How MMOG/LE Is Transforming the Automotive Supply Chain

Auto Supply Chain Prophets

Delivering on the promise of delivery — that’s the mark of a successful automotive supply chain. But when it comes to a smooth supply chain operation, many suppliers aren’t doing nearly as well as think they are. It’s time for an efficiency check-up.

The Global Materials Management Operations Guidelines/Logistics Evaluation (MMOG/LE) is a plant-level self-assessment tool to help automotive suppliers determine how well they’re managing their supply chain — and the results are transformative.

Tanya Bolden of the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) and Terry Onica, Director of Automotive for QAD are some of the organizations spearheading the development of MMOG/LE discuss how the assessment process is far more than just another standard.

Themes discussed in this episode:

• Standardization is the key to stability and continued success in an unpredictable world.
• A changing workforce requires supply chain essentials training.
• MMOG/LE does more than bring visibility to an organization’s supply chain process. It drastically reduces inventory and improves customer satisfaction.
• Long-term planning should include workforce automation, but also better communication.
• Supply chain and quality teams must work together collaboratively.

Featured on this Episode

Name: Tanya Bolden

Title: Vice President, Corporate Responsibility and Supply Chain Products & Services, Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG)

About: Tanya has more than 30 years of experience in corporate responsibility, sustainability and community relations. After a 20-year career at General Motors, she founded the corporate responsibility program at AIAG. She’s particularly interested in how responsibility issues like environmental stewardship are relevant in supply chain management.

Connect: LinkedIn

Name: Terry Onica

Title: Director, Automotive at QAD

About: For two decades, Terry has been the automotive vertical director of this provider of manufacturing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software and supply chain solutions. Her career began in supply chain in the late 1980s when she led a team to implement Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) for all the Ford assembly and component plants.

Connect: LinkedIn

Episode Highlights

Timestamped inflection points from the show

[3:33] Pop quiz: What is MMOG/LE? Terry introduces the self-assessment tool and explains how OEMs and Tier 1s use it. “If you get an A, that means you’re world-class.”

[5:56] Expect the unexpected: Tanya talks about her role at AIAG and their mission to reduce supply chain costs and complexity. She emphasizes the importance of standardization in an unpredictable world.

[7:12] See what you’re missing: Terry offers two reasons why Tier 1 executives should care about MMOG/LE.

[9:41] “I hate the word spreadsheet”: Version 6 of MMOG/LE focuses on automation. Greater supply chain visibility is vital both for meeting compliance requirements and successfully onboarding new employees.

[13:53] Training the next generation: Tanya and Terry discuss the challenges presented by subject matter experts aging out of the workforce and why startups — especially in EV — need best practices for supply chain management.

[19:18] Know your acronyms: Tanya explains the inclusion of ESG in MMOG/LE. These environmental, social and governance issues focus on sustainability initiatives to protect people and the planet.

[23:25] Break down the silo: Corrective actions and contingency plans work best when teams collaborate. Terry speaks to the importance of quality and supply chain working together.

[27:12] Essentials of supply chain: AIAG has virtual training modules that help small and medium-sized suppliers and new entrants to the field master the basics of supply chain best practices. This module launches June 1, 2023.

[31:46] The one thing: Tanya’s best advice is to establish a collaborative work group to identify pain points. For Terry, it’s never underestimating the power of bringing fresh eyes to your systems.

Top quotes

[8:15] Terry: “By people taking the assessment, and sitting down and honestly going through each of the criteria, they reduce inventory anywhere from 15% to 60% … Maybe sometimes people fall off the wagon of doing certain things and they need to get back to using the system. [MMOG/LE] identifies that and allows them to correct that.”

[12:03] Jan: “It's much better to be proactive and establish that foundation upfront than it is to be on the other side of that when you have supply chain issues that are disrupting an OEM … The time to be looking at your supply chain is way, way up front, as soon as you possibly can.”

[24:51] Terry: “If I go into a supplier, I can guarantee you they will show me all their contingency plans for quality and disruptions, but they won't show me any contingency plans for what happens when the truck driver is late. Quality doesn't think about those types of things, right? … By working together, [quality and supply chain] can really look at the whole picture.”

[26:54] Jan: “This MMOG/LE Version 6 really has the potential to break down these silos and help us work more collaboratively together, which, we all know, if we're going to achieve the speed and agility that we want in this industry, that's what we're going to have to do.”

[34:21] Tanya: “Don't work in a vacuum. We can learn a great deal from collaborating with our peers, our customers and our suppliers. There's new technology coming out there. There's always something new to learn or something that might benefit you.”