GM Eases Terms for Future Purchasing Contracts

General Motors Co. has clarified major changes in its contract template that suppliers say gave the company extraordinary authority to monitor their financial data, use their inventions and bill them indefinitely for recalls.

GM unveiled the original revisions, which marked the first major overhaul the company's contract language in 20 years, last July.

But Grace Lieblein, who took over as head of GM's global purchasing last year, tells Automotive News that doing so without seeking input from suppliers was "a misstep" that eroded trust.

AN says revisions to the contract language included:

• Clarifying that GM may audit data relating directly to its business with a supplier but has no right to audit the company's complete financial records
• Eliminating language that requires vendors to guarantee uninterruptable supply over "any foreseeable or anticipated event," presumably including problems relating to any of their own suppliers
• Dropping wording that suppliers say would require them to warrant their components forever
• Limiting conditions under which GM could temporarily license a supplier's intellectual property if the supplier can't ship product

"I don't want to be talking to CEOs about terms and conditions," she declares. "I want to be talking to them about technology and quality and driving waste from the system."