Porsche Port Hold

[wings&wheels]

Apparently, all new Porsches save for the Macan and 718 are subject to a 'port hold'. Porsche has been tight lipped except for our delivery now being 'undetermined', but rumors are that a chip in one of the control modules is from a sanctioned entity, possibly a supplier in Belarus. The fix is R&R of the modules at the ports or dealers prior to delivery. Something you don't expect to happen; global political intrigue affecting ones hobbies!

Coincidently, one of my areas of responsibility is sanctions compliance....at least I understand it! Still not happy

 

[AZjeff]

A friend is expecting a Cayman delivery in 4 weeks. Maybe not?

 

[ammolab]

My new Chevy SS Sport sedan sat at the dealer on a “stop sale” for 3 months after I made the deal for a seat belt bracket recall.

I was crabby the whole time!

 

[wings&wheels]

A friend is expecting a Cayman delivery in 4 weeks. Maybe not?

Depends where it is in the production or logistics line, but I would guess yes. Four weeks out? Probably still in Emden and would be addressed there, assuming there are adequate parts.

 

[wings&wheels]

So, it is apparently a Chinese chip, from a company in a province under the Uyghur or forced labor related sanction. Apparently, the chips entered the supply chain several levels down. Porsche self-disclosed.

Having some experience in this area, big part of my day job, I will assume that Porsche has the appropriate processes and, importantly, flow-down language in their supply agreements where some supplier is going to be writing them a big check and/or supplying a lot of 'free' non-sanctioned chips as compensation.

 

[KrisZ]

I highly doubt the sanctioned chip just “made” its way into the supply chain. I work with supply chain all the time, everything needs their review and approval. I don’t see why that wouldn’t be the case with Porsche.
A more likely scenario is that someone at Porsche approved the chip without doing their due diligence.

 

[proveitwithdata]

Carscoops has an article, it effects a whole lot of vehicles other then porsche all part of the vw group. You can easily guess where this part was made but im wondering if they made an honest mistake (pr will use this one) or they choose to throw due diligence into the air cause $$$$

 

[GMBoy]

So, it is apparently a Chinese chip, from a company in a province under the Uyghur or forced labor related sanction. Apparently, the chips entered the supply chain several levels down. Porsche self-disclosed.

Having some experience in this area, big part of my day job, I will assume that Porsche has the appropriate processes and, importantly, flow-down language in their supply agreements where some supplier is going to be writing them a big check and/or supplying a lot of 'free' non-sanctioned chips as compensation.

Compliance is a serious thing and sounds like a Porsche Tier 2 or 3 supplier was the offender. Glad they owned up to it. When I was involved in modules at GM engineering we always had backup suppliers for everything. Trouble is it takes time to move to another supplier, validate and for them to gear up production. All automakers have backup plans but they are not always fast to implement.

 

[wings&wheels]

I doubt Porsche willingly violated this sanction and agree that this is likely a Tier 2,3 or lower supplier action. I also doubt it was willful on their, Porsche's, part for many reasons including the reputational risk of anything related to alleged human rights violations.

That being said, IIRC these sanctions didn't become effective through the typical channels, instead they were published in the Federal Register and therefore a bit harder to 'notice' if you will. Porsche would have resources, internal, external or both, tracking this so I would bet on a lower tier supplier going off the reservation and Porsche found it and self-disclosed.

One of my roles is Compliance Officer and we are in very highly regulated industry...the concern of having this type of misstep keeps me up at night.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Like every other major car manufacturer, Porsche does major business in and with China.
Porsche has an engineering facility in Shanghai and a digital lab in Shanghai that develops tech solutions for their products.

This should not be a surprise to anyone who follows the automobile industry.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

I highly doubt the sanctioned chip just “made” its way into the supply chain. I work with supply chain all the time, everything needs their review and approval. I don’t see why that wouldn’t be the case with Porsche.
A more likely scenario is that someone at Porsche approved the chip without doing their due diligence.

It's a chip from a sub-supplier procured by the VW joint venture company (SAIC VW) based in China. The sub-supplier is based out of a province which is known to use Uyghur slave labor. Per the WSJ it's causing a big headache for VW because they are having to rely on their company in China to vet suppliers.

 

[KrisZ]

It's a chip from a sub-supplier procured by the VW joint venture company (SAIC VW) based in China. The sub-supplier is based out of a province which is known to use Uyghur slave labor. Per the WSJ it's causing a big headache for VW because they are having to rely on their company in China to vet suppliers.

Plausible deniability anyone? Works like a charm from the looks of it. It’s the bad, greedy, corrupt 2nd tier supplier. Porsche is just an innocent victim here

Didn’t mobsters use that system?

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Plausible deniability anyone? Works like a charm from the looks of it. It’s the bad, greedy, corrupt 2nd tier supplier. Porsche is just an innocent victim here

Didn’t mobsters use that system?

I don't blame them. Automakers can use a dozen different suppliers and they can only vet so deeply. Automakers have little control once you go farther down the chain.

Take a connector for a wiring loom. Your vender sells you the loom, the vendor employs company X to make the connector. Company X sub-contracts some of that work to Company Y who's using slave labor.

 

[wings&wheels]

Plausible deniability anyone? Works like a charm from the looks of it. It’s the bad, greedy, corrupt 2nd tier supplier. Porsche is just an innocent victim here

Didn’t mobsters use that system?

This is not 'plausible deniability', this is how most companies should and do work, including even most in highly regulated industries. With very few exceptions, no company should have the staff or even engage 3rd parties to continually monitor every aspect of their supply chain as it is not cost effective. That is why you have flow down requirements and a robust quality and compliance audit process and in this case, I'd wager that is how this came to light. Also, as costly as this is for Porsche, they can absorb the cost and the real risk here is reputational, especially with regards to human rights. They got in front of it.

By all accounts, one of their suppliers introduced tainted chips into sub-assemblies that another supplier provided to VW/Porsche, and once this was discovered they did what they should do, quickly and effectively. As far as letting the vehicles get shipped to the various ports and Dealerships, I would also guess that was intentional and allowed the vehicles to get closer to where they needed to eventually be, keep the ships moving, and prevent Emden and Zuffenhausen from becoming massive parking lots. Also probably easier to get 10,100 or 1,000 cars fixed at various dealers and ports as opposed to 10,000 in one location.

Saved us from having to find storage during salt season though, bright side to everything