Harley Davidson 2010 Annual Report Download - page 11

As our York facility continues
to transform, employees’
enhanced sense of accountability
gives them an even greater
customer-led mind-set.
“ We need to be able to make
any product on any line on
any day. So we’re structuring
our manufacturing to be
a lot more exible.”
Karl Eberle
SVP, Manufacturing
1918 Customer-led Manufacturing
Now, individuals can be responsible for more than one
task on more than one style of bike. And the assembly
line is being redesigned so that every part has a consistent
place in the line — wheels, handlebars, powertrain, tank and
the rest, all assembled in the same familiar sequence.
There was a lot of anxiety over the change, but employees
there will tell you they absolutely feel a new sense of
freedom, initiative and accountability.
Some of the obvious benets of commonality are cost
savings and efciency — there’s simpler management
of spare parts, for example, as well as standardized training
of maintenance people, engineers and technicians across
the factories so that, as we move people and share
knowledge across the factories, they see the same process
they did in the other factory. It’s an advantage in product
development, too, because our engineers know they
can design fenders and gas tanks that will be made the
same way at any two factories.
What do the results look like?
Matt When we get there — and we’re still a couple of years
away from having the new processes and systems fully up
and running in all of our plants — we’ll be able to shift
production between lines, change the level of output and
change our product mix in response to changes in customer
buying patterns and preferences. We’ll have a more rened
view of our production planning, rather than having to make
product supply predictions months ahead like we do now.
That’s the most important point from a customer perspective —
the opportunity that we have to supply motorcycles
closer to when people want to buy them.
Karl Bottom line, we need to be able to make any product
on any line on any day. So we’re structuring our capital
investments to enable our manufacturing to be a lot more
exible
— and making sure our employees have broad
expertise and diverse capabilities, too, so that they can
perform a much wider range of functions.
/ continued
Harley-Davidson, Inc. 2010 Annual Report