Rethink and De-risk the Automotive Supply Chain

The automotive industry is navigating an era of unparalleled disruption. Manufacturers face immense pressure to boost efficiency, reduce costs, and shield their supply chains from risk. To thrive, automotive leaders must reorient their approach and adopt innovative strategies that drive savings, improve profitability margins, and ensure uninterrupted operations. By rethinking traditional practices and leveraging new technologies, manufacturers can future-proof their operations and maintain a competitive edge.

Key Areas of Focus:

  1. Global Sourcing Complexities
  2. Supplier Risk Management (Financial & Cyber)
  3. Regulatory Compliance
  4. Collaboration & Standardization 

Global Sourcing Complexities

Automotive supply chains are among the most complex and interconnected globally, involving thousands of components sourced from numerous suppliers across different regions. Any delay or shortage can have a ripple effect, halting production lines and negatively impacting revenue and profit margins. Furthermore, safety recalls—particularly those driven by NHTSA compliance standards—add another layer of complexity, making visibility into multi-tier supplier relationships essential for effective risk management. 

To tackle these challenges, manufacturers are increasingly diversifying their supplier base and adjusting from just-in-time inventory models to more resilient, multi-source strategies. However, this also introduces increased workload as companies now need to discover, qualify, and maintain relationships with suppliers across multiple regions. Without the right tools, bottlenecks in this process can slow down the entire value chain. 

Additionally, The Hackett Group’s 2024 Procurement Agenda and Key Issues Study findings show that 43% of current supplier onboarding/portal technology solutions fell short of expectations as rated by procurement executives in this annual survey

Trust Your Supplier (TYS) equips manufacturers to manage these global sourcing complexities by streamlining supplier discovery and onboarding. Manufacturers can quickly identify trusted suppliers, reducing the onboarding cycle by up to 90%. This acceleration drives operational savings, improving both time-to-market and profitability. The platform also ensures visibility into parent-child business relationships, helping manufacturers stay compliant with critical safety standards, such as those mandated by the NHTSA, to mitigate risk across the entire supply chain. 

Supplier Risk Management (Financial & Cyber)

Given its extensive supplier networks, the automotive industry is vulnerable to numerous risks. Whether it’s the financial instability of a supplier, geopolitical tensions, or the growing threat of cyberattacks, manufacturers must be prepared to manage these challenges without slowing production. 

  • Financial Viability: Suppliers’ financial health is essential to continuous operations. Any financial instability can lead to delays, product shortages, or even production stoppages, significantly increasing costs. 
  • Geopolitical Risks: Tariffs, trade wars, or sudden regulatory changes can disrupt the supply of essential components, affecting both costs and availability. 
  • Cybersecurity Threats: With the industry’s increasing reliance on digital connectivity, cyberattacks on suppliers can lead to data breaches, operational disruptions, and intellectual property theft. 

 

The Hackett Group’s 2024 Procurement Agenda and Key Issues Study also found that strengthening third party risk management, visibility and capability remain one of the top ten priorities of procurement leaders. 

TYS leverages integrated data from partners such as D&B and Maplecroft, and advanced analytics to provide a holistic view of supplier risks. By monitoring financial stability, geopolitical changes, and cybersecurity threats, manufacturers can proactively address potential disruptions. This agility helps them not only manage risk but also protect their profit margins from the costly effects of production delays or security breaches. 

Regulatory Compliance

Operating in a highly regulated environment, automotive manufacturers need to adhere to strict standards governing safety, emissions, and labor practices across different regions. Failure to comply with these regulations can result in severe penalties, including costly fines, product recalls, and damage to brand reputation. Given the global nature of the automotive supply chain, ensuring that suppliers across all tiers adhere to these diverse and stringent regulations is critical. Regular audits and assessments are essential to verify that suppliers meet industry standards, which helps avoid potential legal issues and maintains the integrity of the manufacturing process. 

With regulatory bodies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. and the European Union’s strict emissions regulations, manufacturers must ensure compliance not only for themselves but also for their entire supply chain. This includes meeting the requirements for environmental impact, vehicle safety, and ethical labor practices. 

