Harley-Davidson's plant closure leaves a void in manufacturing community

Editor-in-Chief Dan Davis reflects upon his visit to the Harley-Davidson manufacturing facility in Kansas City, Mo., which is now slated to be closed. He made the visit while a writer for Industrial Paint & Powder magazine.

The news that Harley-Davidson is planning to close its Kansas City, Mo., plant and consolidate operations at its York, Pa., facility struck a nerve with me. The simple message is that no business is safe from market forces.

The Kansas City facility sticks in my brain because it’s one of the few greenfield construction projects of that size that I’ve ever had the chance to tour. Back in 1999, when I was writing for Industrial Paint & Powder magazine, which was later renamed Finishing Today, I had the opportunity to see the state-of-the-art powder coating system that the facility employed. Harley-Davidson worked to bolster the high-end image for its motorcycles, and it applied the same thinking to its production facility, which originally was dedicated to building the company’s entry-level Sportster model. I still remember the cleanliness of the facility and seeing the lighting and advanced technology as a sign of what modern manufacturing was supposed to look like.

From a coating perspective, Harley-Davidson was embracing multiple finishing technologies to deliver a long-lived coating. It had an e-coat system for corrosion protection of fenders, frames, gas tanks, and oil tanks; a wet-spray system for the basecoat on fenders and tanks; and a powder clearcoat for quality and environmental considerations. It was a complex system that delivered colors that popped, especially two-tone finishes that required a second color application over the first finish.

And you wouldn’t believe the attention to detail given to the application of decals. These employees were dressed like they were in an ICU, and they were simply putting stickers on components like gas tanks. They were guided by laser-projected outlines to get the decals in the right place, however, which gives you an idea of just how high quality expectations were for that product.

But the market doesn’t care about that nowadays. According to a report in USA Today, Harley-Davidson’s worldwide retail motorcycle sales fell 6.7 percent in 2017 compared to 2016. A person in the comments section of a newspaper report on the plant closure summed up Harley-Davidson’s predicament nicely: “All of the customers are dying off.”

The proud brand is doing what it can to reach out to new customers, such as sponsoring rider-training programs at its dealers and offering up its motorcycles to rental companies. It’s an uphill battle, however, as younger customers who actually have disposable income look at other products, such as less expensive motorcycles or utility vehicles. Not surprising is that the younger generation doesn’t particularly want the same products their parents loved.

The international market hasn’t made up for the moribund domestic market. Even recent tax reform wasn’t enough to save the Kansas City plant from closure. Harley-Davidson needed to take a drastic step to shore up the bottom line in the face of four years of sliding sales.

The market always moves forward. What was considered modern at one time quickly can become “outdated” if the product is something no one really wants. In that case, all you are left with are memories and a large facility in Kansas City waiting for the next market opportunity.