Minority suppliers fight to keep contracts; Move to consolidate procurement could hurt, vendors say.

Crain's Detroit Business, July, 2004 by Kosdrosky, Terry

Byline: Terry Kosdrosky Former Detroit Piston-turned-auto supplier Dave Bing is leading a full-court press at U.S. automakers to keep minority-purchasing goals alive as they hand off more systems work to large, tier-one suppliers. Seven minority suppliers interviewed by Crain's last week said only a handful of systems suppliers seem committed to the automakers' minority purchasing program.

So they're pressing the automakers, through minority supplier councils within the companies, to develop more rigorous auditing of minority purchasing, and to establish consequences for tier ones who fall short of goals. "You may have a few majority tier ones who believe in the program; the other ones go through the motions,'' Bing said. He wouldn't name specific...

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