Auto Supply Chain Champions

QAD | Redzone
  • 5.0 (9)
  • Management
  • Biweekly

We really can’t predict the future … because nobody can. What we can do, though, is help auto manufacturers recognize, prepare for, and profit from whatever comes next. Auto Supply Chain Champions gives you timely and relevant insights and best practices from industry leaders.

  1. 5d ago

    Dual Sourcing, Tariffs, and AI: How Nexteer Is Rebuilding Automotive Procurement

    For most of the last 30 years, automotive sourcing ran on a short checklist: best-cost location, acceptable quality, reliable delivery. That checklist now includes compliance, ESG requirements, and tariffs, all of which can change from one week to the next. Buyers are being asked to make long-term sourcing decisions on forecasts that rarely hold, and nobody’s adding headcount to help them do it. Jan and Tom Roberts sit down with Chris Bratt, U.S. Division Global Supply Management Director at Nexteer Automotive. He’s spent more than 20 years in automotive purchasing across Europe, Asia, and the United States, on both the OEM and Tier 1 sides. Nexteer runs as four regional companies, each with its own P&L, so Chris lives with the consequences of every sourcing call in his region. Dual sourcing is at the center of his approach, and it goes against everything the industry taught buyers about bundling volume and chasing scale. Chris says plainly that his own teams see it as double work: two parts to release, test, and validate, two suppliers to manage, and no extra resources. He wins them over by pointing to companies that were brought to their knees when a sole source failed. He’s also selective: it’s reserved for high-volume programs and safety-critical components that can’t be retooled in a few days. The second source sits in a different region, so one tariff doesn’t hit both. Resilience also means rebuilding the capability that’s left in the country. The U.S. stopped making several commodities Nexteer now needs, and when there’s no supplier, the question becomes whether to make it in-house. Chris has moved people off traditional buying desks and onto what-if scenarios. They’re looking for the time bombs in a supply base that was sourced years ago, when risk barely factored into the decision. AI cuts both ways for Chris. It can take on the workflow and number-crunching that eat up buyers’ time, though it’s been harder to make work reliably than the industry expected. Meanwhile, hyperscalers with far deeper pockets are buying up the same electrical components, rare earths, and magnets that the automotive industry needs. Chris doesn’t expect things to calm down, and he sees more of procurement’s work shifting to exceptions. This conversation challenges leaders to fund resilience the way they’d fund any core capability, with the people, regional footprint, and flexible specifications to absorb the hundred-year event that now shows up every year. Themes Discussed in This Episode Regional P&L ownership inside a global supplierWhy Buyer 101 no longer covers the jobDual sourcing as a deliberate risk decisionSelling resilience to the people doing the workRebuilding commodities that the U.S. walked away fromAI as both a tool and a competitor for supplyFlexible specifications under material constraintsException management as the core of procurement This podcast is powered by QAD RedZone. Featured Guest Name: Chris Bratt Title: U.S. Division Global Supply Management Director, Nexteer Automotive About: Chris is the U.S. Division Global Supply Management Director at Nexteer Automotive, where he leads the organization’s supplier strategy, performance, and operational execution. He brings more than 20 years of automotive purchasing and supply chain experience, with international assignments across Europe, Asia, and the United States. His global perspective and commercial expertise provide valuable insight into the evolving opportunities and challenges shaping today’s automotive supply chain. Connect: LinkedIn About Your Hosts Jan Griffiths Jan is the host and producer of the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast and The Automotive Leaders Podcast. A former automotive manufacturing and supply chain executive, Jan is recognized as a Champion for Culture Change in the automotive industry. She brings direct, grounded conversations to leaders navigating execution, disruption, and transformation across the global automotive ecosystem. Tom Roberts (Co-host) Tom is Co-host of the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast and Vice President of Strategic Industry Development at QAD. He works closely with automotive and industrial manufacturers to close the gap between insight and execution, helping leaders move from visibility to systems of action that drive real operational outcomes. Episode Highlights [03:39] Buyer 101 Is Gone: Price, quality, and delivery used to define a sourcing decision; now compliance, ESG, and tariffs sit on the same scale, and all of them keep moving. [07:13] Selling the Second Source: Chris explains why teams first see dual sourcing as double work, and how real cases of sole-source failure change their minds. [08:00] Where Dual Sourcing Earns Its Cost: High-volume programs and safety-critical, hard-to-replicate components get the backup plan; small parts that can be tooled in days don’t. [09:44] Bringing Lost Commodities Home: Some commodities the U.S. stopped producing are needed again, which forces a choice between developing new suppliers and building the capability in-house. [11:27] Hunting the Time Bombs: Nexteer has moved people off traditional buying desks to stress-test a supply base sourced before risk was part of the decision. [13:48] AI’s Other Front: Tech companies with far deeper pockets are driving up the price of electrical components and limiting their availability, which repeats a pattern automotive saw in the semiconductor crisis. [16:10] Tariffs and Regional Hedging: Dual sourcing across different regions protects against tariff increases and keeps the option to return to a lower-cost source if tariffs fall. [17:13] Exceptions Are the Work: AI can handle the middle of the bell curve, but Chris sees one-time events outnumbering routine work in procurement. Top Quotes [07:16] Chris Bratt: ” You have to sell the concept to manage the change.” [15:06] Chris Bratt: “And there’s always a solution. I’m a big believer that the human race will find a solution to most of the problems it faces over time, but ‘over time’ is the one thing that we don’t always have.” [16:55] Chris Bratt: “I think AI can help with repeatable tasks, but actually, supply chain repeatable tasks seem to be coming less and less. Everything seems to be unique these days.” If this episode resonated, share it with a fellow automotive leader and subscribe to the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast, where we're closing the gap between insight and action across the global automotive supply chain. Follow the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast for real conversations with leaders who are making hard choices, focusing their bets, and leading with intent. 🎧 Follow the podcast: 🔗 Learn more about QAD Redzone: https://www.qad.com/