TYS provides tools to help manufacturers efficiently manage regulatory requirements and maintain transparency across their supply chains. Here’s how TYS supports compliance: 

Identify and Address Requirements: TYS fosters open communication channels within industry verticals to identify and address compliance requirements and issues. This proactive approach helps automotive manufacturers stay ahead of regulatory changes and ensures that compliance strategies are aligned with industry standards. 

Smart Questionnaires: Utilize TYS’s predictive and dependent questionnaires for periodic supplier evaluations. This ensures ongoing compliance with stringent industry standards. Our standardized repository of regulatory questionnaires allows suppliers to share critical compliance information across their buyer community, enhancing transparency and simplifying compliance management. 

Automated Approvals and Dependency Workflows: Automate approval processes and manage dependency workflows with TYS. This reduces manual effort, minimizes delays, and ensures that compliance requirements are met efficiently and accurately, freeing resources for other essential tasks. 

Regular Compliance Monitoring: TYS offers continuous compliance monitoring with periodic evaluations to ensure that suppliers consistently adhere to regulatory standards. This ongoing oversight helps mitigate potential disruptions and legal risks, addressing compliance issues before they escalate. 

Collaboration & Standardization

Effective supply chain management requires strong collaboration, both internally across departments and externally with suppliers. However, achieving this level of coordination is challenging, especially when different teams work in silos or suppliers have varied processes. Misalignment can lead to inefficiencies, delays, and increased costs, compromising a manufacturer’s ability to respond to market shifts or regulatory changes swiftly. 

For the automotive sector, a standardized approach is critical—not only to ensure consistent quality but also to comply with regulatory standards like those of the NHTSA. Inconsistent documentation, communication gaps, and misaligned supplier management processes can lead to non-compliance and costly recalls. 

TYS enhances collaboration and standardization by providing procurement, supply chain, risk, and compliance teams with access to the same trusted data, ensuring seamless communication and informed decision-making across departments. Externally, TYS supports supplier collaboration through a standardized framework that ensures consistent documentation, communication protocols, and compliance metrics. With real-time analytics and reporting, manufacturers can monitor supplier firmographics and risks, allowing for proactive management and stronger, more efficient partnerships across the global supply chain. 

Driving Toward a Resilient Future

As the automotive industry faces mounting pressures, the need to rethink and de-risk the supply chain has never been more urgent. TYS empowers manufacturers to streamline supplier management, enhance regulatory compliance, and mitigate risks, all while driving accelerated savings and improving profitability margins. By adopting a more agile and proactive approach to supply chain operations, manufacturers can strengthen their resilience, reduce costs, and stay ahead of disruption. With TYS, the future of the automotive supply chain is not just secure—it’s optimized for long-term success. 

 

FAQ: How does TYS positively impact both the top and bottom lines of your business?

Frequently Asked Question: How does Trust Your Supplier (TYS) positively impact both the top and bottom lines of your business?

TYS enhances business performance by driving both top-line growth and bottom-line savings. Here’s how:

Top Line Impact: 

Faster Supplier Onboarding: TYS significantly reduces the time it takes to onboard new suppliers, allowing you to engage with vetted, compliant suppliers faster. This helps to avoid delays in production or service delivery, speeding up revenue generation. 

Improved Supplier Discovery: By utilizing TYS’s advanced supplier discovery tools, businesses can identify new suppliers that meet their unique criteria, helping diversify the supplier base and ensure resilient supply chains. This adaptability can lead to faster time-to-market for new products or services, increasing opportunities for growth. 

Enhanced Supplier Collaboration: Through better supplier data and collaboration features, TYS enables stronger relationships with key suppliers, which can result in better terms, pricing, and access to new innovations, ultimately boosting your top line. 

Bottom Line Impact: 

Cost Reduction: By automating supplier management processes, TYS helps reduce administrative and manual efforts, cutting down operational costs related to procurement and supplier management. Efficient workflows reduce the cost per transaction and streamline compliance checks, minimizing costly delays or penalties. 

