Lang E. Ware has joined AIAG (Automotive Industry Action Group) as director of supply chain products and services.
In his new position, Ware will be responsible for leading industry research, projects, programmes, events, training, and standards development related to the movement of products and/or data throughout the supply chain.
Before taking up the position at AIAG, Ware has held several logistics positions. Most recently, he served as a consultant to major automotive port processors in Georgia and California, helping their marketing and business development with Detroit OEMs and Volkswagen. Before that, Ware was a procurement director at UPS Autogistics, where his role included strategic planning and lead negotiator responsibilities for all car haul contracts for traditional and non-traditional service providers of Ford Motor Company products in the US and Canada.
The majority of his career was spent at Ford, where he held positions as principal field sales manager for Ford Motor Company Caribbean in Puerto Rico; quality/ISO 9000 manager; vehicle distributions manager; and export traffic manager for Ford’s Worldwide Direct Market Operations. Ware retired from Ford in 2007 after 31 years at the OEM.
Bill Kerrigan, AIAG’s finished vehicle logistics programme manager said, “Lang brings to AIAG a wealth of knowledge and hands-on experience in finished vehicle logistics and the entire automotive supply chain discipline. I look forward to working with him in expanding AIAG’s educational and best practice standards for the industry.”
Ware said that as he has worked on both sides, for LSPs and as the automotive customer, he’ll be effective at AIAG. “There’s no training curve for me on this job. I can talk the OEM’s language, and I’ve been an AIAG member for years. I’m excited about taking AIAG’s supply chain logistics programme to the next level.”
Moving forward, Ware is looking at what tools and training can be developed for OEMs. “I am talking to the automakers and finding out how AIAG can help. Then, we will develop the logistics programmes and go back to them with what they asked for. And, of course, the suppliers will be beneficiaries of a lot of these outcomes,” Ware said.
Ware said that the biggest challenge in automotive logistics is cooperation between the entire supply chain, as it needs to be flexible in the time of need. He said that suppliers should look at their own supply chains, before going to their customers first. “Contingency planning is OK, but the focus really needs to be on how to mitigate it, and that’s where I can contribute through my work at AIAG,” he added.