    Dual Sourcing, Tariffs, and AI: How Nexteer Is Rebuilding Automotive Procurement

  2. Oct 12

    Stop Waiting for Perfect Data: AI in the Automotive Supply Chain

    Automotive leaders spent Q3 waiting on things that won't show up on schedule: clean data, stable supply, and a version of AI that's easy enough to adopt without effort. Meanwhile, black swan events keep coming, and competitors keep moving. In this Q3 review, host Jan and co-host Tom Roberts, Vice President of Strategic Industry Development at QAD, look back at the quarter's conversations through three themes (data, resilience, and leadership) and set the agenda for Q4 and 2027. Perfect data hasn't arrived in their lifetime, and it isn't coming soon. Tom points out that AI can already suggest commodity code cross-references and help clean records. But without process discipline and poka-yokes at the point of entry, the first person to enter something sends it off the rails. The companies taking steps now will pull ahead of the ones waiting for everything to come together. That takes real AI fluency at the top. Jan is two sessions into an AI boot camp, and she points to GM's Sean Gaskin, who recently finished a professional certificate in AI and machine learning through Michigan Engineering. His lesson: leaders need enough depth to know what's possible, where it creates value, and what it takes to scale. On resilience, GM's $4.5 billion parts inventory arrangement with Procura Auto Parts shows that just-in-time is no longer the answer to everything. Jan challenges purchasing to weigh the total acquisition cost against the purchase price variance. Tom puts the stakes plainly: in a fight for market share, no OEM can afford for a supplier to shut down a line. The episode closes with two assignments. Pick one process, RFQ or otherwise, and cut its cycle time by 50%. Then study your supplier and item masters before the next data project starts. The leaders who begin this quarter won't need perfect conditions to outpace the ones still waiting for them. Themes Discussed in This EpisodeWhy waiting for perfect data stalls progressAI fluency as a leadership requirementProof over promise in AI adoptionClassroom data vs real-world dataRethinking just-in-time for resilienceTotal acquisition cost over purchase price varianceDecision speed and alignmentMaster data governance This podcast is powered by QAD RedZone. About Your Hosts Jan Griffiths Jan is the host and producer of the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast and The Automotive Leaders Podcast. A former automotive manufacturing and supply chain executive, Jan is recognized as a Champion for Culture Change in the automotive industry. She brings direct, grounded conversations to leaders navigating execution, disruption, and transformation across the global automotive ecosystem. Tom Roberts (Co-host) Tom is Co-host of the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast and Vice President of Strategic Industry Development at QAD. He works closely with automotive and industrial manufacturers to close the gap between insight and execution, helping leaders move from visibility to systems of action that drive real operational outcomes. Mentioned in the Episode: Q3 guests: Josh and Ian on USMCA and trade compliance, Ambrose Conroy (Seraph), Ted Mabley (UHY), Cheryl Thompson, and Mia and Daniel from Wayne StateISM leadership event, December 2, Detroit, with Isiah Thomas and Shilpan Amin Episode Highlights [00:04:06] Perfect data isn't coming: Jan warns against putting AI on hold until the data is cleaned up, because that day may never arrive. [00:05:28] Clean it, then protect it: Tom explains why any data cleanup fails without disciplined processes going forward. [00:08:01] Leaders need AI depth: Jan argues that executives don't need to code, but they do need to understand what AI can do in their business. [00:10:26] Automate the month-end close first: Tom cuts through the AI hype and focuses on what's live and working in manufacturing today. [00:13:13] Rethinking just-in-time: GM's $4.5 billion parts move signals a shift from pure inventory reduction toward resilience. [00:16:43] Line up behind the decision: Tom describes the speed he saw at a Chinese automotive supplier once a decision was made. [00:17:37] Cut one process by 50%: Jan and Tom give listeners concrete calls to action on process speed and data. Top Quotes [00:04:06] Jan Griffiths: "But what I find interesting from a leadership perspective, as leaders look at data, we are never gonna have perfect data." [00:16:05] Tom Roberts: "There's not a single OEM, especially in the West right now, that wants to give up one micro percentage of market share because this is a bare-knuckle brawl for market share." [00:18:14] Jan Griffiths: "Just start somewhere. It might be the internal RFQ process, the external one. Just take something. Do something. Start somewhere." If this episode resonated, share it with a fellow automotive leader and subscribe to the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast, where we're closing the gap between insight and action across the global automotive supply chain. Follow the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast for real conversations with leaders who are making hard choices, focusing their bets, and leading with intent. 🎧 Follow the podcast: 🔗 Learn more about QAD Redzone: https://www.qad.com/

