New Tools Available to Help Automotive Suppliers Meet Customer Expectations in Ethical and Responsible Business Practices

SOUTHFIELD, Mich., April 29, 2015 /3BL Media/ - AIAG, a not-for-profit organization that brings together automotive and manufacturing companies, suppliers, and service providers to help them develop common solutions to industry pain points, has released a comprehensive collection of tools and training to help automotive companies conduct business in an ethical and responsible way that benefits workers, communities, and the environment.

“When it comes to corporate responsibility and sustainable practices, we believe in the benefits of a common approach and message,” says Tanya Bolden, AIAG’s corporate responsibility program development manager. “Decisions made by one company in the supply chain may affect worker safety or environmental compliance elsewhere in the supply chain and in different parts of the world. Understanding and managing these potential risks has become a strategic priority for the industry.”

This suite of tools and training is a natural outcome of the Automotive Industry Guiding Principles to Enhance Sustainability in the Supply Chain document that was released to the industry last year and endorsed by 14 automakers, including General Motors, Ford Motor Co., Daimler, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Toyota, Honda, Volvo, and others. The document, which underscored these OEMs’ commitment to achieving excellence and innovation in a sustainable manner, specifically outlines the industry’s expected high standards in business integrity and the social and environmental performance of the supply chain. The document focuses on ethics, environmental standards, and human rights and working conditions.

“Based on these Guiding Principles, AIAG has enhanced the working conditions and business ethics workshops it already had available and developed new e-tools that are accessible to suppliers wherever they are,” Bolden says. “The tools are designed to help suppliers assess their readiness for meeting these principles.”

The AIAG supply chain sustainability guidelines, assessment tools, education, training, and other collateral materials are designed for companies of all sizes to meet and exceed sustainability performance expectations. AIAG recommends that companies get started with the following tools:

• Automotive Industry Guiding Principles to Enhance Sustainability Performance in the Supply Chain — guidelines based on fundamental principles of ethical, social, and environmental responsibility that are compliant with local law, consistent with international expectations, and supported by sponsoring automotive manufacturers

• AIAG Supply Chain Sustainability eLearning — a free online course highlighting the fundamental principles of responsible working conditions, including an overview of child labor, forced labor, freedom of association, harassment and discrimination, health and safety, wages and benefits, working hours, environmental responsibility, and business ethics

• AIAG Supply Chain Sustainability Knowledge Assessment (practitioner level) — a free online assessment based on the Automotive Industry Guiding Principles to Enhance Sustainability Performance in the Supply Chain that includes terms and knowledge common to the automotive industry and is designed to help on-board employees who have been assigned to champion their company’s sustainability efforts

• Supplier Sustainability Self-Assessment (enterprise level) — a free standardized tool created by a collaborative team of automotive and sustainability professionals for gap analysis and process improvement, including a method by which suppliers can report on their sustainability activities and data with a single response provided to multiple customers

• Supply Chain Sustainability Workshops — in-person workshops scheduled throughout the world that use case studies and industry best practices to highlight the fundamental principles of responsible working conditions and expectations of automakers such as Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Honda, and Toyota

AIAG is strongly encouraging suppliers to start with the Supply Chain Sustainability eLearning and knowledge assessments, which will provide a baseline of their understanding and show where their enterprise and its team members need more education and training.

“Due to our complex automotive supply chain, OEMs have come to their supply base with their expectations for responsible and ethical business practices,” says Bolden. “These new and enhanced tools help create awareness and reveal the gaps in a company’s understanding and performance in basic corporate responsibility principles. There is a greater emphasis now on transparency in the supply chain, so it makes good business sense for companies to be able to demonstrate their knowledge of these basic principles because that’s what’s best for the industry and its people, and it’s what their customers expect.”

For more information on AIAG’s supply chain sustainability tools, visit www.aiag.org or contact AIAG customer service at (248) 358-3003.

About AIAG

The Automotive Industry Action Group is a unique not-for-profit organization where OEMs, suppliers, service providers, government entities, and individuals in academia have worked collaboratively for more than 30 years to drive down costs and complexity from the supply chain. AIAG membership includes preeminent manufacturers and many of their parts suppliers and service providers. For more information, visit www.aiag.org.