Johnson Controls Automotive Seating honors its best suppliers in Europe

October 18, 2013: Johnson Controls Automotive Seating, a global leader in automotive seating and seating components, today honored its top-performing suppliers with the European Supplier Awards. The awards were given for the third consecutive year.

"Johnson Controls Automotive Seating places high importance on effective supplier management. Excellent suppliers are a competitive advantage in our industry," said Kelly Bysouth, group vice president Purchasing at Johnson Controls Automotive Seating. "With the Supplier Awards, we acknowledge the value our best suppliers brought to us in the last twelve months."

The European Supplier Awards 2013 include Performance Awards and Leadership Awards. For the Performance Awards, Johnson Controls Automotive Seating awarded points for important factors such as quality, cost awareness, logistics, design, technology and service.

Depending on the total number of points achieved, Johnson Controls granted Supplier Performance Awards in gold, silver or bronze.

Higa S.R.O. from Slovakia, Robert Bosch GmbH from Germany and Scherdel Marienberg GmbH from Germany received Supplier Performance Awards in gold. Asmo Co. Ltd. (Japan), Baumann Springs Ltd.

(Switzerland), voestalpine Stamptec (Germany), Izo-Blok SA (Poland), Havd-Group AB (Sweden) and BASF Polyurethanes GmbH (Germany) were awarded Supplier Performance Awards in silver. Eight companies received Supplier Performance Awards in bronze: W.E.T. Automotive Systems (Germany), SINFLEX Indústria de Molas Técnicas Lda (Portugal), Leoni Wiring Systems (Germany), GABEC s.c. P.J. Kotkowscy (Poland), Estampaciones Industriales S.A. (Spain), Industrias Garita S.L. (Spain), Harbort GmbH & Co. KG (Germany) and Bayer MaterialScience AG (Germany).

Four companies receive Leadership Awards

EOC Belgium N.V., which supplies a compound formulation for a new line of lightweight automotive seats, received the Leadership Award for innovation for being an important partner of Johnson Controls in the development and improvement of this product. Innovative solutions developed by EOC in cooperation with Johnson Controls have allowed the compound formulation to be manufactured with a very consistent quality that results in an overall improvement of the product performance.

Bayer MaterialScience AG (Germany) was awarded the Leadership Award in the sustainability category for succeeding in combining excellent quality performance with strong environmental improvement programs and a very high score in Johnson Controls' carbon disclosure project.

Johnson Controls awarded the Leadership Award for continuous improvement to Robert Bosch GmbH (Germany). The company supplies motors and drives for car seats with electric seat adjustment functions. Robert Bosch GmbH worked proactively with Johnson Controls to implement continuous improvements.

Kostel Promet D.O.O. (Croatia), which cuts and sews seat covers for Johnson Controls, received the Leadership Award for customer satisfaction for their exceptional commitment to continuous improvement, lean management and flawless project execution and for following Johnson Controls requirements in all areas.

Photograph: Kelly Bysouth, Group VP (Purchasing), at Johnson Controls Automotive Seating gave away the 2013 European Supplier awards to 19 vendors.