Visteon Drives the Information Superhighway To Partner

with Leading International Suppliers Dearborn, Mich. (PROTEXT) - As part of its comprehensive electronic commerce strategy, Visteon Automotive Systems will conduct its first on-line bidding activity today to competitively award nearly $150 million in circuit board business to suppliers. This innovative bidding process allows the organization to efficiently tap the capabilities of the very best global suppliers. It also allows Visteon to realign its purchasing operations to take advantage of the process improvements and cost savings associated with such leading-edge approaches. Pre-qualified suppliers have been invited to bid on-line to provide Visteon with the latest printed wiring circuit board technology. The hour- and-a-half long event is the first of many Visteon expects to conduct to on- line source a variety of commodities. "Visteon is committed to technologies and processes that will help it leverage the most advanced global automotive resources for its customers," said Alex Preston, vice president, supply and process leadership, Visteon. "Our use of the Internet and our entire electronic commerce strategy will allow us to develop strong, reliable partnerships with the very best suppliers in the world. Those partnerships will enable Visteon to remain on the leading edge of product development, systems integration and customer service." Internet retailing has already achieved widespread acceptance with millions of on-line consumers. Visteon's investigation into the opportunities associated with Internet bidding began in January when managers began exploring how purchasing operations could more fully benefit from the information superhighway. Within a matter of months, Visteon designed and implemented an electronic procurement system that would accommodate real-time, on-line bidding from around the world. "We spent a lot of time talking to suppliers about whether or not they had participated in on-line auctions, and what they thought about them," said Kim Marslender, an interior systems purchasing manager with Visteon. "We incorporated their suggestions and addressed their concerns in designing our process." Suppliers can access the bidding site via a standard Web browser and a password. Once they are on-line, they will be able to view the prices being bid for a particular commodity. They will not see the names of the other organizations involved in the on-line bidding. They will be able to submit new bids throughout the event in the strictest confidentiality. Unlike target pricing, where a customer typically sets a target price for a commodity, suppliers bidding in today's event will help set a real market price for the technologies and commodities being sourced. But market price is not the only determining factor in a sourcing decision, Marslender stresses. "We initially sent out requests for information to over 90 printed wiring circuit board suppliers around the world. From the information that they submitted, we narrowed the field down to those suppliers who could meet our rigorous quality, performance and technology standards. Those are determining factors," Marslender said. Suppliers who are participating in the on-line bidding process were required to attend a half-day session to learn what Visteon expects of all suppliers. After the bidding is over, the suppliers who are sourced will be audited, Marslender added. On-line bidding is just one way Visteon will source commodities in the future. Other venues, such as early sourcing target agreements, open auctions, on-line requests for quotes and design contests, will also be employed as part of Visteon's overall electronic procurement strategy. Visteon's electronic buying and selling strategy, known as eVisteon, encompasses all of the organization's daily business commerce transactions such as procurement and electronic data interchange. eVisteon will allow Visteon to build new information channels with both customers and suppliers to support electronic commerce and on-line retailing. With a global delivery system of nearly 125 technical, manufacturing, sales and service facilities located in 21 countries, Visteon Automotive Systems is leveraging the talents of its 77,000 employees to deliver innovative, consumer-driven systems solutions to its customers. ots Original Text Service: Visteon Internet: http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: Media: Cheryl Eberwein, (USA) 313-248-6321 email, ceberwei@visteon.com, or Analysts: Kent Niederhofer, (USA) 313-390-1467 email, kniederh@visteon.com, both of Visteon Web site: http://media.visteon.com Subscribers please note that material bearing the slug "PROTEXT" is not part of CTK's news service and is not to be published under the "CTK" slug. Protext is a commercial service providing distribution of press releases from clients, who are identified in the text of Protext reports and who bear full responsibility for their contents. PROTEXT