- Dissolution of Kashiwa-Kai (Mitsubishi Motors cooperative suppliers
organization) to end closed-shop relations with suppliers
- Establishment of an open and transparent relationship structure with
both domestic and international suppliers to assure more efficient communications
and cooperation.
Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) today announced the dissolution of
its cooperative suppliers organization Kashiwa-Kai and the start of a
new relationship within a more efficient, global structure for handling
communication between MMC and its suppliers.
Mitsubishi Motors had been studying the possibility to dissolve the Kashiwa-Kai
and to establish a new kind of relationship with its suppliers for months.
Today, Kashiwa-Kai decided to dissolve itself at its general meeting.
MMC will take over the former function of the suppliers organization in
directly providing its suppliers with information for their business activities
with MMC in a faster, more efficient manner.
This change reflects the drastic need to respond to the strong challenges
of the saturated domestic market, fierce global competition and the need
to conform to ever-increasing safety and ecology requirements.
Chief Operating Officer Rolf Eckrodt said that he "appreciated that
Kashiwa-Kai has played a great role in supporting MMC's procurement activities
in the past."
"These changes," Mr. Eckrodt said, "will strengthen our
long-standing cooperative relationship with our suppliers by achieving
even fuller collaboration, based on the spirit of our COSMOS concept,
which emphasizes close, cooperative relationships that are fair and focused
on results."
The new communication structure will enable MMC to focus much more sharply
on bringing suppliers into line with MMC's needs and future strategies
through three specific actions:
- Annual suppliers' meetings
a. to explain procurement strategies and implementation activities
b. to recognize quality/VE (Valuable Engineering) awards
c. to provide information about MMC's new car strategies
- Smaller topic-specific meetings to exchange information with suppliers
- Establishment of an exclusive internet homepage to provide suppliers
with extensive up-dated information
