The Study has shown trust and communication to be the cornerstones of good working relations, especially in the high-risk environment automakers and suppliers are now dealing with. Billions of dollars and thousands of jobs are at stake. In overall Trust GM, Honda and Toyota have the best Trust rankings. However, this year Stellatis and Nissan made statistically significant gains, as did GM, but Honda and Toyota were down slightly, and Ford, substantially.

While the key to mutual success in OEM-supplier relations is trust, trust is based on three factors: having the OEM customer set realistic expectations; delivering on commitments, and sharing information on the OEM’s long-term purchasing strategy on a timely basis. Here the bottom three OEMs match their order in the WRI® while the top three are reordered, GM first with Honda and Toyota following.

“All six of the OEMs need to improve in this important area,” said David Andrea, Principal in Plante Moran’s Strategy and Automotive & Mobility Consulting Practice. “In the current high-risk business environment, communication is key, because the supplier CEOs must ask: who would I rather do business with? Who is my customer of choice? And the answer comes down to three questions: Who do I trust? Where will I get the best return on investment? And what is the prospect for future business? So, it’s in the OEM’s best interest to maintain open and honest communication with its suppliers.”

“However, communication goes beyond the OEM-Supplier relationship,” said Andrea. “Externally, the OEMs need to focus on more transparency and better communication with their key suppliers. But the OEMs also must improve their internal communication to better align purchasing, engineering, and manufacturing so they’re working to achieve the same corporate goals – greater efficiency, cost reduction and speed. This will take cost and time out of the entire supply chain while helping both the OEMs and suppliers achieve their cost and financial performance goals.”