Odette Awards recognise Outstanding Contributions to the Automotive Supply Chain
20 Dec 2023
The work of Odette can only be achieved with the support of volunteers from member companies. The Odette Awards recognise the commitment that these volunteers give to the automotive community while still managing the significant responsibilities they have in their own companies. Through our awards we recognise not only the individuals but also their companies, who allow our volunteers the time and space to do this work.
Two key features of Odette are our international vision and our extensive network and, besides their work in the projects, our volunteers help to extend our international network by advocating the benefits of collaboration towards their colleagues, especially their younger colleagues.
The 22nd Odette Conference held in November in Berlin was the occasion to recognise certain volunteers who had made an outstanding contribution over the past two years but these are only a few of the many automotive supply chain experts who provide input to the work of Odette on a day to day, week to week and year to year basis.
The first award went to the members of the MMOG Core Team who took our Supply Chain Management Capability Assessment (aka MMOG/LE) to the next level i.e. Version 6. These volunteers formed a solid team demonstrating true international and inter-company cooperation and provided a concrete example of how customer/supplier collaboration results in mutual benefits. A good indicator of the success of their work is the number of automotive production sites world-wide that are using Version 6 of MMOG/LE – now standing at around 12000 and increasing every day.
Team members receiving the award were:
Christian Aigner (Ford) who led the Core Team. Christian is retiring this year and the community thanked him for his many years of dedication to overcoming supply chain challenges; Manuel Collado (Ford), who will take over Christian’s MMOG responsibilities within Ford; Christophe Gaber (Michelin); Jens Kunz (Robert Bosch); Terry Onica (QAD); Patrick Reilhac (GALIA); Aidan Hughes (AIAG); Jason VanNess and Mikael Mjornerup (Volvo Trucks).
The next award went to members of a very different team, in this case a team of experts in Vehicle Distribution. The team has worked together over several years in a joint ECG, Odette and VDA project to develop a full set of digital messages covering communications between OEMs and LSPs in all processes of Finished Vehicle Logistics. These messages are being implemented or planned for implementation by BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Stellantis, Volvo Cars and by VW, who have taken the lead in implementation and in identifying improvements.
Team members receiving the award were: Benedict Bayer (VW) – Lead Implementer; Jenny Hertzfeldt (VDA) – Digital Message Developer; Szilvi Kiss (ECG) – Team Coordinator; Herve Moulin (Renault) – FVL Digitalisation Champion.
Also honoured were 3 members of yet another Odette team, the OFTP2 Expert Group. During meetings of the group, these guys, who are proud to be described as geeks, have fascinating discussions, they can even crack jokes about Perfect Forward Secrecy and Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman whilst we mere mortals just listen in total bafflement, hoping that we are able to produce meeting minutes that make some sort of sense.
These three individuals have been pivotal in driving the introduction of new features for the Odette File Transfer Protocol which is the most widely used File Transfer Protocol for secure communication in the European automotive industry. They can be counted amongst the top communication and security software experts in the industry.
Receiving the awards were: Harald Koch (C-Works); Daniel Kopp (Huengsberg); Markus Melber (T-Systems).
The Odette Service Partner award recognised outstanding contribution to the success of Odette in a country some distance from our European centre of operations.
The CEDEX company gives Odette amazing support in the deployment of our standards and services in China, carrying out MMOG/LE training and user support and also acting as the regional Registration Authority for the Odette Certificate Authority. The provision of support in the local language and local time zone of this new automotive powerhouse is a godsend for the Odette Team.
The award was accepted by: Mingguang Cheng (CEO of CEDEX)
Finally, Odette wanted to recognise the contribution of someone who, for the past 12 years, has taken advantage of the fabulous networking opportunities provided by the Odette Conference but besides taking advantage he has also given so much back. He delivers outstanding presentations, moderates multiple sessions, and is always there to help us out in time of need. His charisma is unequalled and being on stage is a role to which he was undoubtedly born.
The final 2023 Odette Award for outstanding contribution was presented to Pascal Born (XPO Logistics).
Thank you all and your companies for an amazing year.