Toyota Motor Manufacturing has been doing this for years with their Lean program, supplying training directly to their 1st tier suppliers, and asking them to pass on their knowledge to their 1st tier suppliers and so forth. (One of the reasons Camery has been one of the best selling low cost Auto’s for the last 5 yrs). As each tier continues to reduce their costs, this cost reduction is then passed on to the customer. Their technical center also sponsered a training program where key individuals would meet to do Lean (Kaizen) events at other 1st tier suppliers to assist them in their lean activities. This was a very successful program. Not only did we directly help the customers but ourselves as well. This also allowed Toyota to have annual meetings to discuss problems that suppliers were having with Toyota. I’ve not been involved with them in the last couple of years because I have moved out of the Auto industry, but they used to be called BAMA. (Bluegrass Automotive Manufacturing Association).
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