    Stop Waiting for Perfect Data: AI in the Automotive Supply Chain

  3. Sep 28

    Automotive RFQ Quoting: How Suppliers Protect Margin with Data and AI

    Suppliers are under pressure to quote at China speed, and most can't stand behind the numbers they're sending. The average supplier now handles around 800 RFQs a year, up from 495 in 2002, with the same spreadsheets, email chains, and handful of veterans who know where the rates live. Speed is what everyone's demanding, and accuracy is where the margin's won or lost. Jan and Tom Roberts welcome back Ted Mabley, Director at UHY Consulting, to discuss his new white paper, Closing the Cost Execution Gap. It builds on his earlier study with the Center for Automotive Research and comes out as OEMs, GM among them, press suppliers to show where every number comes from. The gap shows up after the PO. A program quoted at a 10% margin launches at 5 or 6, as engineering changes and OEM productivity demands chip away at a quote that captured one engineering level at one moment. Sending the plant manager to sales to win the margin back won't work; the OEMs are too sophisticated for that. Ted's fix starts upstream, with skilled cost engineers in the room as the bill of materials takes shape, and it runs through the data. Quote history sits in SharePoint, on laptops, and across ERP systems inherited through acquisitions, and connecting it is where he sees AI's biggest opportunity. Jan adds a pointed challenge: total acquisition cost won't drive decisions while purchasing teams are still bonused on PPV. This conversation challenges supplier leaders to stop treating quoting as paperwork. Ted's first move is deliberately small: pick one high-volume RFQ or VAVE workflow and redesign it end-to-end. The suppliers who fix one workflow now will have a template for the rest, and a cost story they can defend when the OEM asks where the number came from. Themes Discussed in This Episode Why speed without cost accuracy is a liabilityEmbedding cost engineering upstream at the BOMConnecting fragmented quote, cost, and plant dataScaling the RFQ process with automation and AITotal landed cost vs piece priceWhy PPV block the total acquisition cost thinkingOEM-specific playbooks and the case for a common RFQ formatStarting with one high-volume RFQ or VAVE workflow This podcast is powered by QAD RedZone. Featured Guest Name: Ted Mabley Title: Director at UHY Consulting About: Edward "Ted" Mabley has over 15 years of experience optimizing sales and business development operations, providing customer-specific solutions catering to a wide array of industries on a global scale. He works with OEMs, tier-one suppliers, and other manufacturing companies to create transparency in their cost process and develop vendor management programs to address relevant KPIs. His experience includes active cost management in accordance with enterprise product costing procedures, as well as developing strategic business roadmaps, product visions, and sales strategies. Connect: LinkedIn About Your Hosts Jan Griffiths Jan is the host and producer of the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast and The Automotive Leaders Podcast. A former automotive manufacturing and supply chain executive, Jan is recognized as a Champion for Culture Change in the automotive industry. She brings direct, grounded conversations to leaders navigating execution, disruption, and transformation across the global automotive ecosystem. Tom Roberts (Co-host) Tom is Co-host of the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast and Vice President of Strategic Industry Development at QAD. He works closely with automotive and industrial manufacturers to close the gap between insight and execution, helping leaders move from visibility to systems of action that drive real operational outcomes. Mentioned in this Episode Closing the Cost Execution Gap, UHY white paperAutomotive Suppliers and the Revenue Acquisition Process – Then and Now (CAR/UHY, 2025) Episode Highlights [00:03:11] Twenty Years, More Complexity: Ted's survey of tier one suppliers and OEMs revisits a 2002 study and finds RFQs moving faster, growing more complex, and landing on fewer people with the skills to get them right. [00:05:29] The Quote Is a Snapshot: A program quoted at 10% margin that launches at 5 or 6 shows how engineering changes and OEM productivity demands erode cost after the PO is issued. [00:07:05] Cost Engineering Starts at the BOM: China speed means skilled cost engineers have to join while the bill of material and vehicle requirements are still being defined, not after. [00:08:00] The Skills Gap Behind the Quote: Ted points to JCI's former cost engineering organization as a model for developing talent, a discipline that's largely been replaced by job postings for "four cost engineers." [00:09:00] AI's Biggest Play Is the Data: With quote history scattered across SharePoint and laptops, the greatest opportunity for AI is reconciling the cost buckets OEMs scrutinize first. [00:12:40] PPV Blocks Total Acquisition Cost: Jan argues that total acquisition cost won't drive decisions until purchasing teams stop being measured and bonused on purchase price variance. [00:16:44] One Playbook per OEM: Every OEM has different DNA, and until the industry agrees on a common RFQ format, suppliers need a separate playbook for each customer. [00:19:08] Start With One Workflow: Ted's recommended first move is redesigning a single high-volume RFQ or VAVE workflow end to end, then using it as a repeatable template. Top Quotes [00:07:29] Ted Mabley: "It needs to be a cost engineering team, not a cost analytics team. They need to be people-skilled who know what they're doing." [00:12:00] Ted Mabley: "It has to be automation because there just aren't enough people in the system to be able to support it." [00:19:41] Ted Mabley: "You've got to start somewhere. And you have to take a look at it from a holistic point, and you gotta be honest, right? What's working, what's not." If this episode resonated, share it with a fellow automotive leader and subscribe to the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast, where we're closing the gap between insight and action across the global automotive supply chain. Follow the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast for real conversations with leaders who are making hard choices, focusing their bets, and leading with intent. 🎧 Follow the podcast: 🔗 Learn more about QAD Redzone: https://www.qad.com/

