At last week's Global Automotive Conference at the Marriott Griffin Gate Resort, auto supply company executives made Detroit sound like a depressing place these days.

With a pathos reminiscent of 25 years ago, the domestic auto industry is experiencing layoffs and spiraling costs, participants said at last week's annual conference in Lexington put on by the Global-Advanced Leadership Center of Bowling Green.

The problems experienced by the automakers are also rocking big suppliers such as Delphi and Visteon and many others. Several auto suppliers are getting squeezed as the automakers are trying to cut costs for parts while raw materials and energy costs are shooting up. That, coupled with labor costs, such as health insurance, puts a squeeze on suppliers, especially smaller Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers that might not have much cushion to absorb higher costs.

"That continued push to provide more for less money is here and is not going to change," said Grant Bibby, CEO of Orchid International, a stamping company, headquartered in Brentwood, Tenn.

But it's not as if those automakers are looking to break up their current relationships with suppliers they trust and have trained over the years.

Suppliers looking to break into that partnership should look to fill niches or provide a new service not already taken care of by another company, said Steve St. Angelo, executive vice president for manufacturing at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky in Georgetown.

When St. Angelo was a GM executive in Mexico, he had a well-appointed office with an expensive-looking rug, desk and expansive view of the city. He had a cappucino waiting for him every morning and his wastebasket automatically emptied trash on its own. "When I put a piece of paper in it, it disappeared," he said.

At his new gig in Georgetown, his desk looks not much different than that at which a typical office worker sits. And his secretary informed him he gets to empty his own trash at the recycling bins.

For all the upheaval and expected decline in auto manufacturing in the next five or 10 years, engineers and others with technical skills are still needed, a group of executives said.

There will be a shortage of engineers and technically trained people, and if the industry doesn't do something now "it's going to be a disaster," said Lyle Otremba, vice president of sales and program engineering at Cooper Standard Automotive, headquartered in Novi, Mich.

Maybe tomorrow's engineers will be working on developing batteries for hybrid cars instead of gaskets, but they are still desperately needed and shouldn't avoid the industry, Otremba said.

"We have to sell that to young people. It's a massive opportunity," said John Edwards, a fellow panelist and chief executive of Advantage West Midlands in the United Kingdom.

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