Powered by Honda: Developing Excellence in the Global Enterprise - Tapa dura

This text details Honda of America's approach towards supplier management and purchasing. At Honda, competitive advantage comes from developing suppliers rather than merely identifying them. Their programme for supply-based excellence, dubbed BP/BQ (Best Partner, Best Profit, Best Productivity/Best Quality), features a combination of quality analysis and problem-solving techniques and incorporates basic philosophical guidelines that aim to ensure sustained success. The text hopes to enable a deeper understanding of the inter-relatedness between purchasing, supplier development and the success of an organization.

DAVE NELSON recently retired from his position as Senior Vice President of Purchasing and Corporate Affairs for Honda of America and the President of the National Association of Purchasing Management. RICK MAYO is a veteran Honda of America associate who helped design and implement Honda's award-winning BP program. PATRICIA E. MOODY is a manufacturing management consultant and editor of Target Magazine, the journal of the AME.