    Automotive RFQ Quoting: How Suppliers Protect Margin with Data and AI

  4. Sep 14

    Automotive Supply Chain Talent: What New Hires See First

    The automotive industry has spent decades perfecting the physical supply chain. The data underneath it still doesn't line up, and the people walking in the door right now spot it in their first month. In this episode of the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast, Jan and Tom Roberts sit down with Wayne State University supply chain students Mia Bustamante and Daniel Kuzniar to hear what the working world looks like from the entry point. Both landed on live problems immediately. Mia's worked on automotive, consulting, finance, and healthcare projects, focusing on cost optimization, launch readiness, and data analysis. Daniel spent his first year of a tier one co-op on tariffs and supply chain mapping. Data is the first thing they name. In school, the set is clean, and the answer's already known. At work, the first job is finding where the data lives: one system here, another team's version there, an Excel tracker somebody built ten years ago and never explained. Daniel saw the same problem from the tariff side. Seven good forms from seven good teams, each right for its own purpose, none able to line up against the others. His ask of the industry is cross-functional data standardization, which is another way of saying you can't ask AI to make sense of silos you haven't broken. Leadership is where both land next, and they use the same word for it: context. Tell a young employee what decision the work supports and who'll use it, and the work comes back better. Give them something to own, and they stay. When his manager was out for a week, Daniel ran daily meetings for a group of co-ops and built the agenda himself. He'd never done anything like it, and the culture made it safe to try. This conversation challenges leaders to stop treating early-career talent as a pipeline problem for later. The people asking why a report exists are asking the right question, and the companies that bring them into the room early, with context and real ownership, will move faster than those still saying, "go get it done." Themes Discussed in This Episode Why clean classroom data sets don't prepare students for automotiveData standardization as a cross-functional problem, not an IT projectContext as a leadership requirementGiving early-career talent real ownershipWhat a year in a co-op teaches about culture and psychological safetyAI in the classroom and on the job: use it, then verify itBringing younger employees into the room where decisions get madeWhy industry voices belong inside academia This podcast is powered by QAD RedZone. Featured Guest Name: Mia Bustamante Title: Supply Chain Management and Finance Student, Wayne State University About: Mia is a student at Wayne State University’s Mike Ilitch School of Business, pursuing a double major in Global Supply Chain Management and Finance. Through internships, consulting projects, and case competitions, she has gained experience across purchasing, supply chain, finance, and automotive operations. She is passionate about technology, leadership, collaboration, and the evolving future of the supply chain industry. Connect: LinkedIn Name: Daniel Kuzniar Title: Honors Global Supply Chain Management Student, Wayne State University About: Daniel is the president of Wayne State University’s GSCMA (Global Supply Chain Management Association) & a procurement co-op focusing on tariffs for a tier one automotive supplier. Daniel works to coordinate and standardize all types of tariff information to be simple and understandable from the top level, and as accurate as going through each entry & invoice form. Connect: LinkedIn About Your Hosts Jan Griffiths Jan is the host and producer of the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast and The Automotive Leaders Podcast. A former automotive manufacturing and supply chain executive, Jan is recognized as a Champion for Culture Change in the automotive industry. She brings direct, grounded conversations to leaders navigating execution, disruption, and transformation across the global automotive ecosystem. Tom Roberts (Co-host) Tom is Co-host of the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast and Vice President of Strategic Industry Development at QAD. He works closely with automotive and industrial manufacturers to close the gap between insight and execution, helping leaders move from visibility to systems of action that drive real operational outcomes. Episode Highlights [02:13] Straight Into the Deep End: Mia's worked across four industries before finishing her degree, and Daniel's first year at a tier one supplier put him on tariffs and supply chain mapping, two of the least settled areas in the business. [06:34] There's No Clean Data: Mia's biggest surprise wasn't the analysis. It was discovering that finding the data comes first, and that nobody agrees on where it lives. [08:23] Standardizing While the Rules Change: Daniel built forms and processes for tariff data while the tariffs themselves kept moving, and suppliers didn't always fill them in the same way. [11:59] Context Beats Instructions: Mia explains what separates the leaders she learned from: they say what decision the work supports and who's going to use it. [14:49] Trusted for a Week: With his manager out, Daniel ran daily meetings for a group of co-ops, handed them ownership of the calls, and learned what's possible when a culture makes it safe to try. [17:55] Verify Before You Trust It: Daniel limits AI while he's still building the skill; Mia uses it daily and checks it against a professor or a textbook. Tom makes the case that a degree without AI fluency is worth less than it should be. [22:32] Seven Forms That Don't Talk: Daniel's answer on what the industry should fix is cross-functional data standardization, and Tom traces the mess back to growth by acquisition and system convergence nobody ever finished. [24:32] Bring Them Into the Room: Mia asks leaders for the one thing a training video can't deliver: a seat in the meeting where experienced people think a problem through out loud. Top Quotes [07:11] Mia Bustamante: "School teaches you how to analyze that data, but work really teaches you how to find the data first." [14:25] Tom Roberts: "(Empowerment) gives you tools and context and removes obstacles for you and lets you do the work." [15:31] Daniel Kuzniar: "The most important thing is to empower co-ops, interns, allow them to have ownership over certain things so that they understand that responsibility going into the workforce." If this episode resonated, share it with a fellow automotive leader and subscribe to the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast, where we're closing the gap between insight and action across the global automotive supply chain. Follow the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast for real conversations with leaders who are making hard choices, focusing their bets, and leading with intent. 🎧 Follow the podcast: 🔗 Learn more about QAD Redzone: https://www.qad.com/

