Ford Announces 10th World Excellence Awards

The Ford Motor Company has held its 10th annual World Excellence Awards, at which the automotive manufacturer acknowledged 47 global suppliers for their efforts towards helping Ford develop higher quality and lower cost vehicles. According to Ford, the awards also recognise suppliers for embracing Ford’s vision of profitable growth, teamwork and a better world, and the list of companies so recognised includes several that fall under the ‘tyres and accessories’ umbrella.

First distributed in 1998, the World Excellence Awards were jointly developed by Ford and its suppliers. There are three levels of awards: Gold, Silver and Recognition of Achievement. The gold and silver awards are presented to Ford’s top production and non-production suppliers that consistently demonstrate superior quality, delivery and cost performance. The third award, Recognition of Achievement, is given to suppliers that improve customer satisfaction.

Continental was the recipient of a gold award through its Continental Automotive Mexicana S.A. de C.V.; Silao, operation in Mexico, which manufactures brakes for the automotive giant. Silver awards went to tyre maker Hankook Tire in Geumsan-Gun, South Korea, Hayes Lemmerz Autokola, a.s. in Ostrava, Czech Republic and Ronal Polska Sp.z o.o. in Jelcz-Laskowice, Poland – both suppliers of wheels to Ford, and brakes supplier Robert Bosch, whose German and Mexican operations were recognised.

“This marks the tenth year we have honoured world-class suppliers for extraordinary contributions that directly impact Ford’s ability to deliver high quality vehicles and customer satisfaction,” said Tony Brown, group vice president, Global Purchasing. “This commitment to excellence is coming through in the latest quality data, which show Ford’s initial quality in North America is now equal to the best in the industry. These successes belong not just to Ford – but our suppliers as well.”

“It is a pleasure to recognise the technical excellence of our supplier partners,” said Ford president and CEO Alan Mulally. “As we work to deliver the products and services people really want and value, we are more fully integrating our suppliers into our processes. It is by working together that we will be able to deliver profitable growth for all involved with the Ford enterprise.”