| Author | Message | ||
     Whosyodaddy |
Court, How involved (if at all) is Harley in Buell's day-to-day manufacturing operations? Or more specifically, how involved is Harley with controlling Buell's quality assurance? Just curious... thanks! WYD | ||
| Court |
Buell was a pioneer among vehicle manufacturers in terms of obtaining ISO9000 Certification. I can't talk with any authority but I'd put my money on HD benefiting much more from Buell's QA/QC program than vice versa. Buell, given it's size and (to quote one of my favorite writers....ME)it's being "mobile, agile and hostile" is well positioned to qucikly change and adopt state of the art processed and procedures. Both mindset and corporate momentum conspire against Harley-Davidson and make it wise for them to let processes and procedures get worked out by Buell and then segued into the Mothership. If anyone wants to flame me about saying "HD learns from Buell" fire away but know what you are talking about. First ask yourself two questions: If I am going to try a stumbly, fumbly new process do I want to play with 1,000 hand built Buells or 100,000 Sportsters scattered to the corners of the Earth. Second....do you think HD bought Buell to become rich? They did not, trust me, do it out of pure benevolence. There is, again I am suspiciionating here, much happening behind the scenes to create systems to allow Buell developed processed to be quickly "taken to town". This is a good thing. Buells doing some VERT innovative things with regard to quality. (can you say that in Italian?) Owners of XB's have been the first wave of beneficieries. That's a heck of a long answer, huh? Anyway....Yes. There's more to this and it's exciting.  | ||
| Whosyodaddy |
Interesting - and your answer makes me think that I was looking at this the wrong way.... I was making the assumption that since HD had really turned around with regards to QC (going from the morbid AMF era to becoming the benchmark in cruiser quality), that they were leading Buell - not the other way around - especially since it was my understanding that HD was turning things around quite a bit prior to the Buell acquisition. On the other hand, your statement regarding Buell's "flexibility" does make a lot of business sense. I work for a company that at one time could turn on a dime and change product strategy, etc. on a moment's notice. Now, that same company has "matured" and added several layers of overhead that limits such flexibility. Kind of like going from piloting a ski boat to piloting a cruise ship. Thanks for taking the time to share your point of view. WYD | ||
| Davegess |
WYD, Buell is leading the way not just for HD but for the bike industry in genereal with many inovative assembly ideas. Buell doesn't just design cool bikes but cools ways to put them together | ||
| Court |
>>>>Buell is leading the way not just for HD but for It's almost as easy to find a Buell in the Journal of Industrial Design than a moto mag. This is a good thing. | ||
| Bomber |
Who -- Court and Dave know better than I, certainly, and first hand, but, credit where it's due -- HD HAS turned alot of things around (QA wise), and were certainly doing so before they purchased Buell -- the fact that they are using Buell manufacturing (and perhaps design) as a skunkworks, and then transfering the lessons learned to a larger scale is crediting HD as well as Buell -- smart folks I've seen some things (manufacturing wise) on Buell tours mysteriously appear in the Capitol Drive plant a while later -- THe Museaum of Science and Industry in Chicago has a couple of Member's Nights each year -- the back rooms, research factilities, places where the magik happens are open to members after hours . . . . .I'd give my eye teeth for HOG/BRAG members to have similar access (although I know there are gonna be things that are NEVER shared until they hit the Dealers . . . . .) | ||
| Court |
Bomber: Right you are and nothing in my words was meant to detract in anyway for what Harley-Davidson has done...they are, in a word, LEGENDARY. Buell provides, working with and under the umbrella of HD, the chance to go beyond into areas that would be inacessible to a large organization. In a day when the word "scalable" is abused, Buell allows HD to find processes and procedures, means and methods that work and then make the jump from laboratory to real world. It is, Dear Friend, the consumate "win-win" situation. The Buell and HD relationship, complete with it's host of dynamics is a great complimentary relationship. To truly understand it requires one to know and beleive that what is good for one does not detract from the other. I have a lot to say about this, the culture and the mindset it requires to make it effective. The XB is evidence of what's going on...and trust me, there clanks, bangs and shuffle behind the screen is in present crescendo. Court | ||
| Bomber |
Court -- wasn't implying any nefarious intentions on your part -- just trying to give a little more complete picture of the passion play, from the point of view of an interested outsider (interst stems from status as Buell owner, and business person who laments, hourly, the lack of mobility, agility, and hostility exhibted by most large organizations . . . . long ago, and not so far away, I worked for a company who made it's mark in the modem business (remember those?) -- can you imagine a company that gave each and every employee a tshirt (100% cotten beefee tee!) printed with the words "Kill (name of primary competition)" they did it, too . . .. took em all of 14 months motivated loonies can accomplish great things | ||
| Reepicheep |
Bomber, not to give anything away, but both of my Audrey's went up in smoke, thank you very much Hrrmph.  | ||
| Bomber |
Reep -- I'm think you were one fo the 16 people that actually purchased a $500 refridgerator magnet! er, you always seems like such a smart guy, too ;-} chalk up the Audrey to 3Com, bud, which, while it BOUGHT USR, seemed to do everything in their power to kill it off (took em 3 years!) . . . Audrey should be the topic of a Wharton Biz School study on what happens when you turn the propeller heads loose under the direction of a 27 year old MBA with no previous work experience, and then turn the manufacturing over to a 19 year old purchasing agent who gets a great deal on parts in bulk, and buys 5 year's worth {!} after 2 months of disappointing sales, a senior marketing type pulled the product without checking on how much stock was on hand -- the loss from that disaster was prodigeous note -- not bad rapping younger folks, just deploring the lack of a systems approach to prodcut development and marketing | ||
| Reepicheep |
I stepped in after the disaster. I got them surplus for less then $100 each. It was a cool little platform for the price. I made custom OS images for them, reflashed them, and had one in our living room, and one in my parents living room (two hours away). Both were connected to broadband connections, and would show a new picture every 60 seconds served up from a web server. I would update it with new pictures of the grandkids every week or so, so there were thousands of pictures it would roll through, updated it real time. It was a very cool little project, and the Audreys looked beautiful mounted on the wall. It's a shame they both went up in smoke  Time to repeat the procedure with a pair of $300 thinkpads.... Better resolution screens anyway. |
