Tom Willig

"Honestly, this is an award that is long overdue," commented Suzuki Manufacturing of America Corporation Supply Chain Manager Tom Willig.

"We try to model ourselves after Dell -- whatever inventory comes in the front door in the morning goes out the back door in the evening," explains Thomas J. Willig, supply chain manager for Suzuki."My goal is to turn the lights off at 5 p.m., and have no inventory left in the building." Thanks to changes made during the past year -- and the company's surprising alliance with a fellow ATV manufacturer -- Willig is on the way to achieving his goal.
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Willig turned to Transfreight for a solution."We put together a plan to bring material in sequence by lot number to Transfreight service centers, and have Transfreight deliver it to us," Willig explains.
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"We asked Transfreight to assemble a network of suppliers stretching from Nebraska to Georgia to New Jersey, deliver parts to our facility at 6 a.m., and move the empty containers back to suppliers every morning -- not an easy task," Willig says.Suzuki's on-hand inventory has dropped from a high of four to five days of domestic parts inventory to one day of inventory. "The total pipeline may be three days including product in-transit from our suppliers, but we never have more than one day of inventory on our floor," Willig says. The Suzuki plant has moved from an operation with two warehouses and a manufacturing facility, to one streamlined plant.This transition has sharpened Suzuki's focus on accuracy and precision. "We don't have a 200,000-square-foot warehouse full of parts to fall back on," Willig explains."Suppliers know they must ship the right parts at the right time, every time, to avoid shutting down the line." The new lean approach and innovative shipping arrangement have improved performance throughout Suzuki's ATV operation.Getting rid of excess inventory enabled it to uncover and eliminate problems it didn't see previously "because the inventory covered them up," according to Willig. "The lower the water, the more the rocks stick out," he explains."We found a few 'rocks' to handle along the way -- some internal, and some external."Suzuki expects its third-party logistics provider to suggest innovations."I want my 3PL to come to me with ideas on how to cut costs, have parts delivered cheaper and faster, and keep more product off the floor," Willig says.Suzuki and Transfreight have a strategic, rather than a transactional partnership, and work together to achieve continuous improvement.Three of Transfreight's employees work onsite at the Rome plant.In fact, Doucette's desk is directly behind Willig's, which facilitates a close working relationship. Teamwork Pays Off The 3PL employees working with Suzuki are included in Suzuki's daily production meeting, and sometimes attend its monthly sales and operations planning meetings as well. In addition, "Transfreight is the only supplier to make presentations at our supplier conference every year," Willig says.This close relationship makes it easier for the partners to continue to innovate.The key to the partnership is a solid foundation of trust. Because of its innovative approach to manufacturing and inbound shipping, both partners know that "we need to have total trust," Willig says.