BMW Manufacturing receives Supplier Choice Award

Spartanburg, S.C.-based BMW Manufacturing Company was awarded a Supplier Choice Award by Automotive News magazine at the publication’s annual manufacturing conference in Nashville. It is the third Supplier Choice Award that BMW Manufacturing has won (the others coming in 2003, 2004).

The awards are given to automakers and OEMs who best encourage – solicit, implement and reward – and foster supplier innovation as part of its total business plan.

“Supplier partnerships are fundamental to realizing innovation,” said Martin Schuebel, BMW Manufacturing’s vice president for procurement, who accepted the award.

BMW, Honda and Toyota were chosen out of 11 automakers that manufacture vehicles in North America. BMW Manufacturing is credited with promoting innovation with its suppliers, encouraging ideas from suppliers, responding to supplier ideas and the ease in which suppliers can introduce ideas.

Winners were determined by a J.D. Power and Associates survey conducted on behalf of Automotive News. The survey was sent to executives at automotive supplier firms that are responsible for sales, marketing, operations, engineering, and/or the overall management of the organization.

In the survey, supplier executives were asked to rate automakers from 1-to-10 on 40 attributes grouped into five categories: trustworthiness, openness to new ideas, ease to work with, willingness to reward innovation, and effectiveness at implementing innovation.

BMW, Honda and Toyota consistently were ranked at or near the top in every category.

BMW Manufacturing Company, a subsidiary of the BMW Group based in Munich, Germany, is the exclusive manufacturer of the Z4 and M Roadster, Z4 and M Coupe in addition to the X5 Sports Activity Vehicle.