Harley-Davidson to Cut 700 Positions and Take Charges

For years, there was a large HD manufacturing plant in Kansas City. It closed in late 2019, as the demand for the HD motorcycles has been going down in the past decade, or so. We see quite a few HD cycles in our area....mostly on Summer weekends, as a lot of the city folks go to the area lakes. When I look closely at the riders, nearly all of them are older guys....very few young riders among them.
 

I don't think most understand the manufacturing sector of our economy is not going to be the huge employer as it once was. And it's not due to "jobs, being shipped overseas". Automation is here-BIG TIME. A machine can make something, cheaper, faster, better, and more of it ,than any human. At one time, 300 years ago, 3 out of every 4 persons was a farmer. Mechanization was introduced into farming. Today, in developed nations, it's about 1.3% , who are farmers The same is true for manufacturing. Huge factories with 40-50 thousand employees are just not economical anymore. They are going the way of the dinosaurs. That being said, Harley Davidson is built on essentially one product-hog bikes. Tastes change, and if you have basically one product............................
 
British Petroleum and Chevron will make cuts from 20-40% due to the virus and very low offshore production. When the cut back all of their vendors follow suit
 
They actually did a study....


"Harley Davidson Closing Plant Due to Declining Sales
Apparently the Baby-Boomers all have motorcycles.
Generation X is only buying a few, and the next generation isn't buying any at all.
A recent study was done to find out why?

Here are the reasons why Millennials don't ride motorcycles:
1. Pants won't pull up far enough for them to straddle the seat.
2. Can't get their phone to their ear with a helmet on.
3. Can't use 2 hands to eat while driving.
4. They don't get a trophy and a recognition plaque just for buying one.
5. Don't have enough muscle to hold the bike up when stopped.
6 Might have a bug hit them in the face and then they would need emergency care.
7. Motorcycles don't have air conditioning.
8. They can't afford one because they spent 12 years in college trying to get educated.
9. They are allergic to fresh air.
10. Their pajamas get caught on the exhaust pipes.
11. They might get their hands dirty checking the oil.
12. The handle bars have buttons and levers and cannot be controlled by touch-screen.
13. You have to shift manually and use something called a clutch.
14. It's too hard to take selfies while riding.
15. They don't come with training wheels like their bicycles did.
16. Motorcycles don't have power steering or power brakes.
17. Their nose ring interferes with the face shield.
18. They would have to use leg muscle to back up.
19. When they stop, a light breeze might blow exhaust in their face.
20 It could rain on them and expose them to non-soft water.
21. It might scare their therapy dog, and then the dog would need therapy."
 

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