Harley Davidson Motorcycles

Harley-Davidson is the largest Manufacturing Company of Bikes all over the world. Harley-Davidson is the name that every bike lover loves to be associated with. Such is the quality of their products that they have ruled the markets since they started manufacturing heavy duty motor bikes. Headed by Chairman Jeffrey L. Bleustein and President, CEO, and Director James L. Ziemer Harley-Davidson Inc, is a proud employer of more than 4,694 employees, based in Milwaukee and Eagle mark Financial Services Inc. based in Chicago, Illinois. In addition, there are nearly 600 dealerships throughout the United States.

History

Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Company was established in the year 1903 in a small shed that grew into the leading manufacturers of the day by William Harley, Walter, William and Arthur Davidson, who built their initial motorcycle in Milwaukee. Later the group developed the first ever 2 cylinder, twin engine bike which was the fastest with an ability to go up to 60 miles per hour. This bike brought a sensation into the field and was a trademark of the people involved in making it a success.

The company has not only provided its excellence to the civilians but also to the US army. Representative of the World War I motorcycle market, Harley-Davidson prospered from military purchasing during World War II. Over 90,000 cycles were built for the military which elevated their production to record levels and earned them the coveted Army-Navy "E" award for excellence in war time production.

After the war, Harley went from producing military to recreational bikes. Harley developed and introduced the K-model (1952), and Duo-Glide (1958) motorcycles. By 1953, Harley-Davidson was the last remaining major motorcycle manufacturer in the US. In the year 1962 Harley-Davidson purchased 60 percent of the stock in the Tomahawk Boat Manufacturing Company. Slowly and gradually the company grew into wonders and did set up a huge plant for manufacturing. Beginning in 1920 a team of farm boys down South later known as the "hog boys" consistently won races riding the Harley-Davidson machines. In 1983, an organization was formed, taking advantage of the long-standing nickname by turning "hog" into the acronym H.O.G., for Harley Owners Group. Many Harley-Davidson enthusiasts capitalize the word to make "Hog" and consider this term the sole property of H-D. Since then the company produced various new technologies and models which rocked the markets like anything. In 2003 Harley-Davidson celebrated its 100th year with more than 250,000 people coming to Milwaukee for the final stop of the Open Road Tour

Management

They have laid special emphasis on corporate management and kept focus on short term returns. The company ordered a lot of inventory of spare parts and thus investing a lot with mush lesser production and output. The management always used innovative methods to improve production and overall sales. These criteriaís helped the company to evolve as the sole leaders even during high risk market fluctuations.

Marketing

Harley-Davidson enjoyed the monopoly in the field of motor bike production industry for many years. Japanese manufacturers did pose as a great threat to the company who introduced high quality products with comparatively low prices. They did make a significant drop in the sales of Harley-Davidson around the year 1983 with Honda emerging as one of the greatest competitors. The major advantage to the Japanese manufacturers was there low prices which Harley-Davidson could not compete, But they managed to provide a whole together different quality product attracting people with a different class and taste and thus captured the market. The companyís official website www.harley-davidson.com is a major factor in the promotion of their products along with the large number of dealers all around the world.

Motorcycle Manufacturing

Harley-Davidson has never been short of enthusiasm, curiosity towards newer technologies, improvement, and caring about the employees. The best feature of the company has been the ability to capture the userís requirements and taste and then accordingly modify their innovations and thus preparing bikes that can rule the minds of the community. Therefore, we can clearly see the impact Harley's improved manufacturing process which consisted of: JIT, EI, and SOC had on their continuously improving environment. Harley-Davidson went through various methods to capture the communityís interests like surveys, interviews and thus modified their products accordingly.