| Author | Message | ||
     Cityxslicker |
I am doing an MBA class on corporate change and organization, My paper is on Buell (of course) I am looking for the mission statement of Buells original site back when they were still under H-D (I cant seem to locate an archived one!) I have referenced his video on the EBR website for his current mission statement. Thanks for your help. | ||
| Iamarchangel |
Mission statements: what a screaming waste of time. NOT your paper, just the concept. It's just part of my picture of airy fluff that generates over-populated management which, in turn, leads to inefficient companies and, whoosh, off-shore they go. The two essentials are summarized by Van Morrison and the Boy Scouts: understand what is needed, and deliver the product on time; I promise to do my best and to do my duty before God and the Queen (YMMV). The mission statement is what the customer should be expressing after the transaction. (You're at a party and some stranger stand in front of you and states, "I'm a nice person." What do you think? Or, you're at the party and meet somebody and after they leave, you say, "Wasn't that a nice person!") Anyway, a good paper will present the negative side. Hehe, hope I helped you with that. Never mind me, I've got a major exam in a couple of hours and I'm trying not to think about it. (Message edited by Iamarchangel on December 05, 2009) | ||
| A10tankkill |
The Queen you refer to must be a Kennedy, Clinton, or Obamam's wife. We don't have no stinkin' Queen! This is America and despite the press and quite a few elitists who seem to think a monarchy is a wonderful thing, we tossed the kinf/queeny business on their asses a few hundred years ago.  | ||
| Jaimec |
Funny how you mention Kennedy (Caroline??), Clinton or (Michelle) Obama, but failed to mention Laura, Barbara or Sarah. Wonder where your political stance might be...  | ||
| A10tankkill |
The other ones you bring up never got the same adulation the ones I mentioned receive. The quick reference to a ball gown was about it for them as opposed to what they are doing every minute. Although I will say Clinton never really gets the attention in a completely nice light. It is often in a way that makes her out to be ruthless and a hardass. Actually I was referring to Jackie Kennedy and the beginning of the Camelot b.s.. As far as Sarah Palin, there is rarely any positive coverage for her, she may actually rank up there with Clinton for coverage with a twist that sets out to make her look bad. My political leanings are probably more to the right, but I have no desire to be a republican, as they don't follow through on anything they supposedly represent anyway. I vote for the candidate who best supports my beliefs, whatever useless party affiliation. I believe less government should always be the goal, and is most certainly what the founding fathers intended as opposed to a new agency a week at every level of government. Government isn't supposed to be a primary employer which is the route we have gone. I could ramble on, but I've gone far afield from this threads purpose. Sorry Anyway, I do agree with Iamarchangel's position on mission statements, but they do make people feel good, and some people need that to remember how to treat others, so no harm. Have a great weekend, and someone please put an 1125R under my Christmas tree! | ||
| Davegess |
Dude's he is from Canada; they have a Queen. Let's not get every ones undies all in a bunch. | ||
| A10tankkill |
My undies are only in a bundle because I don't have an 1125R yet! | ||
| Iamarchangel |
YMMV meaning Your Mileage May Vary meaning I don't know what the US Boy Scout Oath actually says but that's close enough for my point. Dave: it's actually a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarch. Slight difference, let's not get into it here. Figured Cityxslicker would be the one to get upset with me. Exam went well, I think, thanks for asking. | ||
| Moxnix |
Congrats on the exam. We have a democratic republic with the addition of most of our politicians considering themselves royalty. EB had about 5 or 6 simple "rules" when he got the company started. I heard them about two weeks ago from one of his early on accomplices. Not sure he had a written mission statement, other than building American sportbikes. | ||
| Anonymous |
Erik had a mission statement, but it was never accepted by H-D. They wrote the ones that were used.There was a new one with each new president, I think. I also remember this, which is kind of related: H-D came in with a new "Corporate Quality" deal years ago, and they hired a bunch of of consultants. Erik had an original quality mission statement that read: "Quality means a delighted customer". This was changed to a multi-paragraph piece with lots of words like "crossfunctional" and "collaborative" and "stakeholders" in it. I don't remember any of it, and I doubt anyone else does either. I do remember "Quality means a delighted customer", and I think everyone at Buell did too. Oh yeah, the guy who led the multipage gobbledegook stuff is an executive VP at H-D now. Big corporations are a weird sort of animal. | ||
| Court |
>>> I do remember "Quality means a delighted customer", and I think everyone at Buell did too. ANY Elf could recite that without hesitation. Five words would be about enough for Erik to be able to effectively communicate to a true "Elf" exactly what the mission was, what was important and how we were going to do business. He says it . . he lives it . . .so do they. Simple. | ||
