The Big Question

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Posted by Joe Johnson.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]


Engineer on team #47, Chief Delphi, from Pontiac Central High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.

Posted on 7/19/99 8:07 PM MST


In Reply to: no, not really posted by Andy Baker on 7/18/99 9:13 AM MST:



I don't know whether the REAL WORLD is getting more like FIRST or FIRST is getting more like the REAL WORLD, but at least from my vantage point, they are definitely getting closer to eachother all the time.

As to random alliances, consider my two major projects. On one of them the OEM (in this case Ford) called up Delphi and told it to be 'tier 2' to one of our biggest competitor (in this case Magna) on a particular high profile job. While we don't really like working with a major competitor, we are forced to if we want the business (and we do so we do).

On another job, we and about 4 others suppliers all have to work together to make a major new feature for automotive applications come together. Some of the suppliers we have control over, others we have to work with because they are our customer's preferred supplier of XXX.

The fact is, we are being judged by our customers not only by the quality of our products and services, but by the extent to which we work and play well with others. Sometimes we carry our 'partners' sometimes they carry us.


Another area where FIRST and the REAL WORLD are colliding is on the OEM 'design competition' front. It is getting more and more common for automotive OEM's to have a design competition to determine who will be their next supplier of XXX.

These design competitions are like FIRST in many ways.

Good partners in the design competition are often the difference between winning and watching. Often the design competition is for a system that is too complex for any one supplier to be able to supply the entire system (even for a company a big and diverse as Delphi).

Another way that these design competitions are like FIRST is that they are usually a short time span (typically 6-8 weeks) and the time frame is insane.

There are other important ways FIRST and the REAL WORLD are converging, but they will have to wait for another day.

Joe J.