DETROIT and INDIANAPOLIS February 5, 2002 Covisint and Powerway, Inc., announced today that Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. will join DaimlerChrysler AG in using Powerway.com for Advanced Product Quality Planning. This cooperation by the OEM's in adopting a single solution will enable suppliers around the world to use one standard Web-based environment for APQP communication and collaboration with their customers and suppliers, while saving millions of dollars and eliminating potential quality problems before they occur.
Powerway is Covisint's chosen technology provider for communicating advanced quality activities. Over the next year, Powerway.com will be integrated into Covisint's quality solutions as Advanced Quality Planner.
The solution enables communication and connectivity within the automotive supply chain, organizes key APQP information and provides an easy means for sharing quality information and displaying part quality readiness between customers. This information is critical for successful development and execution of manufacturing processes and quality plans in a thorough and timely fashion.
Covisint was created to bring the participants of the automotive industry together. Today's announcement is an illustration of that, said Kevin English, chairman, CEO and president, Covisint. When mission critical e-business solutions such as the Covisint/Powerway quality solution can be agreed upon by OEMs, the benefits of common practices can be reaped by the entire automotive community. Covisint will continue to foster this level of cooperation and collaboration among all its customers.
Open communication and information sharing is at the centerpiece of DaimlerChrysler's supplier relations strategy, and the Covisint/Powerway solution provides a common environment to manage quality issues, said Gary C. Valade, executive vice president, Global Procurement and Supply, DaimlerChrysler AG. With almost 70% of our supplier partners currently signed up and using the solution, a path has been blazed for all automotive suppliers to reap the benefits of this new quality management standard.