    Automotive Supply Chain Talent: What New Hires See First

  5. Aug 31

    Labor Day Break | The Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast

    The Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast is taking a short break this week. To listeners in the US, Jan and Tom Roberts wish you a Happy Labor Day. The next episode releases on September 14, and it turns the microphone toward the people the industry keeps saying it needs: two supply chain students from Wayne State University who have already spent time inside the workplace. Jan and Tom wanted to know what these students expected when they walked in, whether the reality matched, and how they handled the data, leadership, and the culture they found on the job. Their answers give manufacturing leaders a rare, unfiltered look at how the next generation sees the organizations they are about to join. This podcast is powered by QAD RedZone. About Your Hosts Jan Griffiths Jan is the host and producer of the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast and The Automotive Leaders Podcast. A former automotive manufacturing and supply chain executive, Jan is recognized as a Champion for Culture Change in the automotive industry. She brings direct, grounded conversations to leaders navigating execution, disruption, and transformation across the global automotive ecosystem. Tom Roberts (Co-host) Tom is Co-host of the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast and Vice President of Strategic Industry Development at QAD. He works closely with automotive and industrial manufacturers to close the gap between insight and execution, helping leaders move from visibility to systems of action that drive real operational outcomes. Follow the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast for real conversations with leaders who are making hard choices, focusing their bets, and leading with intent. 🎧 Follow the podcast: 🔗 Learn more about QAD Redzone: https://www.qad.com/

