Speeding Past Spreadsheets and Silos: The Intersection of IATF and MMOG/LE

Auto Supply Chain Prophets

At the heart of The Prophets’ vision are “The 24 Essential Supply Chain Processes.” What are they? Find out, and see the future yourself. Click here

Version 6 of MMOG/LE integrates supply chain processes and can reduce a company’s inventory by up to 60%. But cost savings isn’t the only reason to love this self-assessment.

IATF 16949 hasn’t been updated since 2016. As the auto industry applies pandemic-era lessons to quality systems, MMOG/LE raises the bar for effective supply chain management and encourages collaboration across all functions in an organization.

In this follow-up to How MMOG/LE Is Transforming The Automotive Supply Chain, the Auto Supply Chain Prophets dive into the quality components of MMOG/LE and examine its role alongside existing IATF standards.

Themes discussed in this episode:

• How MMOG/LE v6 addresses quality standards.
• Supply chain processes suffer from high-level work instructions that lack details.
• Quality and supply chains need to involve IT for the systems to work together.
• Many organizations have incongruencies between the cutting-edge technology they’re adding to vehicles and the outdated processes used to produce it.
• The right processes can help startups leapfrog traditional OEMs.
• What supply chain leaders can do right now to support their future success.

Featured on this Episode

Name: Cathy Fisher

Title: Founder and President, Quistem

About: Cathy’s firm helps its clients, particularly automotive clients, eliminate customer complaints and increase their profits. She has worked in the automotive supply chain since the 1980s when she started her career with General Motors.

Connect: LinkedIn

Name: Terry Onica

Title: Director, Automotive at QAD

About: For two decades, Terry has been the automotive vertical director of this provider of manufacturing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software and supply chain solutions. Her career began in the supply chain in the late 1980s when she led a team to implement Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) for all the Ford assembly and component plants.

Connect: LinkedIn

Episode Highlights

Timestamped inflection points from the show

[2:01] Answering the naysayers: Terry consistently sees customers reduce inventory by 15-60% after a proper MMOG/LE implementation. She challenges anyone who doubts the assessment’s cost-saving powers.

[3:59] Automating the response: Lower tiers support electronic data interchange (EDI) so they can react to OEM demands. Terry and Cathy discuss the importance of automation in supply chain communication.

[6:23] Explain yourself: Terry says the high-level work instructions she sees from suppliers are often “pathetic.” With QAD, detailed work instructions are included for every process.

[12:16] What’s new with v6: From environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria to risk assessment, Cathy and Terry outline the recent updates to the MMOG/LE.

[17:29] 68 points of integration: The conversation moves to IATF and its intersection with MMOG/LE. Cathy explains the importance of quality standards in the new MMOG/LE and why the auto industry has moved away from ISO/TS standards.

[21:10] Value flow: Supply chain, quality, and IT teams must work together to achieve customer satisfaction. Terry and Cathy agree on easy fixes to streamline supply chain processes in any organization.

[24:40] Playing leapfrog: Jan and Terry discuss changes in automotive culture and leadership. With the right resource planning mindset and processes, startups can speed past many of the legacy systems at traditional OEMs.

[26:01] ‘I can do more on my cell phone’: Cathy explains why congruency between the technology developed for vehicles and the processes used to produce it is vital for talent retention and long-term success.

[30:26] The one thing: Cathy and Terry share their advice for CEOs and supply chain leaders. “Money is made in the supply chain, not just on the shop floor.” Leaders need to recognize their organizations’ true value streams.

Top quotes

[4:35] Terry: “The lower tiers are just dying to know — what is the demand that's coming in from the OEM? They want that information as quickly as possible so that they can react.”

[11:29] Jan: “It's this little bitty part that didn't come in because somebody didn't set it up right in the system … I've seen that happen time and time again, and now you're talking big money because now you're going to risk missing a launch date. And there's nothing that a CFO of an automotive company hates more than an unplanned expense.”

[22:06] Cathy: “We can start with quality and supply chain because those are the two elements of customer satisfaction: quality and delivery. If those systems and processes are not working together, you have no hope of making your customer happy.”

[26:04] Cathy: “We are at a point in our industry where the technology level on the vehicles that we're producing is basically a supercomputer on wheels. If we really think about it, how can you manufacture a supercomputer on wheels using green screens and Excel spreadsheets?”

[32:57] Cathy: “Until we embrace that supply chain is the through line to cash, that it is the through line to making money in the business, [quality leaders] are going to suffer. They're going to constantly be reacting instead of being able to predict their future success.”