DULUTH, Ga., May 27, 2020 (NYSE:AGCO), a worldwide manufacturer and distributor of agricultural equipment, successfully hosted its first EME Virtual Supplier Event with approximately 750 participants May 14, 2020, the first ever of its kind and size in the industry. Despite the Coronavirus and needed social distancing, AGCO is leveraging digital capabilities to keep contact close with its key suppliers.
AGCO showcased how it is leading the way, executing its Coronavirus catch-up plans and getting suppliers excited for a collaborative path towards competitive innovation, resilience and agility. AGCO also honored five new partner-level suppliers and presented the 2019 Supplier Award Winners in six categories as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award.
“I’d like here to thank warmly our suppliers for their relentless commitment and support that have helped AGCO to restart its production across EME manufacturing sites earlier and faster than others,” said Konstantin Meier-Kulenkampff, Vice President Purchasing & Materials, EME.
“This production restart is key to deliver on AGCO’s new vision statement as, today more than ever, we need to be able to deliver sustainable high-tech solutions for farmers feeding the world,” added Eric Hansotia, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Hansotia explained AGCO’s strategic initiatives to deliver profitable growth and help AGCO stay ahead of the curve.
“The future of the agricultural sector is built upon the strong substance and purpose of farming. Customer demand has been positively influenced by the confidence of European farmers, and AGCO is pursuing its market share growth. I invite suppliers to participate and play an essential role in the future development of AGCO’s strategy,” said Torsten Dehner, Senior Vice President & General Manager, EME, while providing a customers’ and dealers’ perspective to the unprecedented times we have experienced with the Coronavirus threat.
“To support its new vision, AGCO developed strategies for sustainable solutions, and we today showcase the areas in which it relies on suppliers’ innovative solutions to deliver sustainable productivity, specifically connectivity, automation, robotics, electrification and future fuels,” said Dr. Benno Pichlmaier, Director Global Technology & Innovation.
Pekka Ingalsuo, Director, Platform & Process Strategy Office, presented AGCO’s New Developments & New Products Introduction Roadmap. “AGCO’s Global Module & Platform Strategy continues to support common components and modules into common systems, and suppliers’ ideas are welcome to support cost optimization, complexity reduction and economies of scale,” explained Mr. Ingalsuo.
Josip T. Tomasevic, Senior Vice President & Chief Procurement Officer, explained the three pillars of AGCO’s Purchasing and Supply Chain strategy – Competitive Innovation, Resiliency and Agility – and how AGCO embraces its suppliers to collaboratively deliver in each of these areas. He encouraged suppliers to jointly embark on AGCO’s “Path to Partner”.
Wolfgang Geiger, Director Purchasing Germany & Global Commodity Director Electric/Electronic Systems & Hydraulics, honored AGCO’s five new partner-level suppliers:
Argo-Hytos, Grammer, Leoni, Procurence and Trelleborg Sealing Solutions.
These suppliers have gone the extra mile with AGCO, demonstrating outstanding performance, quality, innovation, cost, delivery, service, and commitment, while prioritizing AGCO in terms of capacity constraints, and helping AGCO keep its innovative leadership. Especially in critical times, like 2018, when demand surged and capacities were constrained, or during the current Coronavirus challenge, the difference that partner-level suppliers make has become ever so apparent.
Supplier of the Year Award Winner: Erkunt
Since starting into business with AGCO in 2004, Erkunt has proven on multiple occasions that they treat AGCO as a preferred customer and strategic partner. The high level of collaboration and strategic partnership with Erkunt has been fundamental to improving business outcomes. Erkunt’s flexibility allowed it to react quickly and with short lead times to support ACGO in critical times. Erkunt has also shown its innovative edge, while being competitive and agile on New Product Introduction. During the Coronavirus crisis, Erkunt went the extra mile to safeguard production at AGCO Power.
Innovation & Collaboration Award Winner: Preh
Preh have excelled in innovation for AGCO’s new innovative Human Machine Interface. The Preh team has been highly engaged during the creation and development phase and is very committed to AGCO. In just over three years, AGCO-Fendt and Preh have designed and developed the perfect symbiosis between operator and machine to enable our customers to be more productive and efficient. To achieve this ambitious target, both teams went above and beyond, showing great collaboration, performance, and transparency. From the very beginning, AGCO had the total attention of Preh’s senior management. They never hesitated to share the latest technologies and innovations with AGCO. These factors and their team’s excellent support have made the project a great success.