Risk Mitigation: With integrated risk intelligence and compliance monitoring, TYS ensures early identification of potential risks such as supplier financial instability or regulatory issues. This allows businesses to act proactively and avoid costly disruptions or fines, preserving profit margins. 

Data Accuracy and Consistency: TYS ensures that your supplier master data is accurate and up-to-date across all systems, reducing discrepancies that lead to errors or compliance risks, saving time and costs associated with data reconciliation and audits. 

By improving efficiency and creating more resilient, compliant supply chains, TYS helps businesses boost profitability and sustain long-term growth.

Reach out to learn more about how TYS can help improve your business’s financial performance.

TEST- EU Deforestation Law: Key Updates and Supply Chain Impacts 

The European Union’s new Deforestation Law (EUDR) is making waves worldwide. Set to take effect on December 31, 2024, this regulation will impose strict requirements on products like coffee, cacao, and palm oil to ensure they do not originate from recently deforested areas. Companies trading with the EU will need to verify the deforestation status of their goods, adding layers of compliance.
However, the EUDR has sparked global debate. The United States is pushing for a delay, citing concerns over the regulation’s far-reaching consequences, but the EU remains firm in its timeline, with any postponement seen as unlikely.
For supply chains, this new law signals a substantial shift. Increased compliance measures will raise costs for goods entering the EU and could lead to disruptions as companies adjust to meet the new requirements. Organizations trading in the region should start preparing for these changes to avoid future bottlenecks and compliance issues.
How Trust Your Supplier (TYS) Can Help
TYS’s comprehensive compliance questionnaires can ease the burden of these new requirements. By digitizing and automating the verification process, TYS helps businesses collect and manage critical information from suppliers regarding their deforestation practices. This streamlined approach ensures that your suppliers meet EUDR standards, reducing the risk of non-compliance and allowing for quicker, more efficient supply chain adjustments. With real-time monitoring and proactive alerts, TYS empowers your team to stay ahead of evolving regulations and ensure your products are ready for the EU market.
Prepare now and leverage TYS to navigate the complexities of the EUDR with confidence.

TYS & BT Sourced Winners of a SIG Future of Sourcing Award!

We are beyond excited to announce that Trust Your Supplier (TYS) and BT Sourced have WON the Innovation in Supplier Performance Award at the 2024 SIG Future of Sourcing Awards! 🏆

This incredible achievement is a testament to the power of collaboration, innovation, and a shared vision for transforming procurement. Together with BT Sourced, we’ve driven impactful improvements in supply chain transparency, efficiency, and performance.

A huge thank you to our amazing TYS team, the BT Sourced team, and SIG|ORG. This is just the beginning as we continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible in supplier management!

Learn more about the Future of Sourcing Awards

Learn more about the TYS & BT Sourced collaboration

 

EU Deforestation Law: Key Updates and Supply Chain Impacts 

The European Union’s new Deforestation Law (EUDR) is making waves worldwide. Set to take effect on December 31, 2024, this regulation will impose strict requirements on products like coffee, cacao, and palm oil to ensure they do not originate from recently deforested areas. Companies trading with the EU will need to verify the deforestation status of their goods, adding layers of compliance.
However, the EUDR has sparked global debate. The United States is pushing for a delay, citing concerns over the regulation’s far-reaching consequences, but the EU remains firm in its timeline, with any postponement seen as unlikely.
For supply chains, this new law signals a substantial shift. Increased compliance measures will raise costs for goods entering the EU and could lead to disruptions as companies adjust to meet the new requirements. Organizations trading in the region should start preparing for these changes to avoid future bottlenecks and compliance issues.
How Trust Your Supplier (TYS) Can Help
TYS’s comprehensive compliance questionnaires can ease the burden of these new requirements. By digitizing and automating the verification process, TYS helps businesses collect and manage critical information from suppliers regarding their deforestation practices. This streamlined approach ensures that your suppliers meet EUDR standards, reducing the risk of non-compliance and allowing for quicker, more efficient supply chain adjustments. With real-time monitoring and proactive alerts, TYS empowers your team to stay ahead of evolving regulations and ensure your products are ready for the EU market.
Prepare now and leverage TYS to navigate the complexities of the EUDR with confidence.

