Honda runs 19 major manufacturing facilities in North America and works with more than 650 production suppliers in the region. On top of that sits a large indirect spend: facilities, IT, marketing, logistics, professional services, everything that keeps the plants and offices running. That indirect category is where a small or diverse business usually gets its first realistic shot, and it's worth understanding why before you fill out a single form.
A quick note on names. The procurement you're trying to break into is run through Honda Development & Manufacturing of America, and the buyer most people mean by "Honda" in the U.S. is American Honda Motor Co. Their North American procurement front door lives at purchasing.honda.com. That's the page that matters, not a generic "contact us" form.
Honda buys in two lanes, and you need to know which one you're inHonda's purchasing splits into two worlds that barely overlap.
Direct (production) suppliers make the parts that go into a vehicle, engine, or power-equipment product. Getting in here is a multi-year process built on quality systems, tooling capacity, IATF 16949 certification, and a track record with other automakers. If you're a first-time vendor with no automotive parts history, this lane is not your entry point, and no amount of diversity certification shortcuts it.
Indirect and MRO suppliers sell everything else: maintenance, repair and operations supplies, equipment, services, software, staffing, marketing, facilities work. This is the realistic on-ramp for most small and diverse businesses. The buying cycles are shorter, the technical barriers are lower, and Honda actively sources new vendors here.
Be honest with yourself about which lane fits before you register. Pitching a production-parts story to an indirect buyer, or vice versa, is the fastest way to get ignored.
Where to actually registerFor indirect and MRO work, Honda routes new-supplier intake through Ariba Discovery, part of the SAP Ariba network. You create a supplier profile, list your categories and certifications, and you become discoverable when Honda posts a sourcing event that matches what you do.
Here's the practical part. Ariba Discovery is not a job board where you apply to a posting and wait. It's a database buyers search. So your profile has to read like a buyer's search query: the exact commodity codes (UNSPSC) for what you sell, your service area, your certifications, and a capability summary that uses the words a category manager would type. A thin profile gets you found by nobody.
Start at purchasing.honda.com, find the supplier-information and diversity sections, and follow the link to register through Ariba. Confirm the current intake path on the site before you build the profile, since procurement portals change their forms.
How Honda's supplier diversity program actually worksHonda has run formal supplier diversity efforts for years and reports the numbers publicly. The headline figure: Honda has spent roughly $3 billion a year with minority- and women-owned suppliers in the U.S., about 10 percent of its total U.S. purchasing. That puts Honda among the members of the Billion Dollar Roundtable, the group of large corporations that each spend at least $1 billion a year with diverse suppliers.
A few things are true at once here, and you should hold all of them.
Certification is recommended, not required. Honda's own language is direct about this: the company strongly recognizes businesses that are MBE or WMBE certified, but certification is not a hard requirement to do business with Honda. So a certificate doesn't unlock a contract by itself, and you can technically register and win work without one.
But certification is still how you show up in the right searches. When a Honda category manager filters Ariba or the council databases for diverse suppliers, third-party certification is the field they filter on. Self-attesting that you're minority-owned won't surface you the same way. The certifications that map to Honda's diverse-spend reporting are the standard ones: MBE through an NMSDC regional council, WBE through WBENC, and the other recognized categories that corporate programs track, including NGLCC for LGBTQ-owned, Disability:IN for disability-owned, and veteran-owned certifications. If you qualify for one of these, get it. It's the difference between being in the searchable pool and being invisible.
Honda works through the councils. Honda partners with NMSDC's regional minority supplier development councils and the SBA, and runs diversity workshops that walk potential minority- and women-owned suppliers through how Honda buys, with an eye toward strategic alliances and joint ventures. Honda has also hosted matchmaking through its Honda Partnership Network events, where diverse suppliers meet Honda buyers and existing tier-1 suppliers face to face. If you're certified, your council is the channel that gets you invited to these. That's a concrete reason to certify through a council rather than a quicker self-serve route.
One caution on the current moment. A lot of corporations renamed or restructured their diversity-and-inclusion language across 2025. Honda has continued publishing an annual Inclusion & Diversity Report (the 2024 edition was titled "We're All In: Let's Bring the Future Together") and has kept reporting diverse-supplier spend. Program names and framing can shift year to year, so verify the exact current language on Honda's site rather than trusting a name you saw in an older article. The spend commitment has held up; the labels move.
The Tier 2 path most people missIf selling directly to Honda feels far off, the faster door is often Tier 2. Honda asks its large tier-1 suppliers to spend with diverse businesses too, and to report that spend back. Honda has publicly encouraged its suppliers to hit the same roughly 10 percent diverse-spend mark it holds for itself. That means every big company already selling to Honda has its own incentive to find certified diverse subcontractors.
So your target list isn't only Honda. It's also the tier-1 firms in Honda's supply base who need to show Honda their own diverse spend. Winning a Tier 2 contract is usually quicker, and it builds the past performance that makes a direct Honda relationship credible later.
The Premier Partner Program is a reward, not an entry pointYou'll see Honda's Premier Partner Award mentioned a lot. It's worth understanding so you don't chase it by mistake. Honda established the Premier Partner Program in 1998 to recognize suppliers who already deliver on quality, value, and service, with winners chosen from a pool of more than 1,000 eligible companies. It's an honor for established suppliers, not a way in. Aim at registration and Tier 2 first; recognition comes after years of performance.
A realistic 90-day plan- Pick your lane. Indirect/MRO if you're new. Get clear on the exact commodity codes for what you sell.
- Get certified if you qualify. MBE through your NMSDC regional council, WBE through WBENC, or the relevant NGLCC, Disability:IN, or veteran certification. This is the slowest step, so start it now. CertifyAll files the qualifying certifications for you so you're not running each council's process separately.
- Build a real Ariba Discovery profile. Exact codes, service area, certifications, and a capability summary written in a buyer's language. Confirm the current intake path on purchasing.honda.com.
- Work the council channel. Tell your NMSDC or WBENC council you're targeting Honda. Ask about Honda Partnership Network events and matchmakers.
- Build a Tier 2 list. Identify Honda's tier-1 suppliers and pitch them too. That's often the first contract.
- List yourself where buyers look. A complete, certified profile in a diverse supplier directory gets you found by Honda's buyers and by the tier-1 firms hunting for Tier 2 spend.
Honda is one of dozens of corporate programs that buy this way, and the mechanics repeat across most of them: register in their system, certify to show up in searches, and use Tier 2 to build a track record. Our corporate program directory lists the major buyers, what they accept, and how to register, so you can run this same play across Honda, the other automakers, and beyond. If you want the full method first, read how to get into corporate supplier diversity programs.
