Harley-Davidson explores 'community' on-site supplier reps
Lead purchasing team members in Harley-Davidson's new product development structure are responsible for input on all aspects of a product platform, not just purchasing aspects, says Leroy Zimdars, development purchasing director.
By Staff -- Purchasing, 3/11/1999
Motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson Motor Co. is striving to get all suppliers involved in the product design and development process, including small suppliers that don't have the resources of their larger counterparts. According to Leroy Zimdars, director of development purchasing, Harley would like to have on-site people who represent groups of small suppliers. These "community" supplier reps would provide support for concurrent product development from suppliers who are small or don't do a high volume of business with Harley-Davidson."It's just starting to happen now," says Zimdars. "We have small supplier companies, with a couple of million dollars of annual sales, and we want to utilize their experience in product development. But these suppliers are saying 'We're small and we can't afford to have engineers working at customer sites.'"
Harley wants to link these suppliers with others of their type through the use of the community supplier representatives, but many questions have to be addressed, such as competitive conflicts and which suppliers gets new business. Regardless, Zimdars believes Harley will get more value from its small suppliers through this practice. "It's the future," he says.
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