Original Date: 05/08/1995
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

McDonnell Douglas Aerospace (MDA) has established an infrastructure of support in its move toward partnership relationships with its suppliers. One key aspect of MDA's infrastructure is Supplier Conferences modeled on guidelines provided in the Keki Bhote book, Strategic Supply Management. MDA executive management is in full support of the partnering effort and advocates the supplier conferences.

There are three conference emphasis areas including Enterprise, Program-Specific, and Product Center-Specific. The purpose of these conferences is to improve the business relationship with the suppliers through a bi-directional communication path and provide recognition for their efforts and work in achieving preferred supplier status. The Enterprise Conference addresses accomplishments of the suppliers as a group and recognizes their achievements in the MDA-preferred supplier certification process. Program-Specific Conferences look at suppliers for a given program and discusses current program health and future marketing strategies with the specific suppliers. Finally, the Product Center-Specific conference focuses on those suppliers that provide general commodities for all MDA efforts such as forgings, castings, sheet metal, and machine parts.

All parties in these conferences benefit. For example, MDA wants to not only work with certified suppliers, but also wants to become a preferred customer for the suppliers and foster a continuing partnership. The incentive for the suppliers is in the prospects of future business opportunities to those who achieve the Certified Supplier status. And finally, MDA industry and government customers receive the highest quality products efficiently and effectively.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.