General Motors placed third in the Plante Moran North American Automotive OEM – Supplier Working Relations Index, ahead of Ford and Stellantis. // Stock photo
General Motors Co. in Detroit capitalized on its market strength and established relationships to better help suppliers manage costs, risks, and uncertainty, compared to Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn and Stellantis in Auburn Hills, according to Plante Moran’s 25th annual North American Automotive OEM – Supplier Working Relations Index (WRI).
GM placed third in the study gaining 11 points to 310, rising above 300 for the first time, behind Toyota (415) and Honda (347), but ahead of Ford (191) and Stellantis (141)
“Suppliers want balanced financial risk and they want to know where they fit in OEMs’ future market strategies so they can align accordingly,” says Angela Johnson, principal at Plante Moran Management Consulting and Supplier Relations Analytics in Southfield. “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.”
According to Plante Moran OEMs in the Top 3 score better in the basics — communication, responsiveness, accessibility, engagement, and buyer knowledge.
“These skills help suppliers operate more efficiently, and in turn, create strong relationships,” says Johnson. “Stronger relationships enable OEMs and suppliers to work together and better navigate industry uncertainty with more equitable risk and cost sharing.”
Dave Andrea, principal in Plante Moran’s Strategy and Automotive and Mobility Consulting Practice, says: “With all the challenges and conflicts facing automakers and their suppliers this past year, it’s not surprising that some automakers dropped even further in their WRI scores because the WRI reflects the tangible and intangible costs to serve any individual customer.
“It’s all about balancing and aligning the various functional demands of the OEM — purchasing, manufacturing, engineering, design, finance — so there are fewer conflicting demands on the supplier and the OEM’s team members.”
The Plante Moran team identified the following prominent themes from the survey results:
Established relationships propelled the Top 3 OEMs’ gains: Suppliers reported feeling like a true partner 12 times more for the Top 3 OEMs versus Bottom 3 OEMs.
“The top three OEMs were able to lean into established relationships to jointly address with suppliers economic and industry chaos, creating more win-win outcomes,” Johnson says.
Fundamentals come first. Trust is an outcome: According to the study, relationships improve when it’s easier to work together. Top performers improved fundamental behaviors and processes by having:
- Purchasing vice presidents present and engaged.
- Buyers accessible, knowledgeable, and responsive.
- Payments made in a timely manner.
- Regular, open discussions for supplier strategic planning.
Consistency, predictability, and alignment of strategic goals lower the perceived risk and cost to serve, and drive customer of choice: Toyota, Honda, and GM remain 1, 2, and 3 in Customer of Choice, tracking their WRI score.
Toyota and Honda have these attributes entrenched in their cultures, and GM is making gains in its culture as it continues to push back on lingering “old school” behaviors,” according to Plante Moran. Toyota and Honda, however, face the challenge of maintaining those values as North American operations become more westernized. Toyota will be further tested this year with its first North American purchasing leadership change in 14 years, says Plante Moran.
“Overall, OEMs that effectively address consistency, predictability, and alignment of strategic goals are generally stronger, more profitable, and become customers of choice for suppliers. And because of their mutual dependency, these attributes are good for the suppliers too,” says Andrea.
About the Working Relations Index® Study
The 2025 North American Automotive OEM-Tier 1 Supplier Working Relations Index Study was conducted by Plante Moran from mid-February to mid-April. Respondents are executives from Tier-1 suppliers serving Ford, GM, Honda, Nissan, Stellantis, and Toyota. The 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.
The respondents to the survey were 665 supplier executives from 398 Tier-1 suppliers. This number of responses represents an estimated 45 percent of the six OEM’s North America annual purchases. The sales personnel provided data on 2,014 buying situations (e.g., one supplier responding can sell into multiple components groups of one OEM, such as chassis parts and powertrain for two buying situations). Demographically, the supplier respondents represent 36 of the Top 50 NA suppliers and 68 of the Top 100 NA suppliers.
For more information, visit
plantemoran.com.