FAQ: Can TYS integrate with existing business systems? 

Frequently Asked Question: Can TYS integrate with existing business systems? 

Yes, Trust Your Supplier (TYS) seamlessly integrates with various business systems, enabling efficient data exchange and workflow automation across different platforms. This integration ensures that TYS connects with your existing ERP, procurement, and supply chain management systems, creating a unified and streamlined process. Key benefits include: 

  • Optimize data synchronization – ensuring the majority of systems have the most current information, enhancing accuracy and decision-making
  • Dynamic Single Source of Truth  – Centralize all supplier data to ensure an up-to-date, comprehensive view, enhancing transparency and trust 
  • System Agnostic APIs: Integrate seamlessly with any system using our system-agnostic APIs, with support for custom solutions as needed

Learn more about the key challenges, solutions and outcomes.

 

Trust Your Supplier Recognized in Fall 2024 Spend Matters SolutionMap

We are excited to announce that Trust Your Supplier (TYS) has been recognized in the Fall 2024 Spend Matters SolutionMap, which evaluates leading procurement technology solutions. This recognition places TYS among the key providers in three essential areas of supplier management and risk visibility:

1. Supplier Management (SXM)

TYS has been acknowledged for its ability to streamline supplier information management, performance, and compliance. Our platform integrates with a variety of procurement tech stack solutions, allowing organizations to access up-to-date, verified supplier data for more efficient collaboration and decision-making. TYS enables businesses to centralize supplier management, ensuring seamless operations across different procurement systems.

2. Supplier Management (Risk Enhanced)

In this category, TYS stands out by integrating risk data from leading third-party providers. TYS enables organizations to view and monitor comprehensive risk insights within supplier profiles, including environmental, financial, and geopolitical risks. By automating alerts and approvals based on this data, TYS helps businesses stay proactive in managing supplier risks, ensuring they can act quickly to address emerging threats.

3. Risk Management (TPRM/SCRM)

TYS’s recognition in the Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) and Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) category highlights our ability to provide visibility into third-party risks across the entire supplier network. Through integrations with trusted risk intelligence providers, TYS allows businesses to monitor risks at multiple levels of their supply chain. Automation within TYS helps trigger appropriate actions and approvals, ensuring companies can respond efficiently to risk alerts.

Why This Recognition Matters

The Spend Matters SolutionMap is known for its rigorous, data-driven evaluation process, including over 500 RFI requirements and impartial customer feedback. Being recognized across these categories validates TYS’s role as a trusted solution provider, empowering organizations with tools to manage suppliers and gain visibility into potential risks.

How TYS Can Help Your Business

In today’s evolving supply chain landscape, having real-time visibility into supplier performance and potential risks is crucial. TYS provides the integration and automation capabilities that help businesses streamline supplier management and ensure timely responses to risks—all while enhancing compliance. Our platform integrates seamlessly with procurement tech stacks, offering flexibility and efficiency. This recognition from Spend Matters reinforces the value TYS brings to supply chain resilience and management.


Looking Ahead

As we continue to innovate, TYS remains committed to delivering enhanced supplier management and risk visibility solutions. Our inclusion in the Fall 2024 Spend Matters SolutionMap underscores our focus on helping businesses thrive in an increasingly complex environment.

Interested in learning more? Get in touch to explore how TYS can help your organization manage supplier relationships and stay ahead of potential risks.

TYS & BT Sourced Finalists for the SIG Future of Sourcing Award!

We are thrilled to announce that Trust Your Supplier (TYS) has been shortlisted for the Innovations in Supplier Performance Award at the upcoming SIG|ORG Future of Sourcing Awards! This recognition is a testament to our commitment to bringing procurement into a new era, made possible by our strong partnership with the team BT Sourced.

Together, we’ve been able to drive impactful improvements in supply chain transparency, efficiency, and performance. We are honored to have been shortlisted and look forward to continuing our journey of innovation and collaboration. Thank you to everyone involved in making this achievement possible!

