at the Billion Dollar Roundtable (BDR), an exclusive group of 18 companies that purchase a minimum of $1 billion annually from diverse suppliers. The BDR encourages corporate entities to continue growing their supplier diversity programs by increasing commitment and spending levels each year.

Several Ford personnel also won awards for their individual efforts to foster supplier diversity in 2013. For example:

• Hau Thai-Tang, Group Vice President, Global Purchasing
  • Outstanding Men of Women’s Business Enterprise 2013 by WE USA Women’s Enterprise Magazine, and annual award recognizing men who support Women’s Business Enterprise development initiatives at the highest level.
• Tony Brown, former Group Vice President, Global Purchasing (retired July 2013)
  • Top 75 Men in Corporate Supplier Diversity by Motor Trends magazine
• Marcella McCullough, Manager of Supplier Diversity Development was awarded
  • One of the 18 Influential Women in Diversity & HR by Diversity Canada Magazine for continuing to open doors for women, aboriginals, and visible minorities
  • Champion of Diversity by DiversityPlus Magazine
• Carla Traci Preston, Director of Supplier Diversity Development was awarded:
  • National Advocate of the Year by the Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council, which acknowledges the individual who goes above and beyond normal requirements and helps develop, sustain and/or significantly aid in the advancement of minority businesses.
  • Top 50 Women in Corporate Supplier Diversity by WE USA Women’s Enterprise Magazine. As part of WE USA’s the Year of the Woman celebration, WE USA recognized 50 movers and shakers whose acumen, tenacity and influence helped define and deploy supplier diversity initiatives in the past and will continue to shape corporate procurement for generations of entrepreneurs to come.
  • Top 25 Women in Power Impacting Diversity by DiversityPlus Magazine. The 2013 Women in Power play critical roles in companies adapting to a rapidly changing business environment, in which diversity, innovation, and creativity are the keys to success. The women are recognized because of the way they use their abilities to bring diversity into organizations.

Ford earned these awards for developing and driving innovative best practices across our organization that result in productive business partnerships with minority and women entrepreneurs and valuable products and services for their customers.

We are unwavering in our commitment to incremental year-over-year percentage increases in sourcing from diverse suppliers. We encourage similar actions across our supply chain. In 2013, more than 400 of our largest Tier 1 suppliers purchased $2.57 billion from minority- women-and veteran-owned enterprises in support of Ford business.