| Court |
Hey . . . but who doesn't enjoy a good "interface" from time to time . . . | ||
| Iamarchangel |
"Delight your customer" is a Kaizen/Sigma catch phrase. You've probably picked up that I have very little patience with those two parasitical industries. However, that doesn't rule out that those principles can't be expressed benignly. I enjoy trying to catch snippets of EB's business principles because he seemed to be the one person who might have actually grasped the concept. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Note to elves... as per that mission statement, my XB9SX is a quality product.  | ||
| Cityxslicker |
I have the core values placard, and a link to the current EBR site with the video clip. The rest of the opening paragraph kind of summarizes the goose pimples and stupid shiate eating grin I get every time I ride the bike. I do love that video that was posted earlier about the S1 Its a bike you could ride all day, its a bike you could ride through a field if you wanted to... just go ride the bike. luckily the class course is a tiered set up in that the paper starts with an executive summary and you have 18 months to produce the thesis on it. It should be a wild ride. I plan on making it to homecoming as part of the project. | ||
| Iamarchangel |
That gives you time to investigate a small grant for the field trip expense. Good luck on that but, hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained. | ||
| Rocketman |
Quality is subjective, so just a meaningless word often. Define quality from a motorcycle manufacturing stand point?  Rocket | ||
| Hughlysses |
Anony- that's a great story. It reminds me of the hoax Scott Adams ("Dilbert" author) pulled a few years back: http://www.tealdragon.net/humor/articles/dil-hoax. htm The sad thing is your story was real. | ||
| Doerman |
Here's my personal mission statement: Do what you love and do it well. The rest will take care of itself. | ||
| Reg_kittrelle |
Rocketmon... Quality is not subjective; that's why so many organization fail to achieve it. Manufacturing quality is no more, or less, than adherence to specifications. The key, then, becomes the specs. That's where the real work is found. If the specifications are faulty, then so will be the product. With proper specs, appropriate metrics, and a competent workforce, the issue then becomes repeatability. Buell developed an excellent workforce that, by all accounts, produced a quality product. Quite possibly the most significant advance that Buell made was in the development of "Elvis." This is a product that could have been a huge moneymaker for Buell had they the interest in licensing it. I'll let "anon." or whomever, explain it. I'm quite curious as re who owns the rights to "Elvis.:" Buell or Harley. The numerous clone 'manufacturers' that sprouted up in the '90s never understood the definition of quality, and failed miserably at repeatability. | ||
| Ratbuell |
I'm quite curious as re who owns the rights to "Elvis.:" Buell or Harley. Maybe the consolidation of 40 buildings into one in York will result in PA Elvis sightings...if HD has the rights, and the foresight, that is. On second thought...nevermind. The whole foresight thing throws a wrench in that idea. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Reg- that's a great working definition. ~25 years ago, the Naval shipyard where I worked instituted a "quality" program and that was the #1 thing I took away from the classes we had on that. Quality is defined as conformance to the requirements. You can think up a hundred other definitions, but that's anyone you can work with and measure. Like you said, the key then becomes the specifications. | ||
| Reg_kittrelle |
Hugh... Does the name Phillip Crosby ring a bell? | ||
| Rocketman |
Quality is subjective, so just a meaningless word often. In the eye of the consumer. Define quality from a motorcycle manufacturing stand point? Which is what the consumer should be given as a standard, but then the standard needs to be defined, in which case quality is defined. If quality is defined it might be quality to a certain standard, and acceptable to some, but it might not be quality to the standard I for example might require. Once again, subjective. That Bimota above. Image if it were equipped with a low quality (funny word that) flasher relay made in Spain. I would take the view a higher quality (seems subjective now that funny word) flasher relay might be obtained from a German manufacturer. If I found a cheap quality component on a 40 grand motorcycle, I'd be thinking where else has the quality been compromised for profit. It might have well passed a certain quality standard as a motorcycle, but the flasher relay might well not be part of a quality certification process if one existed. I think quality is VERY subjective, and thus the consumer is left to decide what they consider quality. You would have to agree that the Bimota is of a higher quality than a Buell, but then some would say not because they define quality different. So is quality achieved at a defined level, thus no matter how much better than what that level be, it matters not as something less in quality is still defined as quality providing it reached the required standard. Quality is subjective. There is only one scenario where quality is not subjective and that is when every ounce of material has been brought together in a manner and by a manner that can only be bettered in time as technology advances. Then we can say quality must always be at the forefront of technology. The pinnacle of technology. Otherwise if not, quality is always subjective. To conclude. What I consider quality might be different from what others consider to be quality, and I'm sure that's the case. But as long as quality is subjective, we can at least argue where something is good and where something is not so good. Somewhere in between we can strive for improvement. That's if the product is of a quality worth striving for in the first place. Pretty subjective eh. Rocket | ||
