How Dana transformed global supplier management to drive supply chain performance

Dana, a leading vehicle-parts manufacturer, has been a driving force in the global mobility industry, delivering technologies that power everything SUVs to commercial trucks. Its product portfolio spans driveshafts, axles, advanced electrification systems, and thermal management solutions, serving the internal combustion engine (ICE), hybrid, and electric vehicle markets. 

With operations across 26 countries, 65 major manufacturing plants, and a supply base of more than 3,000 direct material suppliers, Dana’s global supply chain footprint is both impressive and complex.     

Creating a standardized repository to unify global supplier management 

Dana launched a strategic initiative to centralize its purchasing and supplier management.  

That’s where LiveSource came in. 

Purpose-built for the complexities of discrete manufacturing, LiveSource, by Blume Global, offered Dana a single, end-to-end supplier management platform that enabled them to manage supplier sourcing, quality, risk, and order management across product lifecycles and locations. 

The shift meant consolidating data from major manufacturing plants worldwide into one unique supplier record in LiveSource.  

The result was what Dana calls the “gold standard” supplier record – “so no matter where you were in the world… if you’re sitting in Thailand or Mexico and you want to look at a supplier profile, everybody was looking at the same data,” explains Chris Dawson, Senior Manager, Purchasing Analytics. This central repository of supplier data is now globally visible and acts as the single source of truth across departments.  

By managing supplier data in-house rather than relying on third-party brokers, Dana gained greater control, improved accuracy, and the confidence that every sourcing decision is made from the same complete, up-to-date information. 

How Dana streamlined purchasing, risk, quality, and order management  

With a single, standardized supplier record in place, the platform now powers purchasing, quality, risk, and order management, connecting every Dana function to the same, up-to-date supplier profile. 

Purchasing and sourcing efficiency 

Global requisitions, RFQs, and approvals are now managed in LiveSource. 

“We needed one central system for everybody to approve requisitions,” says Dawson. “…it allows us to create a requisition, go through all the approval flows, and send it to whoever’s going to create the purchase order.” 

Documents, RFQs, and supplier data are linked to a single profile, enabling a standardized global scorecard for supplier evaluation and selection based on price, quality, and financial health. 

Consistent quality and compliance process 

LiveSource centralizes non-conformances, corrective action requests, Production Part Approval Process (PPAP), Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) and supplier certification tracking all in one place. 

“It really gives us a powerful tool to comply with all… standards like ISO 9001 and IATF 16949,” noted Gregg Alling, Director, Global Quality Systems and Audit. 

Teams can instantly see supplier status, systems, certificates, and performance, creating opportunities to support quality management across the supply base. 

Proactive supplier risk management 

Supplier financial risk is assessed early and monitored continuously, enabling preventive action before disruptions occur. 

“A lot of what we’re looking at is their debt profile, their operating efficiency… we never want to be reacting to an event,” says Corey Stulpin, Purchasing Analytics Risk Manager. “The goal is to monitor trends, watch for deterioration, and start those conversations before they become a real challenge.”  

LiveSource captures financial statements, key ratios, and analyst insights directly in supplier profiles, enabling Dana to factor financial risk into sourcing, supplier maintenance, and strategic discussions. 

Integrated order management 

LiveSource’s Order Management module is rolling out worldwide, already operating at 20 Dana plants. Orders are sent directly from Dana’s ERP into the portal, allowing suppliers to print standardized labels, provide packaging data, and send shipment confirmations. 

“A lot of the suppliers that are not capable of a traditional EDI, they can now use LiveSource to get all their orders, create labels, create packaging information, and send their advanced shipping notice back to the Dana plant,” stated Dawson. 

Optimizing supplier management enhanced productivity, decision-making, control, and accountability 

By internalizing data collection and managing supplier engagement through LiveSource, Dana achieved: 

• Single source of truth – Standardized, globally consistent supplier data allows direct comparison across plants, countries, and regions. All teams, including purchasing, quality, risk, finance, and logistics, work from the same accurate, up-to-date information, interacting at the component level, down to revision and batch numbers, for full granularity and traceability. 
• Boosted productivity – Supplier updates that once required the full purchasing team to chase suppliers individually can now be pushed on demand, freeing significant time and resources. 
• Faster decision-making – Reports and supplier review decks that took a week can now be generated in minutes with automated, built-in reporting and analytics. 
• Proactive supplier control – Alerts, notifications, reminders, and analytics turn LiveSource into a supplier management “control tower,” enabling Dana to step in and interact directly with suppliers when it matters most, keeping performance and compliance firmly on track. 
• Improved supplier accountability – Scorecards integrate price, financial health, quality, sustainability, and risk, shifting sourcing decisions from price-first to long-term value while holding suppliers accountable. 

Turning risk into opportunity and supplier management into a competitive advantage 

In an industry where “every year there seems to be a new hurdle,” Dana has used LiveSource to flip the script, turning risks into opportunities. “Tools like LiveSource help us not only manage it, but take advantage, maybe of being able to react very quickly,” summarizes Dawson. 

The platform makes it easy to integrate emerging priorities like sustainability and cybersecurity into supplier scorecards and be prepared for the future. 

With entire supplier teams now engaged on the platform, Dana moves faster, stays compliant, and operates from a single, globally aligned playbook that keeps them ready for whatever comes next.