Ford First Automaker to Offer Suppliers Web-Based Training For ISO 14001 Certification

    DEARBORN, Mich., Feb. 15 Ford Motor Company
suppliers worldwide now can become ISO 14001 certified with an online course
that includes the content of classroom training and in-depth instruction on
implementation.
    The company is the first automaker to provide this type of supplier
training on the web.  ISO 14001 is one of the most stringent environmental
management standards under which independent auditors evaluate environmental
processes and systems.
    Ford suppliers can register on the web, pay a nominal fee and have
12-month access to the training.  The first portion (awareness training) of
the program is free.
    The training was created by Ford and has been tested by suppliers.  It
includes many of the lessons learned by Ford employees who completed the
certification process and provides access to Ford experts.  It is a joint
effort by Ford's Purchasing organization and its Environmental Quality Office.
The course can be accessed at any time anywhere.
    "This training on the web takes our ISO 14001 certification efforts for
suppliers to the next level," said Carlos Mazzorin, group vice president of
Global Purchasing and South America.  "Ford is committed to the environmental
certification and wants its suppliers to have that same commitment."
    The web-based training is being launched a year after the ISO 14001
awareness training that was offered to suppliers for the first time in the
fall of 1999.  That training was in a traditional classroom setting in the
United States, United Kingdom and Germany.  Suppliers came from the United
States, Mexico, Canada and Europe.
    Ford is requiring that its suppliers have at least one manufacturing site
ISO 14001 certified by the end of 2001.  All suppliers' manufacturing sites
shipping products to Ford must have the certification by July 1, 2003.
    "At Ford, we believe that environmental leadership supports our business
objectives and shareholder value," said Tim O'Brien, director of the Ford
Environmental Quality Office.  "We are very proud that our supplier business
partners are demonstrating a similar view by their leadership in getting
certified."
    The requirement affects about 5,000 of Ford's production and non-
production suppliers with manufacturing facilities.  Last fall, letters were
sent to suppliers alerting them of the new requirement.
    Suppliers can get more information on the training through the Ford
Supplier Network, Ford's exclusive web site for suppliers.
    The requirement for suppliers followed the 1998 announcement that Ford was
the first automaker to certify all of its manufacturing facilities globally
under ISO 14001.