Day 1 highlights: Logistics leaders tackle Mexico’s supply chain challenges at Automotive Logistics & Supply Chain Mexico 2024

After the first day of the  Automotive Logistics & Supply Chain Mexico 2024 conference in Mexico City, Automotive Logistics’ chief content officer, Christopher Ludwig, took a moment during the exclusive Gala Dinner at Espacio R to reflect on the day’s highlights and the energy among attendees.

Throughout Day 1, logistics leaders from major OEMs, tier suppliers, and logistics providers tackled challenges facing Mexico’s supply chain, from nearshoring and infrastructure to talent and digitalisation.

Delegates heard from Chris Styles at Nissan on rail expansions and cross-border improvements, and from Dieter Brown at AUDI AG, who highlighted digitalisation and complexity reduction in Mexico as key goals. 

Hector Martinez from Honda de México shared how Honda has expanded port options, added new transport modes, and increased flexibility, while streamlining internal purchasing to enable faster supply chain decisions. Volkswagen de México discussed improvements in port operations, visibility, and capacity management to handle rising demands. The day concluded with a panel on policy needs to accelerate localisation, where Lizetta Gracida from Toyota de México emphasised the need for a national industrial plan to simplify business processes, enhance logistics infrastructure, and attract investment from tier suppliers.

“As always, it comes down to people—their skills, their flexibility, and their openness,” Ludwig noted. “We hope today provided insights to build resilience and adaptability in the supply chain. It’s really all still about people, in terms of their mindset, in terms of their skills and in terms of their willingness to be flexible and open,” said Ludwig. “We hope that today we gave a glimpse of some solutions and processes to show just how to do that, to become more flexible and resilient in the supply chain.”

Stay tuned for more insights and content on our recap blog