Major component suppliers for «OKA» small passenger car production at one of KAMAZ divisions — «Small Passenger Car Plant» OJSC — arrived today for their first conference held at KAMAZ. More than 50 component suppliers will meet the top management of the Company to discuss a number of important issues. Representatives of «Volga-Kama» Industry Group and Automobile Assembly plant from Serpukhov city, where «OKA» VAZ-11113 is assembled too, were also invited to participate at the conference.

Until 1998 «OKA» car components have been purchased by the Procurement Dept. of KAMAZ Inc. At the end of 1998 the Small Passenger Car Plant established its own Procurement Department. Since that time, the plant has been procuring all the components it needed by negotiating directly with its suppliers.

Within last years product delivery geography has significantly expanded and now it includs not only CIS (Ukraine), but also Europe (Slovenia). Cooperation between the manufacturer and its suppliers is constantly developing and changing only for the better. Manufacturers pay more attention to quality and technical specifications of delivered products. Some component suppliers, whose product meet all the required quality standards, have been singled out as the best, including: «NizhnekamskShina» OJSC from Nizhnekamsk city, «Borsky Glass Works» OJSC from Bor, «LETZ» OJSC from Lyskhovo and «Henkel-Chim» Company from Togliatty.

The issues of quality of supplied components for «OKA» car assembly and also their pricing were on the agenda of the conference. Representatives of the plants supplying component were given a chance to visit the car production lines.

R. N. Kaviev, Deputy Director General on provision, have addressed the suppliers with a request to consider a possibility to grant warranties for their components, the same way as a car is covered with a manufacturer’s guarantee. There have been specified major criteria for choosing a supplier at the conference too. These are: guaranteed quality of supplied components, long-term mutually beneficial price agreements, reliability, smooth and complete delivery and constant improvement of a product. All these requirements will be parts of the criteria for winning in «The Best Supplier of the Small Passenger Car Plant» contest. The winners will be announced at the conference next year.