Abstract As the North American vehicle market demand decreased for a major OEM, company leadership was under pressure to place their long- term business into a smaller number of strategic supplier locations. The goal was to ensure the longer-term viability of these suppliers as partners to the OEM as well as to minimize raw material and finished part logistics costs. Challenge The decreasing product demand levels were driving reductions in plant asset utilization for core OEM suppliers. The OEM had sourced in excess of 250 commodity-specific suppliers to support its North American vehicle production and felt a sizable reduction in that number was required. TPS worked in tandem with the OEM to determine which suppliers were the best performing and lowest cost, therefore best aligned for

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