I think this is new news ... If not, just dis-regard ... In any event, sounds like good times for this modern day cowboy, bike creator...--East Troy — Erik Buell's motorcycle assembly line has been running about a month, and already Buell is worried about not having enough space as he ramps up production and kicks his engineering efforts into overdrive. "These are wonderful problems to have," Buell says as he walks through the plant where the first Erik Buell Racing production motorcycles are being assembled for delivery in February.The plant's layout was designed by a former automotive industry engineer who was fed up with big companies and, like Buell, wanted to challenge the status quo. It's a plant where people aren't stuck in the same job day after day, and they're encouraged to try new things that improve the work flow."Once you learn all of the workstations, you could build a motorcycle from scratch. And that's more fun and more interesting for people than doing a typical assembly line job," Buell says.--On his own, he has more creative freedom than he had under Harley."I would never have been able to do the things I am doing now ... which is a little closer to what I like, maybe a lot closer," Buell said. His new company has hired engineers from Yamaha, Boeing Corp. and General Motors. Its engineering staff is much larger compared with the old Buell Motorcycle Co., partly because of the consulting work done for Hero. There's a lot of energy in the workplace, which includes product designers fresh out of college, brimming with new ideas. "We have young people who work like maniacs," Buell said. Buell Motorcycle Co. also used a nontraditional assembly line. "The traditionalists said it would never work, that we couldn't build 3,000 bikes a year. But we got up to 15,000 bikes a year, with one work shift, and there was virtually no absenteeism because people had fun and got a lot of credit for what they were doing," Buell said. "It's really not anything I have done except trust the Wisconsin workforce," he added.--I've worked at a place ~sort of like he is describing before ... Really cool when everyone works as one for the product, everyone pushing forward, hrs do not really matter, because compensation is there and the end-product is a very good one. Plus, I bet Eric is very easy to talk to about his bikes ... Good luck Mr. Buell There is alot more to read on this link ...http://www.jsonline.com/business/ne...amps-up-production-b99183928z1-241022261.html
He has a World Superbike team and is still in the AMA series. He's moving quick working with Hero. Reading all that, I'm sure people beg to work there. I bet he's thinking he should have been off on his own awhile ago
Hopefully this pans out and Buell becomes a success story. I know I love my Buell XB9R. Maybe I'll be buying a new Buell someday?
I think he learned his lesson from playing with HD. Lean and mean baby. No more dumpsters full of Buells please.
