New Ford Supply Chain Initiative Supported by Automotive Logistics

LONDON, June 17 -- A radical initiative aimed at greater supply chain transparency has been announced by Dr Bert Bong, Manager of Finished Vehicle Logistics at Ford Europe and Automotive Logistics is pleased to announce its involvement in the scheme.

In a strategy designed to encourage new synergies for improving logistics, Dr Bong has created maps of the entire Ford of Europe finished vehicle network and from the 21 June all eight of these detailed maps will be available at www.automotivelogisticsmagazine.com.

The idea, which originated from the Autologistics Europe conference in Montreux in March, invites suppliers to study the maps and get in touch with ideas on how to improve the network. Dr Bong sees a more direct route to cost savings and improvements when OEMs work together and encourage their LSPs to do the same. In a detailed discussion with Automotive Logistics magazine's editor Maxine Elkin about the initiative he said: "I hope that the suppliers who we use will approach us with other solutions when they see the full network. I want to foster ideas and initiatives." The full discussion, which features in the July/August edition of the magazine will be also be available online.

Access to the maps coincides with the Autologistics Central Europe Conference in Gdansk, Poland, between 21-22 June 2005, at which Dr Bong will officially launch this exciting new strategy.