Vari-Form Receives GM Quality Award
The automotive hydroformer is recognized for supplier excellence for the second time in three years.
Posted: November 17, 2014
General Motors honored its top-performing suppliers at an award ceremony on Wednesday, September 24, at Cobo Center. Vari-Form (Troy, MI), a technology leader in hydroforming for the automotive industry, was one of the recipients of a Supplier Quality Excellence Award.
“We are honored to be recognized again by General Motors for our quality products and technologies,” said Stephen Dow, the president of Vari-Form. “This recognition for quality excellence reflects our long-term commitment to customer satisfaction and support.”
The GM Supplier Quality Excellence Award is focused on improving collaboration with suppliers. Winning suppliers met more than 12 quality criteria during a 12-month period that ended on June 30. This is the third year GM is honoring suppliers who are making noteworthy contributions to the company’s goal of providing the best overall customer experience in the automotive industry.
Vari-Form was an earlier recipient of this prestigious Award, being recognized by GM in 2012 for meeting or exceeding stringent quality performance criteria. “We know that maintaining a focus on the details to achieve perfection each day is not an easy task, so much so that only a fraction of our suppliers have earned this special recognition. You (Vari-Form) are a critical part of the team who helps ensure the customer is delighted with their product purchase and we want to recognize and thank you for that,” said Sheri Hickok, the executive director of global supplier quality and development at GM.
Current Vari-Form projects with General Motors include hyroformed aluminum frame rail components produced at the Strathroy, ON, manufacturing facility for the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray and delivered to the GM Bowling Green assembly plant, which is the home of the Corvette. These innovative rails are optimized for light weight and superior strength, and helped GM engineers achieve significant reduction of gross vehicle weight over prior models.
Headquartered in Troy with production facilities in Strathroy, ON; Reynosa, Mexico; and Liberty, MO; Vari-Form originated the concept and application of hydroforming body, chassis and other automotive structural parts. This technology is used to manufacture more than 7 million parts a year worldwide. The company began volume production using its patented, production-validated Pressure-Sequence Hydroforming (PSH) process in 1990. Vari-Form is an industry leader that has produced more than 100 million parts to date.
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