  6. Aug 17

    Supply Chain Challenges in the Ultra Luxury Auto Sector

    The automotive supply chain runs on scale. Volume buys capacity, amortizes tooling, and puts a buyer at the front of the queue. Karma Automotive builds roughly 150 vehicles a year, so none of that leverage exists. A traditional tier-one scrap earns more in a week than Karma needs in twelve months. In this episode of the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast, Jan Griffiths and Tom Roberts sit down with Juan Lalinde, Director of Global Purchasing at Karma Automotive, the California ultra-luxury automaker built from the assets of Fisker. Juan sources a company where a $2 million tooling quote sits against a 150-unit build year. His model is not a smarter algorithm. It is a stronger network. AI clears the noise, and the non-value-added work, and the doors still open the old way, through a knock, an introduction, and a supplier who wants a shot at ultra-luxury. Juan calls it HI. Human intelligence. That approach got tested. Karma pulled a structural program out of Northern Europe, where the Fisker-era extruders had merged, closed, or scrapped the tooling, and localized it with a supplier in Tijuana, two hours down the road. Requalification finished. The tooling was paid for. Then the tariffs on Mexico landed. Juan ran the numbers, saw that China carried heavier-duty and domestic quotes at 10 times the cost, and chose to stay and work the problem with the supplier. What came out of it is a different kind of negotiation. Karma hands the supplier the schedule: deliver 100 parts by the date, and run the job at 1:00 in the morning if that protects the capacity, paying their bills. Juan is also clear that Karma is not a pure EV. The motors are electric, and the engine exists only to charge the battery, which takes charging infrastructure out of the decision, where it still stops buyers. Most supply chain leaders will never buy at 150 units a year, and the lesson holds anyway. When volume stops doing the negotiating, what is left is the relationship, the speed of the call, and whether the supplier believes the business is going somewhere. That work does not automate. Themes Discussed in This Episode Sourcing when scale is not on your sideWhy relationships still open doors that data cannotAI for the noise, human intelligence for the decisionLocalizing to Mexico and absorbing a tariff shock with the supplierDeveloping small suppliers from ISO to IATFSchedule flexibility as a low-volume negotiating toolEREV and the charging anxiety are still holding buyers backBrand desirability as a sourcing asset This podcast is powered by QAD RedZone. Featured Guest Name: Juan Lalinde Title: Director of Global Purchasing, Karma Automotive About: Juan is Director of Global Purchasing at Karma Automotive, with extensive experience in global supply chain management and process improvement. Known for driving operational efficiency and leading high-performing teams, Juan has delivered multimillion-dollar savings and innovative solutions across the automotive and technology sectors. Juan holds an MBA from the University of San Diego and is fluent in English and Spanish. Connect: LinkedIn About Your Hosts Jan Griffiths Jan is the host and producer of the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast and The Automotive Leaders Podcast. A former automotive manufacturing and supply chain executive, Jan is recognized as a Champion for Culture Change in the automotive industry. She brings direct, grounded conversations to leaders navigating execution, disruption, and transformation across the global automotive ecosystem. Tom Roberts (Co-host) Tom is Co-host of the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast and Vice President of Strategic Industry Development at QAD. He works closely with automotive and industrial manufacturers to close the gap between insight and execution, helping leaders move from visibility to systems of action that drive real operational outcomes. Mentioned in the Episode: Beyond the Bottleneck: The State of AI in Automotive Manufacturing and What’s Next, the QAD webinar with Automotive NewsMarques McCammon, CEO of Karma Automotive, on The Automotive Leaders Podcast Episode Highlights [03:11] The Phoenix in the Portfolio: Juan describes the third-generation Revero as the proof of everything Karma has engineered since 2020, with the Gyesera, the Ivara, and the Kaveya super coupe behind it. [04:10] Volume Buys You Nothing: Traditional tier ones and twos scrap more in a week than Karma needs for a year, so the search is for a partner who cares about the part rather than the quantity. [06:16] Everything Matters at 150 Cars a Year: Juan walks through the paint shop and the body-in-white line, where the goal is to give skilled people their time back and keep rework from stealing it. [08:09] “I Know a Guy” Is a Sourcing Strategy: Karma finds the operator who left a big tier two to open a shop, checks for ISO certification, and develops them toward IATF. If they grow, Karma grows. [09:30] AI Clears the Noise, HI Opens the Door: Juan draws the line between what AI is good for and what still requires a person, and explains why Karma has had to hear a lot of noes to get its yeses. [14:56] Not a Pure EV, and That Is the Point: The powertrain is electric, and the engine only generates power for the battery, which Tom credits as a direct answer to range anxiety. [19:19] The Tariff That Landed After the Tooling: Karma localized an aluminum program to a Tijuana supplier, invested in tooling, and then watched duties on Mexico appear. The relationship, not the contract, carried the cost conversation. [21:00] Hand the Supplier the Schedule: Forecasting and open communication let Karma work around a supplier’s capacity instead of competing for it, which is how a 100-piece order stays welcome. Top Quotes [08:09] Juan Lalinde: "The automotive is a big industry, but it's a small space." [09:30] Juan Lalinde: “Even though AI is the future, for us, HI, human intelligence, is what’s taking us to the next step.” [16:57] Juan Lalinde: “It’s a game of Whac-A-Mole. It’s like a trivia pursuit but with tariffs. You don’t know what you’re gonna get in the next roll of dice.” If this episode resonated, share it with a fellow automotive leader and subscribe to the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast, where we're closing the gap between insight and action across the global automotive supply chain. Follow the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast for real conversations with leaders who are making hard choices, focusing their bets, and leading with intent. 🎧 Follow the podcast: 🔗 Learn more about QAD Redzone: https://www.qad.com/

