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Audio

Narrator: In Warren, Michigan, factory workers work around the clock assembling the quintessential American automobile—the pick-up truck.

Narrator: The car is a symbol of American ingenuity and technological progress. Beyond that, it is a symbol of the American psyche.

Brad Q28:

01.18.12.00

There’s probably not truly an American car that’s built anymore, that’s all American.

Stuart Q16: The car industry, particularly, is truly a global industry.

Ken Q1:

03.26.52.00

There are between 750 and 900 parts per vehicle and they truly come from all over the globe.

03.27.06.00

Stuart Q16: Materials that are coming from North America or the Far East.

Brian Q4: Europe

Brad Q29: Shelbyville, Tennessee

Prem Q31: China and Russia

Brian Q17: India or the Eastern Block countries.

Tim Q12: Just where the components come from doesn’t really matter.  The profit and direction comes from some place else.

Narrator: Consumers often do not appreciate how much their lifestyle depends on global networks of goods and services.  Trade balance, domestic content, off-shoring, outsourcing—what do these things mean to the average American?

Teresa: You’ve gotta compete with like Mexico and stuff like that.  I can understand that part, but I just hate that its happening to us.  Everybody’s competing with everybody.

Narrator: By looking at one vehicle—the Dodge Ram pickup—and tracing the origins of its component parts from all over the world, a symbol of the world economy appears, and it is in your garage.

ACT I: The Global Supply Chain

Boniface 703 13:08-13:22

Yes, I like very much my job.  Nice good salary and a good job.  Good company, officers, friends, work.  So I like it.  Seventeen years in Sundram Fasteners.

Boniface on motorcycle

Boniface in factory

Narrator: This is Boniface.  It takes him twenty minutes on his motorcycle to get to Sundram’s plant in central Chennai. Boniface is one of 44 employees who cover two shifts.  He finished an associate’s degree and a technical course to become an electrician and now manufactures and packages radiator caps for shipment all over the world.

Teresa in car

Teresa: Got married the first time an came down into Modine and I've been down in this area ever since, so, I like it. // January will be 28 years.  Half my life I think.

Narrator: This is Teresa, it takes her half an hour to drive from her suburban home to Modine Radiator in Clinton Tennessee.  She assembles radiators using caps sent to her from Boniface.

Narrator: Both Teresa and Boniface are two of many links in the global supply chain. 

GFX1

Narrator: A supply chain is a sequence of companies that transform goods one step at a time. The end products then make there way to the auto manufactures themselves.

Narrator: One of Sundram’s suppliers, Berck Limited, is located in England.  Berck supplies Sundram with parts for a radiator cap for a Modine radiator that will eventually end up in the Dodge Ram pickup—assembled and sold in North America.

Text on screen:

West Bromwich England, August 2005

Brian Q5:

03.09.50.00

Sundram has been a customer of ours for about fifteen years.

Brian Q4 cont.

We make the springs and parts and washers that go to form // the radiator cap. 03.09.45.00

Brian Q5: cont.

And we perhaps supply them two and a half to three million parts every month.

03.10.05.00

Narrator: This is Brian, the CEO of Berck Limited.  He came to the company as general manager in 1976, and bought the company in 1998. 

Brian Q8:

03.11.17.00

I think we fit about forty percent of the world cars on certain types of switches and blades. Which is quite something,

Brian Q4:

03.08.53.00

We supply the majority of the car industries in Europe, several in the United States, but not as a first tier supplier. Always as a second tier supplier.

GFX2

Narrator: Depending on the product, there are many tiers in the supply chain.  The final tier in the chain is the Original Equipment Manufacturer or OEM.  In the automotive world the OEM is the automaker such as Honda or Chrysler.

GFX2 cont.

Narrator: For the Dodge Ram radiator cap there are as many as 5 tier suppliers.  Berck who gets is rolled steel from ThyssenKrupp in Germany is a tier three supplier in the radiator cap supply chain. 

Narrator: Here, a Berck technician installs the press tool and monitors the quality of a new batch of steel valves bound for Sundram.

Narrator: A couple hour’s drive from Berck, in Corsham, is Precision Cut Rubber or PCR.  PCR manufactures rubber washers and seals. They, like Berck, are a holdover supplier for Sundram’s radiator caps from when they were made by AC Delco years earlier. 

Stuart Q16:

06.13.53.00

The car industry particularly is truly a global industry.  I mean even in little Corsham here (camera settles) we are sourcing materials that are coming from North America or the Far East in some instances. In turn, we manufacture some simplistic product, sometimes slightly more technical product, and that product in itself is then exported right around the world.

Stuart: What weve got here is the dispatch area. So if you go through down to the die cutting hall…

b-roll of Stuart talking and walking

Narrator: This is Stuart.  He manages PCR’s facility in Corsham, and he would prefer to drive a Jaguar but the taxes are too high so he drives an Audi station wagon instead.

Narrator: Like Berck, PCR depends on the automobile industry for a large share of its business, and like Berck again, is a link in the global automobile supply chain.

Stuart Q3: 06.02.14.00

We supply directly to Ford, directly to Jaguar and Land Rover.

St