Harley Davidson, Birth of the V-Rod
Product Development Example
Things to observe during the program:
In Chapter Two of Ulrich and Eppinger’s book there is a description of a generic product development
process. Exhibit 2-2 is a good outline.
1. In Phase 0 “Planning”, one step is “Articulate market opportunity”. What was the market
opportunity that Harley Davidson was addressing with the introduction of the V-Rod?
2. Phase 1 “Concept Development” includes “Collect customer needs”. How did Harley Davidson
collect information about the customer’s needs and desires?
3. Phase 1 includes “Investigate feasibility of product concepts”.
a) How were design options generated?
b) How were the options explored? (e.g. Were they considered in one at a time or several
explored at the same time? How did they evaluate and select options?) Give examples.
4. Who made the decisions and how were they made?
a) Were the decisions made by individuals, by committee, or both? Give examples.
b) Name one design choice for which the Industrial Designer had veto power.
c) Name one design choice for which the Engineer had veto power.
On page 25 of the book is a discussion of how companies organize. This affects who you, as an engineer,
report to. In a “Functional Organization” you would report to an engineering boss, but then go to work
with marketing, industrial design, etc. on projects. In a “Project Organization” you report to the project
manager along with others of different disciplines.
5. Consider the structure of the design organization at Harley Davidson:
a) What functions were represented by individuals in the video? (Consider Exhibit 1-2 on page
4. What designations would you add/subtract?)
b) What was the nature of the relationships between the various functional groups
(particularly the industrial design group and the design engineers)?
6. Is Harley Davidson a For-Profit or Not-For-Profit enterprise?
7. Why does Willie G. appear to have so much power?
8. Companies use a variety of techniques to protect intellectual property including patents, trademarks,
copyrights, and trade secrets. How has Harley-Davidson tried to protect its characteristic sound?
9. Did the V-Rod program help Harley economically? (e.g. From 2000 to 200X, what happened to the
stock price?, sales volume?, profit?, market share?)
10. One goal of the V-Rod project was to increase the size of the market for Harley Davidson
motorcycles without offending the loyal customer base. This is because the loyal base is aging and
younger customers are more interested in high tech, high performance bikes. What measure would
you use to determine success in reaching that goal? Using that measure, did the V-Rod help expand
the customer base?
11. Exhibit 2-4 in Ulrich and Eppinger lists different process types. For the Harley Davidson V-Rod,
consider which of the process types are applicable. You may expect that one of the process types will
be the primary one, but aspects of the design will reflect other types. You should read this section of
the text carefully, since the words may not mean what you assume they mean.
For each type, check the appropriate column and state your brief justification.
Type
Yes
Some
No
Justify (for each type)
Market-Pull
Technology-Push
Platform
Process-Intensive
Customized
High-Risk
Quick-Build
Complex
12. In Ulrich and Eppinger’s Introduction chapter they list 5 characteristics of successful product
development.
a) With respect to “Development Time”, was the 6 years needed for the V-Rod a successful
product development? Explain.
b) Harley used Porsche to assist in engine design. How did that affect “Development Time” and
Development Capability”?
13. Why is the styling of the V-Rod covered so extensively in the video?
ME 470 Systems Engineering
Lab 1 – Harley V-Rod Case Study
Assignment:
Answer the questions on the Harley Davidson, Birth of the V-Rod Product Development Example
handout.
Due Date:
Wednesday, March 14, 2012 at the beginning of lab
Evaluation:
Answers should be typed rather than handwritten.
Questions 1-6 can mostly be answered by watching the video and will be evaluated based on what was
stated in the video.
Questions 7-11 require justifications.
 The justifications for question 11-13 should be reasonable and logical, but do not require
external sources.
 The justifications for questions 7-10 require external sources. Those sources should be
o Listed (use bibliography format)
o Available (Instructor can find)
o Believable (is believable by a typical supervisor on the job)