BERLIN -- Volkswagen Group's chief procurement officer, Murat Aksel, is focusing on the formation of closer partnerships and deeper cooperation with suppliers.
Aksel wants to involve them in new projects at an early stage as he tries to reduce material costs by 7 percent by the end of this year.
Aksel, who was appointed to VW's top purchasing post in early 2021, said the automaker's relationship with suppliers is being redefined through a different way of thinking.
"We want to involve the suppliers much earlier. With the 100,000 or so engineers at our suppliers who work on our projects alone, we form a huge creative pool of top engineers with our own technical development department, who contribute many innovative ideas," he said. "Why should we not take advantage of that?"
Aksel said the old customer-supplier relationship is a thing of the past, and today's partnerships must be redefined by much closer and deeper cooperation.