The Association of European Vehicle Logistics (ECG), which represents the interests of the finished vehicle carriers in Europe, has formed a strategic partnership with the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) in North America. According to ECG, the partnership has been set up to find common solutions for the issues facing associations and their members across the globe. The AIAG is a not-for-profit association of companies, including OEMs, suppliers and logistics providers, that aims to streamline automotive industry processes.
The announcement of a formal partnership builds on a working relationship between the two groups over a number of years. Recently the two groups have worked together on a quality manual that the AIAG is introducing for the industry in North America, based on the ECG’s own Operations Quality Manual, which was developed several years ago with the participation and support of a wide cross-section of the industry.
“We are honoured to become a member of ECG and greatly appreciate [its] confidence and on-going support,” said Scot Sharland, executive director of AIAG. “I very much look forward to working with ECG to our mutual benefit and, more importantly, the future success of our members and industry.”
Earlier this year Sharland outlined some of the challenges the industry was experiencing in North America. He told Automotive Logistics that on the logistics side of the business, stakeholders needed to look at a better utility of existing capacity. This is to ensure that more can be brought into the market to help handle the spike in the movement of units North America is seeing.
This involved looking at the processes by which vehicles are handled, and how to minimise the potential in-transit damage at any point in the logistics delivery system.
The ECG is holding its annual conference in Berlin, Germany this week (October 10-11), at which Brian Hall, the AIAG’s newly appointed program manager, supply chain, will be speaking on the issues of common interest to both organisations. Find out more here.
