Supply Chain Excellence
Our Suppliers Are Partners In Bringing Our Values To Life
Our suppliers play a critical role in our ability to deliver the quality products and services our customers expect. We expect them to uphold the same high standards to which we hold ourselves.
This means our suppliers are expected to act as good corporate citizens with sustainable business practices and to honor our ethical treatment of employees and customers, including acting with integrity, honesty and respect for others.
Company Collaboration
Supply Chain Management Council
The Council includes experts from across our businesses who share ideas, best practices and business processes. Individual businesses are able to leverage resources, create shared tools and enjoy the benefit of scale. Multiple subcommittees focus on specific areas to improve and achieve cost and time savings, such as travel and transportation and use of e-tools.
Innovation Networks
Our virtual innovation networks allow members to collaborate in a community environment so we can deliver new technologies and innovative capabilities to our customers rapidly. Our mission with these networks is to create and maintain an open environment where partners, suppliers and customers can share, develop and deliver current and emerging technologies and capabilities.
Supplier Diversity
General Dynamics is committed to working with small and diverse businesses. These businesses are a vital part of maintaining our competitiveness in the global marketplace. Our supplier diversity program operates under a framework based on four pillars: compliance, early engagement, small business innovation and community outreach.
We partner with small disadvantaged businesses, women-owned small businesses, veteran-owned small businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, SBA-certified HUBZone small businesses, Native American-owned small businesses, minority-owned companies and Ability One organizations.
For our U.S. businesses, our supplier diversity program managers attend more than 50 regional and national events annually to meet with potential suppliers. This includes events sponsored by the National 8a Council, Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTAC), National Defense Industrial Association, Women in Defense, National Veteran Small Business Coalition and Small Business Administration (SBA).
Supplier Guidance and Support
General Dynamics provides guidance and support to the thousands of small businesses that work with us. We mentor these businesses through their contract involvement, as well as through our small business and supplier diversity offices. We also sponsor and host events that allow our business units to meet with interested small business suppliers. These initiatives help small businesses expand their solution sets and marketing channels. Additionally, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, General Dynamics has begun to host virutal training and outreach sessions for the small and diverse business community.
We participate in various formal mentor-protégé programs, including those sponsored by the Department of Defense (DoD), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Small Business Administration.
Supply Chain Standards
Counterfeit Parts Prevention
We have stringent quality-control processes in place to inspect, detect and mitigate suspected or confirmed counterfeit parts in order to prevent counterfeit parts and software from entering the company’s supply chain. We promptly disclose any findings to the government and the customer.
Materials Sourcing
We are committed to responsible sourcing throughout our global supply chain. That’s why we take steps to vet suppliers for their sustainable labor and materials sourcing practices, purchase longlasting products with low carbon footprints, deal only with non-embargoed countries, and act to prevent counterfeit parts from entering our supply chain. We have established mechanisms to assess risk and ensure compliance, and we constantly look for new ways to reduce risk throughout our supply chain.
Modern Slavery and Child Labor
We recognize the importance of ensuring that respect for human rights and dignity is embedded at all levels of our business. We expect strict adherence to these values, as well as to applicable laws, everywhere we operate. General Dynamics does not tolerate human trafficking, child labor or forced labor anywhere within our businesses or supply chains.
Learn more about our corporate policy on modern slavery and human trafficking.
Conflict Minerals
As part of our commitment to responsible sourcing, we work with our supply chain to trace potential sources of minerals such as tantalum, tin, gold or tungsten, which are known to help finance conflict and contribute to the humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We routinely conduct inquiries of our suppliers to identify potential use of these conflict minerals.
In line with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requirements, we submit a Specialized Disclosure Report and a Conflict Minerals Report. In our report to the SEC, we address our efforts to understand the presence of these minerals in our supply chain, including:
- Surveying and working with our suppliers to identify the presence of conflict minerals in products that are supplied to us.
- Engaging with many of our suppliers about the potential presence of conflict minerals in materials.
- Introducing contractual terms and conditions as appropriate to urge suppliers to report responsibly.