    Supply Chain Challenges in the Ultra Luxury Auto Sector

  7. Aug 3

    The Office of Resilience: Automotive's Missing Function

    Resilience is the most used word in automotive, and one of the least staffed functions in it. It turns up in board decks, on conference panels, and in webinar titles, and then the next disruption hits, and the response doesn't look any different from the last one: a war room, a handful of empowered people, and a lot of luck. In this episode, Jan Griffiths and Tom Roberts sit down with Ambrose Conroy, CEO of Seraph, to put structure behind a phrase most leaders use loosely. Ambrose built his firm on crisis work, and his answer to the resilience question isn't a mindset. It's an org chart. Build an office of resilience, staff it full-time, and have it report to the CEO or the board. The model already exists outside automotive. Shell and Apple run standing teams that watch their value chains down to raw material pricing, and Apple's got roughly 100 people doing it. Toyota does the same work without giving it a name. What separates them from most OEMs and tier ones isn't intent. It's the ability to see across their own data. That's where most companies stop. Multiple ERP instances, disconnected PLM systems, and dozens of cross-reference tables make it slow to answer a simple question: what stops if the rare earth supply is disrupted, or if an earthquake takes out a plant in Japan? Ambrose and Tom are blunt about what dirty master data does to AI. It drifts. It hallucinates. It returns alerts nobody can act on. Speed is the second half of the argument. In the Novelis disruption, three OEMs faced the same problem. One had an alternate capacity locked in within 48 hours. One followed the full qualification process and lost weeks. The third didn't really know what was going on. The mindset shift is the hard part, and Jan says so plainly about her own years running the supply chain. Nobody wants to fund headcount against a risk that hasn't happened yet. The leaders who fund it anyway will be the ones still shipping when the next choke point closes. Themes Discussed in This Episode What an office of resilience actually doesWhy resilience fails as a part-time assignmentBoard and CEO ownership of enterprise riskMaster data as the foundation of risk visibilityChoke points, commodities, and what-if modelingThe end of the annual cost-downDecision speed as a competitive advantageMeasuring resilience against competitors This podcast is powered by QAD RedZone. Featured Guest Name: Ambrose Conroy Title: Founder and CEO of Seraph Consulting About: Ambrose is the Founder and CEO of Seraph Consulting. He founded Seraph to solve complex, bet-the-business problems for clients and to be the go-to partner for driving operational excellence. Before founding Seraph, Ambrose served as Vice President of Supply Chain Solutions at NAI Global and led the West Coast Global Business Transformation Group at PA Consulting, where he specialized in due diligence, crisis management, and strategic transformation. He began his career as a consultant at CSC. Connect: LinkedIn About Your Hosts Jan Griffiths Jan is the host and producer of the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast and The Automotive Leaders Podcast. A former automotive manufacturing and supply chain executive, Jan is recognized as a Champion for Culture Change in the automotive industry. She brings direct, grounded conversations to leaders navigating execution, disruption, and transformation across the global automotive ecosystem. Tom Roberts (Co-host) Tom is Co-host of the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast and Vice President of Strategic Industry Development at QAD. He works closely with automotive and industrial manufacturers to close the gap between insight and execution, helping leaders move from visibility to systems of action that drive real operational outcomes. Mentioned in the Episode: Seraph choke point analysis webinar deck Episode Highlights [00:04:35] What an Office of Resilience Is: Ambrose anchors it to the board risk committee mandate. The office exists to protect your ability to deliver today's products and services, no matter what happens. [00:05:34] Seeing Across Your Own Data: The blocker isn't strategy. It's architecture. Most OEMs and tier ones have built systems that can't give anyone a cross-enterprise view. [00:07:57] AI Drifts on Dirty Data: Fifty reference tables and disconnected PLM systems produce alerts nobody trusts. Tom points out that's exactly where big data analytics projects fell over a decade ago. [00:09:04] If It's Not in the System, It's Risk: Working around the system of record feels faster in a crisis, and it's what leaves you people-dependent when things start going wrong, and people get tired. [00:13:44] The Cost-Down Era Is Over: Annual price decreases aren't coming back. Ambrose argues that if you're not running the what-if scenarios, the crisis and chaos will cost you far more than the five or ten strategic heads you didn't want to fund. [00:16:45] Who Owns It: CEO, CFO, or board. Anywhere below that, silos and politics kill it before it's produced anything. [00:19:42] Part-Time Doesn't Work: You need full-time people from finance, legal, supply chain, and strategy, led by someone with the standing to challenge peers. Ambrose calls it a grooming ground for future senior executives. [00:22:02] Three OEMs, One Disruption: The Novelis situation exposed the gap between empowered decision-making and process compliance, measured in weeks of lost capacity. [00:24:09] Measuring Risk You Prevented: Purchasing savings as a metric is done, and Ambrose points to an OEM that skipped a volume-specific contract to capture some. Success is relative now: how fast your organization absorbs disruption compared with direct competitors. Top Quotes [00:06:33] Ambrose Conroy: "It's not just getting out of China, it's not just regionalization, it's making sure you have business continuity moving forward, no matter what." [00:16:15] Ambrose Conroy: "So an office of resilience needs to be able to take that into account, and you need to have the data to do it. But you also need to have the organization, you need to have the will, and you need to have the sponsorship from a board level or a CEO level to make it work." [00:27:00] Ambrose Conroy: "There's a lot of choke points out there right now that could close, thinking through those proactively and comparing how your organization performs to those of your direct competitors is the cleanest way to measure the impact and success of the office of resilience." If this episode resonated, share it with a fellow automotive leader and subscribe to the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast, where we're closing the gap between insight and action across the global automotive supply chain. Follow the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast for real conversations with leaders who are making hard choices, focusing their bets, and leading with intent. 🎧 Follow the podcast: 🔗 Learn more about QAD Redzone: https://www.qad.com/

    The Office of Resilience: Automotive's Missing Function

  8. Jul 20

    Automotive Supply Chain Resiliency: Trade Shocks, Commodity Risk, and AI Scenario Modeling