Learn more about the Future of Sourcing Awards

Learn more about the TYS & BT Sourced collaboration

#FutureOfSourcing #SupplierPerformance #Innovation #TrustYourSupplier #wesourceforabetterfuture #futureofsourcingawards

 

Mastering the Complexities of Energy and Utility Supply Chains with Trust Your Supplier

by Nick Picone, TYS VP of Advisory Practice

Energy and Utility (E&U) organizations operate within one of today’s most complex and operationally challenging supply chain environments. They are interdependent industries where reliability and resilience are non-negotiable. As these industries evolve, they face three key operational challenges, ranging from ensuring a consistent supply of the goods and services (at stable prices) required to maintain an aging utility grid, balancing energy transition with compliance requirements, and mitigating a wide range of supplier risks – especially cyber vulnerabilities.  

According to Hemingway’s Law of Motion, these challenges can lead to an unforeseen collapse which “happens gradually and then suddenly” where seemingly manageable issues can escalate into critical failures if not addressed proactively. What’s needed is a novel approach to supplier and risk management, one that anticipates and mitigates risks before they impact operations. 

In order to deliver meaningful change, leaders across the sector need to be intellectually honest about their current state and capabilities and curious about what practical steps they can take to improve how they operate. In this case, the improvement that I’m referring to is a future state that provides the visibility, and end-to-end capabilities required to mitigate key challenges before they reach a tipping point. 

Aging Infrastructure: A Pressing Concern

One of the most consequential challenges facing the energy and utility sectors is aging utility infrastructure. According to a U.S. Grid Deployment Office (GDO) report, over 70% of the U.S. utility grid is more than 25 years old and will require substantial modernization or complete replacement. This ongoing issue not only impacts reliability but also significantly increases maintenance costs. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Infrastructure Report Card underscores that aging infrastructure requires more frequent repairs and faces an increase in prolonged outages that can erode customer trust and impact daily life. 

Moreover, the Department of Energy (DOE) highlights that outdated infrastructure cannot support the advanced technology needed for grid modernization and integration of renewable energy sources. This presents a considerable obstacle as utility companies strive to meet regulatory requirements and sustainability goals. As infrastructure projects ramp up, the demand for raw materials and components increases, leading to potential supply bottlenecks, which can further delay critical upgrades and increase costs.  

How TYS Helps: 

Maintaining aging infrastructure requires a diversified supplier base to provide specialized components and services, which can be challenging to source, especially in a landscape prone to supply bottlenecks. TYS simplifies the diversification process by providing U&E companies with the tools to segment and identify potential risks and the ability to quickly discover, assess, and onboard suppliers. 

TYS provides comprehensive visibility into your entire supplier base, as well as the agility and controls required to mitigate risks proactively, ensure compliance, and enhance operational efficiency. By leveraging clean and continuously maintained data in addition to a network of trusted suppliers, companies can pre-qualify and onboard new suppliers with speed and precision. Furthermore, TYS’s automated monitoring capabilities ensure continuous oversight of supplier risk and compliance with regulatory standards, allowing organizations to address potential issues before they reach a tipping point.  

This holistic approach streamlines procurement processes, fortifies supply chain resilience, and empowers utilities to maintain and modernize their aging infrastructure without unexpected delays or disruptions due to supplier challenges. 

Energy Transition & Compliance Management: Balancing Innovation and Regulation 

The global push towards clean energy has added a new layer of complexity to the energy and utility industries. Transitioning to renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and hydroelectric power necessitates significant infrastructure upgrades, while the rapidly evolving regulatory landscape requires meticulous compliance management. 

As regulations become more stringent, utility companies face increasing pressure to meet Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards. This challenge extends to the careful selection of suppliers who align with these criteria. KPMG emphasizes that non-compliance with safety and environmental regulations can lead to severe penalties, operational setbacks, and reputational damage. 

How TYS Helps 

TYS simplifies compliance management by enabling utility companies to quickly find and onboard suppliers that meet sustainability and regulatory requirements. The platform offers an intuitive supplier discovery experience through features like dynamic search and filtering, making it simple to identify suppliers within a trusted network that adhere to compliance criteria. 

