In recent years, Ford hasn’t exactly had the greatest relations with its suppliers – at least, according to the Plante Moran North American Automotive OEM – Supplier Working Relations Index (WRI) Study. In that study, The Blue Oval ranked fourth among all automakers in 2021 and 2022, with its score dropping each of those two years, after which it slid to fifth place in 2023 before landing in next-to-last place last year. Unfortunately for Ford, things didn’t improve in the 2025 version of the WRI Study, either, even though the automaker launched a new initiative aimed at improving supplier relations last year.
Rather, Ford once again ranked second-to-last in the latest version of the Plante Moran North American Automotive OEM – Supplier Working Relations Index (WRI) Study, ahead of only Stellantis. The Blue Oval achieved a score of 191 this time around – six points fewer than 2024 – though Stellantis lost 11 and ranked dead last with a score of 141 for the second-straight year. Meanwhile, first-place Toyota gained 18 points to 386 – its best score since 2007 – while Honda gained three points, GM grew by 11 points, and Nissan lost six.
This year’s WRI Study was conducted by Plante Moran from mid-February to mid-April. Respondents are executives from Tier-1 suppliers serving Ford, General Motors, Honda, Nissan, Stellantis, and Toyota. The annual study tracks supplier perceptions of working relations with their automaker customers in which they rate them across the eight major purchasing areas broken down into 20 commodity areas. This year’s study discovered that OEMs in the top three scored better in the basics – communication, responsiveness, accessibility, engagement, and buyer knowledge – than the rest of the pack.
“Suppliers want balanced financial risk and they want to know where they fit in OEMs’ future market strategies so they can align accordingly,” said Dr. Angela Johnson, Principal, Plante Moran Management Consulting, Supplier Relations Analytics. “They perceive OEM behaviors – fairness, equity, accountability, and then trust – through the impact of OEM decisions to their bottom line. What separates the Top 3 from the Bottom 3 OEMs is their ability to help suppliers reduce their costs to serve the OEM and manage uncertainty.”
Comment
Ford suffers from being very difficult to do business with, especially for new suppliers. The continuous churn of buyers and engineers makes it difficult to create a business relationship that leads to benefits for Ford and the supplier. The silos at Ford were strong when I worked there from 1988 – 2003, but they are now even stronger, and having a negative impact on introducing solutions that cross technical silos.