Polaris 2014 Annual Report Download - page 22

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 22 of the 2014 Polaris annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

Page out of 116

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72
  • 73
  • 74
  • 75
  • 76
  • 77
  • 78
  • 79
  • 80
  • 81
  • 82
  • 83
  • 84
  • 85
  • 86
  • 87
  • 88
  • 89
  • 90
  • 91
  • 92
  • 93
  • 94
  • 95
  • 96
  • 97
  • 98
  • 99
  • 100
  • 101
  • 102
  • 103
  • 104
  • 105
  • 106
  • 107
  • 108
  • 109
  • 110
  • 111
  • 112
  • 113
  • 114
  • 115
  • 116

cost. Our future Huntsville, Alabama plant will help
us meet growing demand for O-Road Vehicles in
the southeast United States. These plants also allow
our entire plant network to operate more eciently.
The timing is good for the Huntsville plant, because
we can design it to provide another step function
improvement in our Lean journey.
Q: Why did you want to join Polaris?
A: It was an opportunity to combine my professional
skills—I’ve built, managed and closed dozens of plants
around the world—with my personal passion. Polaris
has been my brand. Sitting in my garage is the vintage
Polaris Sno Traveler my grandpa bought, and I have
four Polaris ATVs and five snowmobiles.
Q: Yours is a new position at Polaris. What’s
yourcharge?
A: Scott and Bennett realized that as we scale to a
bigger and more complex organization, we need to
have systems and processes that can scale with
us, while enhancing our speed and agility. I was
brought in to make sure we not only drive industry-
leading innovation, but that we also drive continuous
improvement and eciency and quality and safety
and keep up with product demand. I was brought in to
address the “ands,” so to speak.
Q: What areas oer the greatest opportunity for
improvement?
A: One large opportunity is to improve Operations. We
need to improve our manufacturing, logistics and the
supply chain so we can easily meet product demand
as we rapidly grow our business. Another large
opportunity for us is to drive towards a Lean model,
in which a customer can order our products and get
fast, predictable delivery. I also see the opportunity
to drive improved product cost through design and
supplychain. In Engineering, we can focus on future
core technologies like electric powertrains and
newmaterials.
Q: How do the new manufacturing plants help
improve operations?
A: The new Poland plant will allow us to serve our large
EMEA market with greater flexibility and improved
KEN PUCEL //  EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS, ENGINEERING AND LEAN
LEAN ENTERPRISE
//  OPTIMIZING THE FULL PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE
ONE WAY WE’RE IMPROVING OPERATIONS IS BY BETTER
INTEGRATING ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING. WE’RE
INVOLVING MANUFACTURING EXPERTS EARLIER IN THE
DEVELOPMENT PROCESS AND INVOLVING ENGINEERING EXPERTS
FURTHER INTO MANUFACTURING AND SUPPLY CHAIN.
BEGIN CYCLE END CYCLE
ENGINEERING
MANUFACTURING
“ LEAN
ENTERPRISE IS
A COMPETITIVE
ADVANTAGE”
18
POLARIS INDUSTRIES INC. ANNUAL REPORT
A CONVERSATION WITH