SOUTHFIELD AND PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP, Michigan — Local sourcing, backup vendors, onshoring, alternative designs and support for key trade agreements are part of major automotive suppliers' strategies in navigating constant supply-chain strains.

From the COVID-19 pandemic to President Donald Trump's tariffs on vehicles and their parts to halted exports of semiconductors out of China by manufacturer Nexperia, companies like Southfield-based Lear Corp., which makes seats and electronic systems, and Germany's Robert Bosch GmbH, which makes parts from brakes to electronic control units, say it's a daily battle to ensure the proper flow of parts needed to make the parts needed in the trucks, SUVs and cars Americans drive.

Executives from the companies this week spoke before the Automotive Press Association, sharing details on how the manufacturers are thinking about the challenges.

"I'm all for an ambitious goal to build more here in the U.S. and supply great jobs," Lear CEO Ray Scott said at the company's innovation center at its Southfield headquarters. "But if you think about the supply chain that's been built over 25 years, trying to do that overnight is very challenging. So staying focused on the goal, which I think is the right goal, but how you do it and when you do things is very important."

Determining that timing is highly dependent on automaker customers and the U.S. market, Scott said. Trump's 25% tariffs on vehicles and automotive components have fluctuated throughout the year, creating uncertainty that has challenged the industry to make long-term decisions.

Most recently, in October, the administration extended for five years a 3.75% auto parts tariff credit for vehicles assembled in the United States. Details on the impact of that still are being evaluated, Scott said, but it helps.

Still, tariffs have contributed to U.S. auto investments. General Motors Co. announced it will spend $4 billion to move production of the Chevrolet Equinox, Blazer and other SUVs and trucks to the United States. Chrysler parent Stellantis NV decided to build the Jeep Compass in Illinois instead of Canada as a part of a $13 billion U.S. investment.

Onshoring conversations continue throughout the industry, said Scott, who declined to detail Lear's onshoring response over concerns he'd get ahead of customer announcements.

"We're going through right now what we can onshore, how we can get at it," he said. "Everything we look at is going to be based on a fair return on our capital investment ... We're in those discussions. I think it's a little bit too early. I think every OE is kind of going through that."

Making seat structures and just-in-time assembly are examples of jobs that make sense for the United States because technology and innovation help support them to be well-paid positions with good benefits, he said. Other jobs, however, like wire harness assembly or trim cover assembly are more tedious.

"Where you're sitting at a sewing machine for 10 hours a days, I don't know if that would really make the attractiveness here in the United States," Scott said. "People today have all kind of alternatives. There's all kind of flexibility in what employees want as far as job satisfaction and a job that's meaningful. We have to be very focused and strategic about what we're thinking when we're going to onshore."

The labor pool is limited, he noted. There are an estimated 200,000 unfulfilled manufacturing jobs in the United States. Lear has used digital tools and automation to help and improve job satisfaction in some areas, Scott said.

Artificial intelligence also is helping with efficiency in manufacturing as well as compiling data in purchasing, speeding up work in navigating supply-chain snags. Palantir Technologies is offering a 12-week fellowship to train Lear employees on its Foundry platform, which 14,000 Lear workers already are using.

"The technology is amazing," Scott said about AI. "I tell my team, is that if we have an issue or a gap in technology and manufacturing a product, wait six months, it'll be fixed."

The company has increasingly looked regionally for sourcing, a reversal from the previous couple of decades as globalization benefitted cost reductions and supply differentiation. Lear also is leveraging alternative designs to be able to source from multiple different suppliers if needed, Scott said.

"We started during COVID, but then, more importantly, in the beginning part of this year, really looking at: Where's our supply of magnets? Where's our supply of chemicals for foam? Where's our supply of chemicals for yarn?" he said. "What we offer our customers is: Listen, we can give you an alternative design that will give you flexibility. We can also onshore where it's necessary."

Different customers have different strategies and sourcing expectations — whether it's sourcing only in the United States or Mexico or China-free, said Paul Thomas, Bosch's president in North America and of Bosch Mobility in the Americas. The supplier considers those demands and aims to leverage its global footprint when looking at import taxes, though it can be limited to where it's even possible to find materials and other parts.

The Nexperia situation is an example, though China has started lifting export controls on the microchip manufacturer. Meanwhile, the United State is pausing its own export restrictions on the company and the Dutch government is signaling it may reverse its seizure of supervisory control over Nexperia so long as chip supply continues. But Thomas highlighted the situation as a reason Bosch is seeking to validate even a fifth alternative supplier for such cases.

"We're working with our customers on a daily basis, and they all have different paths for what they want to get to," he said. "The benefit is you have to be open. Transparency is your friend when you start talking about ways to improve your costs and the way to ensure that you meet the requirements."

Localization also is a strategy to reduce logistics costs and minimize disruption. A local supply base can represent as much as 85% of a product, Thomas said.

But Bosch's business is influenced heavily by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement that made trade free for auto parts and vehicles as long as certain content and labor requirements were met. Under Trump's current tariffs, USMCA-compliant parts are not tariffed and U.S. content on vehicles is excluded.

"We want to see that be consistent," Thomas said regarding USMCA, "so we can continue to make decisions about investments and where we where we manufacture our products."

Based on conversation with leaders in all three nations, however, Thomas isn't convinced there will be a single deal reached between the North American countries. Instead, he thinks there could be individual, bilateral agreements with Canada and Mexico. But he believes the work done by the auto sector in informing and making its position known to leaders is making a difference.

"I'm highly impressed at how our state and federal governments are listening to us, and they're very, they're more knowledgeable than I ever experienced in the past," Thomas said. "When you go talk to them, they really understand what's going on in the industry."

©2025 www.detroitnews.com. Visit at detroitnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.