Knott to Address Chrysler-Fiat Integration at Town Hall
Dave Andrea, OESA
OESA will host a special town hall meeting for OESA members and Chrysler suppliers with Dan Knott, senior vice president, purchasing and supplier quality, Chrysler Group LLC, on March 7, 2012, at the Somerset Inn, Troy, Mich.
This meeting is particularly important as Chrysler and Fiat SpA move toward a single, integrated organization. The integration has significant implications for suppliers: it will impact purchasing department structure and leadership, product and manufacturing footprint strategy and ultimately component sourcing decisions. Currently, the combined spend of the two companies with suppliers is $88 billion. Knott has publicly noted that by 2015 two-thirds of all suppliers supporting Fiat and Chrysler will be common.
The town hall offers OESA members a unique opportunity to have an open question and answer session with members of the Chrysler purchasing team. In addition, there will be ample time to meet Chrysler executives informally before and after the meeting. This meeting is open to OESA members and all Chrysler suppliers.
In addition to the ongoing organizational alignment, Chrysler is working with its supply base to manage collaboratively a number of issues, including:
- Managing capacity requirements for production and service parts
- Working collaboratively to manage costs and drive innovation
- Managing performance in all aspects of business
- Developing a focused approach to strategic supplier engagement
These topics are the foundation to achieving Chrysler’s stated goal of managing customer-supplier relations in a manner that delivers a fair and predictable ROI for both parties.
Registration and networking will take place from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Chrysler purchasing executives will be available during this time. The town hall program runs from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and includes approximately 20 minutes for Knott’s prepared remarks and a 60-minute question and answer session. Further networking is available following the meeting from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
OESA members may register in the events section of http://www.oesa.org. For registration assistance, contact Felece Hickman at 248.952.6401 ext. 237 or fhickman@oesa.org. For program information, contact Dave Andrea at 248.952.6401 ext. 228 or dandrea@oesa.org.