Harley-Davidson, Inc. reviews

Aging customer base, no outreach, antiquated product design, medieval management

Company cancelled all training for hourly even though management can take $250,000 junkets to England. All new equipment purchases have been cancelled. No joke: In less than ten years I have had 29 different bosses. The turnover is staggering. The new senior management insists on doing what has worked for GM and Caterpillar. No original thinking.They bring in the same consultants and institute the same programs. Harley used to be the leader. My department has 3 additional layers of management that were not there four years ago. Current CEO was an ax-man at Johnson Controls who busted the unions and outsourced everything he could. Now they are trying to reverse the damage he did there. He never even drove a motorcycle before coming here. He has a bike flown to events where he just rides the last few miles. Of the 5000 current employees: Harley currently has 708 people in Information services and 694 in Human Resources. They completely outsourced payroll but did not reduce saleried headcount at all. It is just not that large a company.There are over 50 vice presidents. None of the savings from from layoffs, labor contracts, outsourcing, or plant closings have gone into improving the product. No new equipment, no lower prices to our customers. All savings have gone to pay the 15 percent interest to Warren Buffet and to executive compensation. Final assembly in York Pa. had a 100% rework rate for most of last fall. That has been trimmed to about 75%. Quality is secondary to profits here. Once the motorcycle buying public wakes up and sees the contemp that Harley management has for them; Harley will be as dead as Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Mercury and Enron