| Hughlysses |
Reg- yea, it sure does. Shipyards used to get a new commander every 2 years, and each one tried to kick off some program so that they could point to it as having accomplished something during their tenure. I thought the "quality" program was one of the better ones. | ||
| Reg_kittrelle |
Sorry, Rocko... I could debate each point, but we'll not meet in the center on this one. I use "quality" in a very objective sense as I outlined above. I do this because I have a manufacturing background. Quality was not something that was debated, or open for discussion. The product either met the design specifications, or it did not. And I do not believe that Bimoto and Buell used differing interpretations of the word. What did differ were the specifications applied to the product. An example (simplistic) of what I mean by quality: If the design engineer specifies that the crankpin have a maximum runout of 0.005", then that is the spec that must be adhered to. There is no discussion, no subjectivity. I've also another unpopular thought to offer you; there is no such thing as high or low quality. The product either meets the specs, or it does not. Where people have trouble with this definition is when you tell them that a crappy product can also be a quality one. The problem here being that this crappy product WAS built to spec, but that the specs were faulty. Responsible manufacturers spend a tremendous amount of money on tools, equipment, measurement, and training to insure that their product meets specifications, and that these specs can be met on a continual, assembly-line basis. At the same time, I recognize that the popular use of "quality" is highly subjective, and I've no issue with that. | ||
| Chadhargis |
Quality is easy to define. Quality is meeting the REASONABLE needs and expectations of your customer. The Bimota above costs many, many times more than a production Buell, so it should be expected to have fewer defects. That is "reasonable" to expect. A mass produced bike, that is built using mass production techniques and to a price point should be expected to have a few defects and issues. While manufacturers are constantly striving to improve quality, you should only address one problem at a time using the same method each time to find countermeasures to each problems. | ||
| Rocketman |
At the same time, I recognize that the popular use of "quality" is highly subjective, and I've no issue with that. I could have sworn that was the point I was making Reg, lol! If the design engineer specifies that the crankpin have a maximum runout of 0.005", then that is the spec that must be adhered to. There is no discussion, no subjectivity. Quality would apply to material said crankshaft were made of also. Running to a tolerance is not subjective no matter the material used. Same applies to the flasher relay. That a Spanish one does the job as capable as a German one is defined by how long and therefore how reliable. The subjectivity is not in the tolerance or specification here. It is in the material and construction of said product. A crankshaft made from monkey metal assembled to absolute correct tolerance by chimpanzees might well pass quality control to the specified requirement, but a crankshaft made from high grade Swedish steel assembled by American craftsman will far exceed the quality specified requirement. Even with quality standards adhered to, subjectivity still exists. Tell me Reg, was Battle2win a better quality magazine after the first four editions because it was produced on higher quality material? Excepting the content remained equally as good per all copies. Where does quality start and finish? In my book, I regard quality as always subjective so as I can determine what quality satisfies me. Subjective until the limit is reached. Rocket | ||
| Rocketman |
Quality is easy to define....... stuff ...... Subjective then. Rocket | ||
| Jlnance |
I think I can actually make those two definitions meet in the middle. I too have some exposure to manufacturing. Quality as repeatability and adherence to specification is the definition I use. Where I see it getting subjective is a case like motorcycles, where there is a specification, but the end user does not get to know what it is. In that case we each have our own specs for what a motorcycle should be, and hope they match what the manufacturer designed for. A concrete case in point. The Ulys ate a lot of rear wheel bearings, certainly more than I was comfortable with. But I had no idea how often Buell thought it was acceptable for a rear wheel bearing to fail. Zero is not a realistic number, there has to be some target for reliability. But I'm not consulted on what it is, nor am I even informed as to what the engineers decided it was. I just get to live with whatever they decided. The lack of knowledge makes determining that a subjective process. |