    The disruption isn't coming. It arrived with dates attached. July 1 brought the USMCA review, and Canada got left in the cold. July 20 marks the end of the Section 301 investigations. July 24 is when the Section 122 tariffs, currently capped at 10% and set to expire, have no automatic renewal. Q2 wasn't a quarter to review. It was a quarter to survive. In this host-only Q2 review, Jan Griffiths and Tom Roberts trade the guest chair for a hard look at a quarter that refused to sit still. Trade policy moved. Commodity prices moved. The talent question moved. And underneath all of it sits the problem QAD has named for years: manufacturers don't have a data problem, they have an execution problem. The trade math keeps splitting into smaller pieces. Companies may soon have to separate US and Canadian content, then carry that split through every tier of the chain, where country-of-origin data was already hard to trust. Commodities pull the same thread. With the Strait of Hormuz closed at the time of recording, oil spiked, and aluminum, resin, and plastics moved with it. Tom describes tier ones already using AI to catch index swings against exploded BOMs and recover costs that were once hidden in one analyst's spreadsheet. The data was always there. The speed wasn't. Then there's resiliency, the word every leader defines differently. Jan and Tom settle on a working one: know where your risk sits, and be ready when something breaks. The Novelis fire, a single Nylon 12 plant, an earthquake that takes out paint for the F-150, none of these are hypothetical, and AI now lets a team model that exposure across a region before it lands. The quarter closed on the people who inherit it all. Universities call AI cheating. The employers hiring those same graduates expect it on day one. That gap is real, and it starts to close on a plant floor, not behind a screen. Q2 proved the old playbook can't keep pace. The leaders who win the back half won't wait for stability that isn't coming. They'll have built the data, the scenarios, and the bench before the next headline makes the decision for them. Themes Discussed in This Episode USMCA and the cost of a 10-year breakupSection 301 and Section 122: the tariff deadlines that matterSplitting US and Canadian content across every tierWhy do what-if scenarios decide who holds the marginCommodity volatility and index-based cost recoveryUsing AI to model geopolitical risk in real timeResiliency: knowing where the risk actually sitsPreparing the next generation for an AI-first plant floor This podcast is powered by QAD RedZone. About Your Hosts Jan Griffiths Jan is the host and producer of the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast and The Automotive Leaders Podcast. A former automotive manufacturing and supply chain executive, Jan is recognized as a Champion for Culture Change in the automotive industry. She brings direct, grounded conversations to leaders navigating execution, disruption, and transformation across the global automotive ecosystem. Tom Roberts (Co-host) Tom is Co-host of the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast and Vice President of Strategic Industry Development at QAD. He works closely with automotive and industrial manufacturers to close the gap between insight and execution, helping leaders move from visibility to systems of action that drive real operational outcomes. Mentioned in the Episode: Building the Next Generation of Supply Chain Leaders with Professor Leah Wolf Episode Highlights [02:15] The USMCA Cold Shoulder: The July 1 review signaled the US has little interest in keeping Canada and Mexico together, and this breakup will be bumpy. [03:33] The Dates That Decide Q3: July 20 and July 24 bring Section 301 and Section 122 to a head, with 12.5% duties on 46 countries in play. [05:23] Splitting Content Across the Tiers: Separating US and Canadian content means multiplying already-hard country-of-origin data through every supplier tier. [06:52] What ETL Actually Means: Tom breaks down extract, transform, load in plain terms, and why clean data decides your tariff exposure. [11:00] The Spreadsheet Nobody Can Read: AI can flag index movements for cost recovery instead of trusting the one analyst who understands the file. [12:10] Resiliency Starts With Risk: Know where your exposure sits and have a plan ready before the next plant fire, earthquake, or closed strait. [14:51] From Failed Pilots to Real Wins: AI pilots succeed when they start with a known problem and a defined outcome, not "let's apply AI and see." [17:45] Build the Bench on the Plant Floor: Students need real plants and real AI tools, closing the gap between how they learn and how they'll be expected to work. Top Quotes [06:33] Tom Roberts: " Clean data is going to be incredibly important with those product codes, product classifications to understand what is actually exposed to tariffs, what's not, and I think AI is gonna play a big part in helping to automate some of the cleanup and transformation. " [12:10] Jan Griffiths: "Resiliency is really, step one is understanding where your risk is and being ready when something breaks." If this episode resonated, share it with a fellow automotive leader and subscribe to the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast, where we're closing the gap between insight and action across the global automotive supply chain. Follow the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast for real conversations with leaders who are making hard choices, focusing their bets, and leading with intent. 🎧 Follow the podcast: 🔗 Learn more about QAD Redzone: https://www.qad.com/

    Automotive Supply Chain Resiliency: Trade Shocks, Commodity Risk, and AI Scenario Modeling
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We really can’t predict the future … because nobody can. What we can do, though, is help auto manufacturers recognize, prepare for, and profit from whatever comes next. Auto Supply Chain Champions gives you timely and relevant insights and best practices from industry leaders.

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  • Creator
    QAD | Redzone
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    120
  • Rating
    Clean
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    © Powered by QAD | Redzone
  • Show Website
    Auto Supply Chain Champions

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