Tom Flack to lead Tata Motors’ procurement division

Tata Motors is reinventing itself as a modern car manufacturer and the wheels have already been set in motion. Tom Flack, a global automotive veteran, is the latest among the global talent being roped in to steer the program with their expertise. Flack was the global purchasing director at Ford and has joined Tata Motors as the chief procurement officer.

Tata Motors has been developing the new Advanced Modular Platform (AMP) along with another new platform which will be the base for all new Tata cars to be built henceforth. As of now, Tata Motors builds cars on six different platforms and the streamlining of the platforms into two flexible architectures will certainly reduce the costs involved in developing similar components across all the six platforms. 

Right now, Tata Motors deals with over 1200 suppliers and the platform rationalisation will also help rein in the vendor base and allow Tata Motors to establish a less complicated supply chain, specifically where Flack’s experience of over 26 years across different markets will prove to be instrumental.

Tom Flack is said to be reporting straight to Guenter Butschek, CEO Tata Motors. In addition to streamlining the vendor base and providing insights for designing the new platforms based on supply chain intelligence, Flack will also have a huge task of maintaining material quality and improving it past global benchmarks. 

Tata Motors has also entered into a JV with Volkswagen Group to build cars based on AMP in India, which is being spearheaded by Skoda. All these initiatives will help Tata Motors stem their research and development expenses and component costs while reducing the new product development lead time, thus allowing the car maker to build smarter cars faster while being in sync with the latest trends in automotive technology as well as market trends.