Career automotive professionals from Continental North America, Delphi, Nissan, and PACCAR will contribute expertise in quality, supply chain management, and human resources as the newest members of the Automotive Industry Action Group’s board of directors.
SOUTHFIELD, Michigan, November 30, 2016 — The Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) announced the appointment of Vince Mastrangelo, vice president, quality, North America region for Continental North America; Dr. Jeffrey Richards, global director production control, logistics, and supplier quality for Delphi; Robert Kinchen, director of administration, facilities, marketing and sales, supplier diversity, and Monozukuri for Nissan North America; and Debra Poppas, vice president, global quality for PACCAR, to its board of directors. More than 20 executives from the automotive and transportation OEM and supplier community currently serve on the AIAG board, representing a cross-section of its member companies.
AIAG’s board of directors is responsible for maintaining the organization’s commitment to a seamless, efficient, and responsible supply chain by providing strategic direction and overseeing the organization’s collaborative effort to build and enhance the industry’s competitiveness.
Continental North America’s Vince Mastrangelo
With 27 years in the auto industry, Mastrangelo has used AIAG’s training and materials “from the time I left university,” and says he is deepening his commitment because he’s seen firsthand how relevant the organization is to the industry. “Not only is AIAG the holder [CK1] of quality management system standards and guidelines for supply chain, quality, and corporate responsibility, it is also one of the few places where OEMs and suppliers come together to work on these initiatives,” he says. “At AIAG, we are not OEMs and suppliers — we are a true industry goup working on challenges together.”
As vice president of quality, Mastrangelo is responsible for overseeing customer and supplier quality for Continental’s Interior, Powertrain, and Chassis & Safety divisions. During his tenure on the AIAG board, Mastrangelo will work to improve recognition and availability of AIAG’s training, guidelines, processes, and other information across the industry. “I’m most excited to help increase awareness of AIAG’s wide offering of information, which leads to greater competence in a variety of areas,” he says. “It’s important that we are all advancing together because only through collaboration can the industry move forward.”
Delphi’s Dr. Jeffrey Richards
Richards has responsibility for all Delphi’s logistics execution, network design, sourcing, and warehousing globally and leads supplier quality and advanced quality for more than 6,000 supplier sites that ship over 80 billion parts to Delphi every year. “Instead of many individuals trying to solve similar problems in our industry, AIAG supports the supply chain, creates standards and guidelines, and helps onboard new suppliers to the industry’s best practices,” says Richards, who has been involved with AIAG for over 15 years. “Delphi has seen the considerable value of supporting AIAG’s collaborative initiatives instead of individual groups trying to do this work on their own.”
Drawing on his extensive supply chain experience, Richards will help AIAG duplicate for supply chain operations what it has accomplished in quality. “I would like to see us define the same roles and standards for supply chain that we have so successfully implemented for quality,” he says.
Nissan’s Robert Kinchen
With over 27 years of automotive experience with Nissan, Kinchen’s leadership roles include work in supply chain, human resources, purchasing, and continuous improvement. “AIAG has been a constant thread through many people’s careers,” he says. “My own skills and competencies, as well as those of my team, have developed by collaborating with those who understand the industry’s foundation and where we are trying to go in the future. AIAG helps companies learn to make systematic improvements, determine the proper milestones, and establish accountability.”
During his tenure on the AIAG board, Kinchen would like to see AIAG focus on helping the auto industry understand how to recruit and retain Millennial and young talent. “I’ve faced it in my company, and I know others have experienced the same challenge, so it’s become a personal passion of mine,” he says. “If people truly are our most important resource and asset, then recruiting and retaining the best people should be one of the auto industry’s most important priorities. Without the best people, we cannot be the best industry.”
PACCAR’s Debra Poppas
Poppas, who spent the bulk of her career as a supplier supporting light-duty and heavy-duty OEMs, has been active in AIAG for years, relying on the organization’s training, books, guidelines, and standards. “AIAG has been rock solid the last couple of decades with where it has focused its resources, and I like where the association is going with its work in corporate responsibility and supply chain management,” Poppas says.
In her role on the board, Poppas will help AIAG serve the sector she knows best. “I’d like to see AIAG offer more training and guidelines for the commercial vehicle industry, and get some appropriate overlay and contribution of ideas from these companies,” she says. Poppas is also interested in seeing AIAG take a deeper look at trends in ridesharing and autonomous vehicles. “We need to consider the new players who are going to be in the supply chain so that we can plan how to blend from our current state to the future state,” she notes.
About AIAG
Created by the auto industry for the auto industry, AIAG is a not-for-profit organization with more than 34 years of experience working with OEMs, suppliers, service providers, government, and academia to collaboratively drive down costs and streamline the complexity of the supply chain by developing global standards and harmonizing business practices. There are more than 1,500 AIAG member companies, including Arctic Cat, Caterpillar, FCA — North America, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Harley-Davidson, Honda of America Manufacturing, Nissan North America, Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Volkswagen Group of America, and many of their part suppliers and service providers. Learn more at www.aiag.org.