Vari-Form Honored by FCA US as a Top-Performing Supplier of the Year

TROY, Mich., June 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- FCA US LLC honored its top-performing suppliers during the company's Qualitas Annual Strategy Meeting and Supplier Awards Ceremony held recently at the MotorCity Hotel in Detroit.

Vari-Form was selected for this honor, having demonstrated top performance in the Supply Chain Management category. Recent projects with FCA US include an upper cross member for the 2015 Jeep^® Cherokee, applying proprietary Pressure-Sequence Hydroforming technology. The resulting structure is very lightweight, contributing to a 45 percent increase in fuel efficiency for Cherokee over previous vehicles.

Criteria for Vari-Form's selection included achieving the highest levels of performance as measured by the FCA US External Balanced Scorecard. In this year's case, Vari-Form supply chain management scores ranked first among the nearly 3,600 suppliers measured. All award recipients were evaluated based on each company's Scorecard performance in 2014 – a rating system that evaluates supplier performance in areas such as quality, delivery, cost, warranty and partnership – and input from FCA senior leadership.

"We are pleased to be named a Supplier of the Year by FCA US," said Doug Viohl, Vari-Form director of sales & engineering. "This recognition for Supply Chain Management reflects Vari-Form's long-term commitment to excellence in supplier responsibility. We are also honored to be among the select group of automotive suppliers that received the 2015 award for other categories. This year's list reads like a 'Who's Who' of Tier suppliers. Our congratulations to the sixteen other companies recognized by FCA US this year."

Over 1,000 global supplier executives attended the event. Theme of this year's event - "Quality Makers: Design a Better Way" - was delivered in a presentation by Tom Finelli, Head of North America Group Purchasing FCA US, and Scott Garberding, Head of Group Purchasing, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA).

"It is extremely important to us to celebrate the achievements of our suppliers," said Tom Finelli. "Their success is our success. Our goal is to cultivate a thriving, innovative supply base that shares our values and can grow alongside us."

About Vari-Form
Vari-Form is headquartered in Troy, Michigan, and has production facilities in Canada, Mexico, Italy, China and the USA. Vari-Form originated the concept and application of tubular hydroforming to body, chassis and other automotive structural parts. Vari-Form is the industry leader in hydroforming, with more than 100 million parts produced to date. Looking forward, the Hydroform-Intensive Body Structures (HIBS) initiative from Vari-Form is redefining the way automotive manufacturers and tier suppliers view the vehicles of the future. HIBS is leading the way in demonstrating that critical components and systems can be hydroformed rather than assembled from stampings. The benefits are substantial, significantly increasing safety and structural integrity, while lowering tooling complexity, weight and cost. The company began volume production using its patented Pressure-Sequence Hydroforming (PSH) process in 1990. For more information, go to www.vari-form.com.

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