Ricardo Wins Gold with Ford's World Excellence Award for Cost Reduction Achievement

VAN BUREN TOWNSHIP, Mich., March 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The World Excellence Awards recognize suppliers that have aligned themselves with the values and operating practices of Ford while reaching the highest quality, technology, cost and delivery standards. The winning companies represent thousands of employees who bring diverse cultures, values and ideas to Ford in the products and services they provide.

(Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110322/DE69142 )

"We made tremendous progress on the One Ford plan in 2010 and the partnership with our suppliers was absolutely critical in making that happen," said Alan Mulally, Ford president and CEO. "Thanks to all of our World Excellence Award winners for the work you are doing to contribute to our mutual success and serve our global customers with the very best cars and trucks."

There are three levels of World Excellence Awards – Gold, Silver and Recognition of Achievement. Gold and Silver awards are presented to suppliers demonstrating superior quality, delivery and cost performance. Fifteen Gold and twenty-six Silver Awards were presented this year. Ricardo received the Gold World Excellence award for the work of the company's strategic consulting team based at Van Buren Township, Mich., which has supported the development and implementation of Ford service parts value management processes. This work forms part of Ricardo Strategic Consulting's highly successful Integrated Cost Reduction service line, which by September 2010 had chalked up total cost savings in excess of $100 million achieved for clients since the service was introduced in 2005.

"Working with a range of blue chip clients such as Ford, our Integrated Cost Reduction process has been shown to realize very tangible savings while maintaining and improving upon levels of performance, quality and service," said Kevin Hauser, vice president of Ricardo Strategic Consulting North America. "That having been said, we could not have been so successful without the relentless drive for continuous improvement and day-to-day support of our client management team at Ford. I would like to thank Ford personally for the company's generosity in recognizing our work in this very public way and look forward to working with them to achieve even greater levels of quality, performance and cost optimization in the future."

"It is humbling for the team at Ricardo Strategic Consulting to have been recognized with this prestigious global award," said Andy Chien, president of Ricardo Strategic Consulting North America. "Perhaps one of the first management consultancies to receive this accolade, the award demonstrates the very hard and innovative work of the team and the very tangible results that it has delivered in partnership with Ford Motor Company."

About Ricardo

With technical centers and offices throughout Europe, the United States and Asia, Ricardo provides strategic consulting and engineering expertise ranging from vehicle systems integration, controls and electronics, and hardware and software development to the latest driveline and transmission systems and gasoline, diesel, hybrid and fuel-cell powertrain technologies. Ricardo's customers include the world's major automakers and suppliers as well as manufacturers in the military, commercial, off-highway and clean-energy sectors. The company also serves in advisory roles to governmental and independent agencies. Ricardo's U.S. operation, Ricardo, Inc., is headquartered in Van Buren Township, Mich.  Ricardo plc posted sales of $244 million in financial year 2010 and is a constituent of the FTSE TechMark 100 index – a group of innovative technology companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. For more information, visit www.ricardo.com.

SOURCE Ricardo