SOUTHFIELD, Mich., August 7, 2015 — AIAG is pleased to announce that Lang E. Ware has joined the association as its new director of supply chain products & services. Ware is responsible for leading AIAG’s industry research, projects, programs, events, training, and standards development related to the movement of product and/or data throughout the supply chain.

“Lang brings to AIAG a wealth of knowledge and hands-on experience in finished vehicle logistics and the entire automotive supply chain discipline,” says Bill Kerrigan, AIAG’s finished vehicle logistics program manager. “I look forward to working with him in expanding AIAG’s educational and best practice standards for the industry.”

Prior to this role, Ware held several logistics-related positions, most recently serving as a consultant to major automotive port processors in Georgia and California, assisting with their marketing and business development to Detroit automotive manufacturers and Volkswagen. Prior to that, Ware was a procurement director with UPS Autogistics, which 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 U.S. and Canada.

The bulk of Ware’s career is in his 31 years with Ford, which included principal field sales manager for Ford Motor Company Caribbean in Puerto Rico as well as quality/ISO 9000 manager, vehicle distributions manager, and export traffic manager for Ford’s Worldwide Direct Market Operations. Ware retired from Ford in 2007.

Ware’s work with AIAG will be particularly effective because he has worked on both sides — as the logistics service provider and as the automotive customer. “There’s no training curve for me on this job,” Ware says. “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 program to the next level.”

Ware is looking at AIAG’s current offerings in logistics and considering what other tools and training can be developed for OEMs. “I am talking to the automakers and finding out how AIAG can help,” says Ware. “Then, we will develop the logistics programs and go back to them with what they asked for. And, of course, the suppliers will be beneficiaries of a lot of these outcomes.”

From Ware’s perspective, the greatest challenge in automotive logistics is cooperation between the entire supply chain to the extent that it can be flexible in time of need. “Suppliers should look up and down their supply chains and examine what’s really happening, instead of looking at their customers first,” he says.

“The best part of logistics is when the customer doesn’t know how it arrived — only that it got there on or ahead of schedule,” Ware adds, “and that’s what AIAG members should be striving for. 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.”

For more information on AIAG’s logistics activities and initiatives, contact Lang Ware at lware@aiag.org or visit www.aiag.org.

About AIAG
The Automotive Industry Action Group is a unique not-for-profit organization where OEMs, suppliers, service providers, government entities, and individuals in academia have worked collaboratively for more than 30 years to drive down costs and complexity from the supply chain. AIAG membership includes preeminent manufacturers and many of their parts suppliers and service providers. For more information, visit www.aiag.org.

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