One element was its Center of Excellence (COE) program, a series of efforts focused on optimizing its supply base by narrowing it down to include only “very select suppliers based on their dedicated support to product families” (an important concept further described in Chapter 4).
The company leverages its cross-functional commodity team to scrutinize the details of thousands of parts and components, identifying commonalities in materials, processing characteristics, or other features that point to synergies that would enhance suppliers’
ability to become more efficient and quickly respond to changing needs.