Harley Davidson: Operation Process Of The Assembly Line

Harley Davidson was an interesting experience and I am eager to visit the new softail after it is constructed. I observed the operational process of your assembly line, which was quite fascinating. As I watched the transformation process of making the bike, I gained an appreciation for how your operations fully utilized each component of the motorcycle to match your company’s peak design standards. The film that we watched to begin our tour was insightful as I was unaware that Harley Davidson was the culmination effect of friends who envisioned a legendary bike and then worked to make that motorcycle a reality. My intent of this memo is to provide you with constructive feedback of what I learned about your company and I would like to offer

By adopting such a standard, the organizational culture seems to adopt it also. Perfection is never achievable, but excellence is a standard that can propel companies to continue to adapt to the market place. I find that Harley’s commitment to achieve its motorcycle to be the benchmark that other companies try to emulate when competing with Harley. Yet, operations management explains that surpassing your own benchmark boosts your marketability to your customer. This is where research and development fits into the overall company, and I would look for new ways to make your motorcycle even better. For example, as gas prices continue to rise, maybe R&D can look into new ways to increase miles per gallon on your bikes or look into integrating hybrid technology with your bikes to make them more fuel-efficient. By striving to make your current product more marketable by making your customer’s perception of their $30,000 investment even more

The tour guy explained that all of Harley’s output is produced specifically to the customers’ demands when the bikes are ordered which helps to alleviate the waste of overproduction. By eliminating this central waste, it becomes easier for the organization to run efficiently and allows Harley to adapt to the market. The new bikes issued for production with the black and purple is a slick design that illustrates innovation and constant improvement to their company. However, the new innovative design needs to correspond to the quality that your customers perceive so that new wastes do not emerge. Value must be congruent with the old bikes and designs, and this could distort the customers’ perception to the change. New designs equates to new costs of the raw goods such as the paint, and demand forecasts must be accurate to obtain the correct amount of paint so that idle capacity is not created from the new design. In doing so, the company can continually improve the bikes, while cutting the costs that would be contingent of the new bike