Chrysler Wish: No More Gray

Occasionally, when a defective part on a vehicle requires attention, identifying the responsible party is simple.

For the Chrysler Group, the “significant majority” of problems are not so black and white but fall instead into a “gray area,” where laying blame is extremely difficult, says Peter Rosenfeld, vice president-worldwide procurement and sourcing strategy.

To minimize this oft-contentious finger-pointing, the auto maker has created an Authority Definition Plan (ADP) to spell out exactly when a supplier or Chrysler is at fault in reliability issues. Chrysler began working with suppliers on ADP in March, and it will be effective on all programs for the '04 model year and beyond.

“Should there be a warranty problem and if it's a case of a gray zone as opposed to the black-and-white zone, we have agreed ahead of time what are the guidelines for pursuing a resolution and the relative responsibility for addressing that problem,” Rosenfeld says.

Rosenfeld compares the current handling of reliability issues to youth baseball. “The guy with the bat and the ball defined the rules, and they sort of defined the rules after the hit and after the run,” Rosenfeld says. “We're trying to avoid that.”

Rosenfeld concedes that even the ADP may not settle all disputes. “But we think it does absolutely move us in the right direction in having better understanding between Chrysler and the suppliers up front, rather than after the fact.”

For complete transcripts of the purchasing interviews, see www.wardsauto.com