Interview with Faurecia Interior Systems
Yonatan Berga, buyer of packaging for Valencia & Vigo plants at Faurecia Interior Systems: "From Tecnicarton we value the ability to adapt to our needs"
The satisfaction of the well done job is something that fills us all with pride. And even more if we can count on the testimony of a customer who is willing to tell their experience with us to share it on our blog.
This is the case of Yonatan Berga, buyer of Faurecia Interior Systems for the Valencia and Vigo plants.
Question: Yonatan, thank you for taking care of us and before you begin, explain to us what Faurecia Interior Systems is:
Yonatan Berga: Faurecia Interior Systems belongs to one of the 4 business areas of Faurecia (Automotive seating, Interior systems and Clean mobility), in which the interior of vehicles is manufactured and in particular in the plants of Valencia and Vigo; Door Panels, Instrument Panel and Floors.
P.: And inside Faurecia and the purchasing department, what is your task?
Y.B.: In purchases there are several departments ... In my case, I am buyer of series life. Series Life Buyers firstly secure project transfers between the program and the production launch, interacting with the different departments involved in the plant, establishing procurement processes with suppliers and closing contracts.
During the years in which the projects are in production, we must ensure supplies, minimizing potential logistical and quality problems together with the corresponding departments. As the main objective, and always reinforced by the previous points, the aim of cost reduction is obtained through different routes.
P.: And in this process: When does DS Smith Tecnicarton take part of it?:
Y.B.: The cardboard provided by DS Smith Tecnicarton is used both for the supply of parts to our final customer as for our own plants or in very specific cases in internal movements. From Faurecia Valencia and Vigo, we send finished and semi-finished products to different plants of the group in Europe, USA and China.
P.: And what kind of packaging does Tecnicarton provide?
Y.B.: DS Smith Tecnicarton is well suited to our packaging needs ranging from small packages to large packages, which we call "packaging sets", which come to have measures of around 2.5 x 1, 5 m. They are usually used to transport floors, models such as the C520, V408 and C344 for Ford.
P.: Since when have you worked with DS Smith Tecnicarton, and why did you choose them as a supplier?
Y.B.: With Tecnicarton we have been working for 7 or 8 years. The decision to change suppliers at that time was taken as a result of a "Benchmark" between our different packaging suppliers. Shortly after starting in my current purchasing position in Faurecia, we worked with a local supplier and Tecnicarton gave us a more national vision, with its plants in different parts of Spain, besides (and I would like to emphasize) being the most competitive in its offers and providing us smaller and delivery batches of production than we had at that time, allowing us greater flexibility in our procurement, which helped us to reduce the inventories associated with the packaging.
We are forced year after year to work with the goal of reducing costs through the constant and more competitive improvement of the products with which we work, for which a constant monitoring is carried out to our suppliers. Tecnicarton is not the exception and always meets the expectations set in it. Nowadays, cardboard packaging accounts for about 2-3% of the global purchases of the Almussafes and Vigo plants.
On the other hand, another advantage of Tecnicarton is that they are related to Ford and are homologated by our OEM, which implies in general terms that their packaging meets the technical specifications required.
P.: Yonatan, you are talking about costs, but Tecnicarton insists a lot on his innovative contribution to the projects, has it also been a point in your case to place your trust?
Y.B.: For sure, as we have been discussing they are asked to throw us ideas. Every year we conduct "workshops" involving technicians from Faurecia and Tecnicarton where our needs are exposed in advance of the products that are currently in production and we study the possibility of reducing costs while maintaining service and quality.
As the last example we are dealing with, we would put an approval that is underway on some "packaging sets" that we are validating together with our customers to be collapsible. In this way and broadly as the main objective would highlight the reduction of space in the warehouse (stacking) and transport.
P.: You have talked about space problems. The fact that Tecnicarton has plants near Faurecia in Valencia and Vigo, has determined you to work with them?
Y.B.: The truth is that we value Tecnicarton's ability to adapt to our volume needs, sometimes quite variable, and the large number of references we handle.
The flexibility of Tecnicarton to launch small lots with a competitive price is decisive. Tecnicarton has been able to adapt to the daily needs of our production, even with very short delivery times.
Closeness was not an important element when we started working with them. However, it is fundamental now because the packaging that we provide are of considerable size and require a security stock, which part of it, is housed in its facilities.
Generally speaking, most of the packaging we handle is returnable, but if for some reason we lack it, the reaction time that Tecnicarton is asked to provide is minimal.
P.: So the values that make you trust Tecnicarton are...
Y.B: In summary mode and as we have been discussing; The quality of its product, its logistics service, the ability to react, its competitive price and adaptability and innovative ideas. It is important that our suppliers and in this case Tecnicarton, launch ideas of improvement, that do not settle because there is much competition. They are the experts in packaging and they should offer us ideas that we have not contemplated.