The procurement process is also streamlined by enabling efficient review and consensus approvals on internal supplier requests before initiating contact. TYS’s flexible platform supports customization of the prequalification process with tailored assessment questionnaires, automated approvals, and segmented validations to ensure alignment with specific business requirements. 

Compliance initiatives are seamlessly managed through a combination of up-to-date supplier compliance questionnaires and risk data from trusted partners. This approach provides both qualitative and quantitative insights, supporting informed decision-making. 

Once suppliers are onboarded, TYS’s life cycle monitoring tools offer ongoing visibility into compliance, reducing the risk of penalties and helping to maintain a strong reputation. 

Risk Management: Safeguarding Against Disruptions 

The E&U sectors are facing an increasing frequency of disruption driven by global events such as pandemics, geopolitical conflicts, natural disasters, and trade restrictions. Additionally, the exponential rate of integration of digital technologies is driving a significant volume of new cybersecurity attacks. In fact, Power Grid International reports a 71% rise in cyberattacks on utility companies in North America in just the last year. 

Effective risk management is often hampered by fragmented data management processes, which can lead to limited visibility across the supplier network. This lack of transparency is a direct result of outdated information creating sub-optimal conditions for decision-making, leaving companies ill-prepared to respond to emerging threats. 

As digital technologies are being continually implemented across utility operations, the stakes of cybersecurity continue to grow. Cyberattacks can compromise sensitive data, disrupt essential services, and inflict severe financial and reputational damage. 

How TYS Helps: 

TYS offers a secure and comprehensive risk management solution that enhances visibility across the supply chain. This enables companies to identify potential risks related to cyber security and respond proactively. By integrating data from leading risk intelligence providers, E&U organizations can continuously access reliable, “best-of-breed data” that supports informed decision-making.

Additionally, TYS provides supplier profiles that can be enriched with critical information from top cyber risk intelligence sources, allowing companies to assess and monitor cyber threats associated with their suppliers. This comprehensive understanding of potential risks is further strengthened by TYS’s use of blockchain technology, which minimizes the risk of data breaches and provides a secure environment for supplier interactions, protecting against operational and reputational damage. 

The TYS platform includes comprehensive risk monitoring workflows that continuously track changes in supplier risk profiles. These workflows trigger an automated approval process that will re-evaluate key data points and provide a best-in-class risk management process. 

Through these capabilities, TYS empowers utility companies to build resilient and reliable supply chains that can withstand global challenges and safeguard their operations against emerging risks. 

TYS: Empowering Energy and Utility Companies for Long-Term Success

In an industry defined by aging infrastructure, the transition to renewable energy, and the growing risks of global supply chain disruptions, energy and utility companies face challenges that demand innovative solutions. 

Trust Your Supplier (TYS) provides a comprehensive suite of tools that allow organizations to rethink their risk management posture and redesign their supplier management process, enhancing visibility, digitizing processes, and strengthening risk and compliance management. 

From supplier discovery and onboarding to multi-dimensional risk management, TYS equips companies with the capabilities needed to build resilient, reliable, and compliant supply chains and position themselves for sustainable success in an ever-evolving industry. 

Want to dive deeper into these insights? Watch our vlog where Nick Piccone explores these complexities how Trust Your Supplier can help you overcome them.  Check it out here.

 

FAQ: What industries benefit the most from TYS?

Frequently Asked Question: What industries benefit the most from TYS?

Trust Your Supplier (TYS) is designed to support a wide range of industries, particularly mid-size to large enterprises managing complex supplier networks. Our expertise and innovative solution drive transformative business change in risk management and global compliance across various sectors.

Industries that benefit from TYS often deal with extensive supplier bases and require robust systems to ensure compliance, mitigate risks, and maintain transparency. TYS helps streamline supplier pre-qualification, monitor performance, and optimize supply chain efficiency, making it an invaluable asset for businesses aiming to enhance their supplier management processes and achieve global compliance.

 

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