Global automotive supplier Continental has honoured 13 component manufacturers, from among 800-odd strategic global suppliers, with its Supplier of the Year award.

Recently at the Supplier Day 2016, which was held at Dresden’s Ostrapark exhibition centre and attended by 400 guests from all over the world, Dr Elmar Degenhart, Continental’s chairman of the Executive Board, said in his speech: "The demands our customers place on us are rising all the time. As a result our solutions for this are becoming more complex. After all, electrification of the powertrain, automation of driving functions and advanced digitalisation, as well as new business models for advanced mobility services require superior quality, close connectivity, and increasing cross-industry collaboration.

"Many customers also rely on platform concepts. Consequently, the entire supply chain is feeling the effects of these increased, and in some cases new requirements when it comes to quality and reliability. This is why we involve our suppliers in our solutions development and quality assurance processes as extensively and as early as possible. For this reason, at Continental, quality management for suppliers was recently assigned to the purchasing department, which works particularly closely with our suppliers. At the end of the day, only by working together we can achieve technology leadership and superior competitiveness."

For its automotive business, Continental procures 135 billion individual components a year from a total of 4,000 suppliers at some 100 production locations worldwide. Günter Fella, Head of Purchasing, said: “Every quality issue is also a logistical disruption, which can quickly turn into a supply bottleneck – since our products have an average material proportion of 50 percent. With our special inspection procedures, which supplement the traditional approvals process, we enable our suppliers to manufacture and supply their components to precisely match our requirements.”

Comprehensive assessment system

The Supplier of the Year Awards have been presented since 2008 by the three Continental divisions, Chassis & Safety, Powertrain, and Interior. These awards are based on a complex evaluation process, whereby Continental assesses its strategic suppliers in the automotive business all year round against a list of defined criteria. It includes the categories Quality, Technology, Logistics, Costs, and Purchasing Conditions. Awards are presented in the six fields of Electronics, Electromechanics, Mechanics & Raw Material, Plastics & Rubber, and Investment & Engineering Services in addition to division-specific categories.