Value Chain
The series of activities that are enacted by a firm that add value to a product beyond the cost of the production are referred to as the value chain. Harley Davidson offers a combination of superior performance and unique attributes within its value chain that promotes their core competencies and provides them with a competitive advantage.
Operations
Harley Davidson’s approach to the manufacture of motorcycles creates value as raw materials evolve into sellable products. The 40,000 square meter plant in Kansas City, Missouri is laid out in a fashion that permits the backward integration of components within the production facility. From the fabrication of parts to the production of engines onsite, a single V-Rod is built by the 1,100 employees of this factory in less than 3 hours from start to finish.
The 2,100 square meter engine assembly area of the factory is capable of building the liquid cooled V-Twin for the V-Rod in approximately 2 hours from 370 components. Each of the 10 individual workstations takes approximately 7.5 minutes to complete its task. Building the engines onsite permits the firm to save on transportation costs of having the engines built at one location and shipped to another and decreases the carrying costs of inventory by using Just-In-Time production.
Fabrication at the factory utilizes a mix of robotics and manual labor to produce the body of the V-Rod. Robots that are designed to cut pipe are capable of completing a single operation within 3 seconds. Other fabrication robots utilize 1800 watt lasers that can perform cutting operations at the rate of 100 inches per minute. Where robotics can be used to perform high speed cutting and welding operations, skilled workers are a...
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Any time the company is looking into software project, there are areas associated with risk such as cost, time and relationship with suppliers. However, for Harley-Davidson, “collocation of suppliers with production facilities and their integration into company’s development process was the essential part of long-term relationship development”. Through a continued focus on collaboration and strong supplier relationships, the company could position itself to achieve strategic objectives and deliver cost and quality improvement over the long-term. Since, at that time company had no centralized system in place to handle relationship with suppliers and consequently, most of company’s time was spent on supplier management activities. For example, reviewing inventory, expediting and data entry. Furthermore, each supplier had different information systems for “Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO), Original Equipment (OE), Parts and Accessories (P&A), and General Merchandising (GM) purchasing activities”. The systems, already provided by supplier, had to be further modified to meet individual need at each location, such as “the OE system at Harley-Davidson’s York, Pennsylvania site was different from the OE system in Kansas City”. However, due to long-standing tradition of gradual change implementation and focus on quality, quick transitions were unwelcome and did not come easy for the company. The size of the project determined how much risk was involved in terms of cost, time, and supplier relationships. The idea of switching to global purchasing system was seen as a threat not only in supplies and production flow interruption, but also in damaged dealer/customer relationships and lost sales. Furthermore, failure of the sy...
In the 1920’s the United States economy was booming, and a famous man by the man of Henry Ford came along and had an industry changing idea. He set up the first production line style for producing automobiles. Each assembly line worker had one or two specific tasks to complete on the cars that came through. The process began with a skeleton on the car, and as it went down the line from worker to worker it slowly gained more and more pieces finishing the automobile completely...
The assembly line has brought many workers together. to work only on their specific part of a car, therefore. building them much faster than they are. This is done using many separate steps. Then you can use the.
Every business has an evolutionary clock speed measuring the rate of change in products, processes and capability. At the core of everything is the organizations ability to design a sustainable supply chain. When this becomes an organizations core competency, they are then positioned to continually win the temporary advantage. By simultaneously working to improve products, process design/creation and supply chains (three dimensional concurrent engineering), a company can drive the “turn of the helix” thus changing the clock speed for the industry.
From humble beginnings in 1901 to current day, Harley-Davidson strives to build and provide not only a mode of transportation but also a lifestyle. According to Harley-Davidson (2001-2011), the company mission reads “We ride with our customers and apply this deep connection in every market we serve to create superior value for all of our stakeholders” (Company, para. 2). The company always has not experienced the success they are realizing today and no one knows what challenges tomorrow can bring. Harley-Davidson is committed to providing the best customer service in every department.
[6] Soniya Parihar, Sanjay Jain, Lokesh Bajpai, “value stream mapping: case study of assembly process”, IJERT, Oct-2012.
Harley-Davidson Motor Company is an American manufacturer of motorcycles based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The company sells heavyweight motorcycles designed for cruising on the highway. Harley-Davidson motorcycles (popularly known as "Harley") have a distinctive design and exhaust note. They are especially noted for the tradition of heavy customization with its special engine roar and signature teardrop gas tank which is considered a unique experience that symbolizes the best of the American dream. Harley has been manufacturing motorcycles for more than a century and has earned themselves an enduring place in America’s automotive history. We believe Harley is overall a successful company but our case study shows that there are few marketing developments can be achieved.
Harley-Davidson Inc. founded in 1903 and produced most of its motorcycles to be sold to the US military during World War 1. In 1953, Harley-Davidson became the only US motorcycle manufacturer for the next 46 years (Harley Davidson Museum). In 1988, Mr. Richard Teerlink was appointed the Chief Operating Officer of Harley-Davidson Inc. until 1997 (Bloomberg). Mr. Teerlink started with Harley around 1981 as VP and CFO of Harley, which was when the company was trying to reshape its corporate culture. This was a time when the company was facing serious competition from Japanese motorcycle manufacturers like Honda, who were continuing to take up US market share since the 1960s. Harley-Davidson Inc. had to transform itself and break away from the
Many of Harley-Davidson customers love the fact that Harley-Davidson motorcycles are made in America. For the last century, Harley-Davidson has been the only true American made motorcycle. Harley-Davidson has helped the American economy by having their factories and dealerships here in America, and by staffing those facilities.
We think it would be interesting to quote first Harley-Davidson's mission, in order to get a first approach of what is the purpose of the company from their point of view. The mission talks first about dreams, rather than motorcycles, which is what the public has in mind. This mission says:
The Goal of any business is to obtain maximum results in the most efficient manner while at the same time providing your customer with the quality product they desire. Often times this process is made difficult with waste or anything that clogs the process unnecessarily. Henry Ford aimed to eliminate this waste through looking at his manufacturing pro...
After analyzing the Segway case material we felt that the Value Chain would provide an all encompassing view of Segway's strengths and weaknesses in particular areas of interest (see Figure 1).
...ld of robotics. Robotics has become an important area of study due to the fact that more and more processes are getting automated these days. Mechanical engineers are handed the task of manufacturing assembly lines of robots for different operations and controlling them through pre-written programs to make the process of manufacture less human dependent, and more efficient and economical.
...tired or making mistakes, leading to improved quality. Robots help achieve higher production quality at a reduced operating cost compared to manual manufacturing. They help produce more parts with fewer defects using less equipment while maintaining their flexibility for future changes. Their capability is only increasing with time. Major robot manufacturers are regularly upgrading their robots with increased greater accuracy, payload capacity, increased reach and range of motion, speed and acceleration, faster communication with better safety features, lower operational cost and external equipment. Modern industrial robots offer different and multiple benefits and advantages. They have single-freely transformed products, companies and facilities. Recent developments have made industrial robots more affordable, user-friendly, easier and intelligent than ever before.
The Ford Motor Company has been in business since the nineteenth century, and it has enjoyed a rather successful run as one of the top automobile-making industries in the United States. Ford Motor Company is a prosperous business because of strategic planning and changes that it was willing to take a risk on developing and implementing. Successful corporations have to adapt to the constantly changing environment or the company will be doomed to failure. In other words, customer shopping habits change as new products are introduced to the market or when other factors beyond Ford Motor Company’s control affect which vehicles are sold. For example, there is an increased demand for fuel efficient cars when the average price per gallon