Collins & Aikman (C&A) bankruptcy proceedings reveal chaotic, cash-poor, strategy-challenged auto supplier

Complete collapse would bring most N American assembly plants to halt

C&A and automakers have negotiated temporary agreement to keep everybody's factories running

Situation so dire that some C&A plants closed because vendors stopped shipping parts and materials

Auto industry continued to do business w/ C&A despite credit downgrades and expert warnings

C&A secured loan from WL Ross & Co to fund working capital requirements for British units

C&A builds parts for 90% of vehicles built in N America

Under former Chairman and CEO David Stockman, took numerous money-losing contracts

Grew to present size w/ expensive acquisitions that left company w/ enormous debt

Unable to evaluate bad contracts losses because of antiquated accounting systems

70% of sales from Big 3

Automakers can start to pull business after Oct 1

"Bankruptcies are generally messy, and this one ranks higher on the list of complexity and challenges than most... We are still in a very chaotic environment. The business is still not stabilized." -- John Boken, chief restructuring officer, Collins & Aikman Corp.

"The strategy seemed to be get the contract now and they'd figure out how to make money on them later." -- Boken

"There are certain basic, fundamental reporting processes and mechanisms that you expect from a $4-billion company that just aren't there." -- Boken

"The automakers in Detroit, more than the Japanese, get their judgment clouded when they see that low bid prices from a supplier. They take a calculated, or not very well-calculated, risk; the low price is worth the risk someone may go into bankruptcy. Well, they did." -- Jim Gillette, auto-supplier analyst, CSM Worldwide