Quality & Delivery Performance Award Winner: Motorenfabrik Hatz
Motorenfabrik Hatz achieved an outstanding 100% on-time delivery performance throughout 2019, not only for the AGCO Power engine factory in Linnavuori but also for AGCO’s South American factory in Mogi das Cruzes. Even more impressive, this 100% score has been upheld during the challenging months of 2020, showing the required flexibility while keeping the performance level high. Hatz’ quality performance is no less impressive. Over the full year of 2019, Motorenfabrik Hatz achieved zero PPM, continuing the strong performance already shown during the prior years. The Hatz team has proven that quality management is not a cliché, but a philosophy put into practice.
Aftersales Award Winner: Optibelt
Optibelt is a truly global supplier to AGCO and AGCO Parts, supplying close to 800 part references into the Aftermarket channel across six warehouse locations in EME, NA and SA – the bulk of that supplied into Ennery and Breganze. In 2019, Optibelt managed to increase their on-time delivery performance by 30%, considering the additional flexibility to support short-term supply in periods of unplanned customer demands. Optibelt stood out in being very flexible, committed to improvements, and very supportive of Aftermarket cost reduction activities.
Indirect Provider Award Winner: Gross & Perthun
Gross & Perthun has been part of AGCO-Fendt history for more than 70 years! They supply high-quality liquid and powder painting products to all German manufacturing sites and Linnavuori in Finland. During this long and fruitful partnership, Gross & Perthun has developed a deep knowledge of AGCO’s products, organization and detailed requirements through their dedicated technicians and extended staff. Gross & Perthun has brought expertise from the coating industry and kept AGCO up-to-date in technology, quality and environmental requirements, which translates into high customer satisfaction. Gross & Perthun proactively worked to identify improvements in operations and cost, supporting AGCO’s margin improvement initiative in 2019.
Logistics Service Provider Award Winner: Ahola Transport
Ahola Transport meets all requirements for a long-lasting relationship. For many years, AGCO and Ahola have been in a very successful cooperation shaped by mutual respect and close collaboration. What makes this company so special is its focus on customer needs and its dedication to do things the right way. Daily operations are handled efficiently, transparently, and always targeted to achieve AGCO’s quality and performance goals. While managing over 100 lanes from over nine countries for AGCO’s manufacturing and aftermarket supply chains, Ahola has never fallen below an average on-time delivery rate of 99% over the years. Ahola is strongly dedicated to fulfilling AGCO’s requirements, showing high flexibility to find fast solutions in very critical situations, and communicate effectively with AGCO and its supply chain partners, resulting in outstanding performance.
Lifetime Achievement Award Winner: Stefano Bettinelli
Mauro Garcin, Global Commodity Director Powertrain & Periphery, Global NPI/Adv. Purchasing & Supplier Innovation, honored Stefano Bettinelli for his exceptional collaboration and support as Trelleborg’s key contact point for AGCO since 2006. Stefano understood from the start what it meant to successfully service a multi-brand company and helped manage all challenges, including the tire shortage in 2007 and 2008, and many others, with a clear customer focus, always seeking win-win solutions and giving priority to AGCO as Original Equipment Manufacturer, rather than seizing short-term aftermarket opportunities. Stefano’s long-term view and customer-centric approach paid off, as he managed to grow Trelleborg’s business with AGCO significantly over the course of 12 years. Both professionally and personally, Stefano has been a great pleasure to work with and can be proud of his accomplishments and an exceptional career.
About AGCO
AGCO (NYSE:AGCO) is a global leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of agricultural solutions and delivers high-tech solutions for farmers feeding the world through its full line of equipment and related services. AGCO products are sold through five core brands, Challenger®, Fendt®, GSI®, Massey Ferguson® and Valtra®, supported by Fuse® smart farming solutions. Founded in 1990 and headquartered in Duluth, Georgia, USA, AGCO had net sales of $9.0 billion in 2019. For more information, visit https://www.AGCOcorp.com. For company news, information and events, please follow us on Twitter: @AGCOCorp. For financial news on Twitter, please follow the hashtag #AGCOIR.