Evaluating Harley Davidson's LiveWire Electric Motorcycle Supply Chain

This report examines the supply chain management of Harley Davidson's LiveWire electric motorcycle, evaluating its strategies and impact on product profitability. It explores the company's use of supply chain management strategies, including reducing supplier base, implementing a "Material as Need" program, and adopting statistical operation control. The report also discusses the application of operation and supply theories such as business process redesign and resource-based view. It analyzes the positive impacts of these strategies on product sales and revenue, while also identifying issues such as customer awareness and inventory management. The report recommends adopting SWOT analysis, lean manufacturing, and total quality management to overcome challenges. The conclusion suggests that Harley Davidson should continue manufacturing the LiveWire due to increasing demand and less suppliers.

RUNNING HEAD: SUPPLY CHAIN 0
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
LiveWire electric motorcycle..........................................................................................................2
Supply chain management300.........................................................................................................3
Other operations and supply theories..............................................................................................4
Impact of supply chain management on product.............................................................................5
Issues................................................................................................................................................5
Recommendations............................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Supply chain management is the management of the flow of goods and services and includes all
processes that transform raw materials into final products (Benachio et al., 2019). It include the
process of moving the goods from one place to another to improve the activities and procedure of
supply side It has several importance which includes that it leads in maximizing customer
satisfaction and also increase capability of the organization to gain competitive advantage.
Therefore, it is estimated there are various companies which use supply theories to improve the
supply of the product so that the product will increase the profitability of the business
(Chebotareva et al., 2019).
The preset report is based on recommending Harley Davidson about producing the LiveWire
electric motorcycle that is whether it can continue or terminate to produce this product. This
discussion is made by describing the strategies used by the company for supply chain
management of LiveWire electric motorcycle and supply theories used to gain competitive
advantage. The report also describes the effects of these strategies on the profitability of the
product. The estimation describes that Harley Davidson is one of the leading company which
provide quality product and the profits of the company in the year 2017 was $5.647 billion.
LiveWire electric motorcycle
Harley Davidson LiveWire electric motorcycle is the first electric vehicle which was produced in
the year 2019, the power of the product is 74 hp (55 kW) and torque is 52 lb ft (71 Nm). THe
estimation revealed that maximum speed of the product is 95 mph (Triwastuti, 2017). This
product was produced by the company to increase profits and revenue of the organization and to
target the different type of consumers. It has several type of features which leads in attracting
large number of customers which includes that the product has system of cooling it is because
liquid is shared among motor as well as controller. The headlight of the product is LED and has
single speed powertrain.
The product is developed to increase the satisfaction of the consumers because of fulfilling the
demand and requirements of the customers. The product is produced up to the expectations of the
customers; Harley Davidson does more investment in understanding the requirement of the
customers so that new product can be launched by meeting the needs of target customers.

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Further, through this product company leads in targeting different types of consumes in
comparison to their existing consumers (Anita & Abhinav, 2017). The company adopt various
strategies to deliver the quality product to the consumers so that profitability and customer
satisfaction. Further, the supply chain management is highly efficient through which there will
be better supply of Harley Davidson LiveWire electric motorcycle. The above various arguments
and recommendations is provided to the company to continue with LiveWire electric motorcycle
(Ferrell et al., 2019).
Supply chain management
Supply chain
SOURCE: (Osunsanmi et al., 2019)
The above model used by Harley Davidson to supply LiveWire electric motorcycle to the target
customers. Therefore, the company should continue with the product because company adopt
various supply chain management strategies to competent in competitive environment and to
increase customer satisfaction. For the development of the supplier the company reduces the base
of the supplier from 320 to 120 so that performance will be increased (Yu et al., 2017). It is done
by the company because there is not much supplier to supply LiveWire electric motorcycle.
Further, to manage the inventory and to reduce the wastage the company adopts the strategy of
introducing the “Material as Need” (MAN) program so that company can move to pull

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manufacturing system by reducing the stock and to get the inventory when needed (Dong &
Kouvelis, 2020).
The company also uses the strategy of adopting statistical operation control in which
manufacturing control considered it as the education tool to improve the procedure regarding
collection, measurement and recording of data (Anita & Abhinav, 2017). Therefore, company
can continue with the product because of using quality and accurate strategy which can support
them to gain first mover advantage and to sustain in highly competitive environment. It
continuous improvement in the produce also help Harley Davidson to manufacture LiveWire
electric motorcycle by reducing the wastage, the estimation describes that it is the cost effective
product which reduces the cost and expenditure of the company (Benachio et al., 2019).
The company also applies various software to manage the warehouses and transportation strategy
that is the company use the software of EZOfficeInventory which support in managing the assets
while transporting and storing. It also supports the company to track the inventory through RFID
tags, QR Codes etc (Ellram & Murfield, 2019). The estimation revealed that it results in reducing
cost and expenditure of the company. The LiveWire electric motorcycle will have to be
continuing because it leads and increase the capability of the company to get all the information
and data about the inventories s that misunderstanding and manufacturing of the product is done
in efficient manner (Hawkins, 2017).
Other operations and supply theories
Harley Davidson for efficient supply of LiveWire electric motorcycle and to manage the
operations adopt the strategy of “business process redesign” theory it is because in this various
procedure of the business is redesign to achieve the objective of increasing the performance. This
strategy argues that business process redesigning leads in increasing performance of the
product”. Therefore, it is estimated that in the year 2019 the company ship up to 212,000 to
217,000 bikes to the consumers. This argument revealed that company should continue with the
product it is because it can raise the capability of the company to compete in international
environment.

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The company also adopts the Resource-based view theory to manage the supply chain process
and to manage the overall operations of the organization by management of activities which is
related to the manufacturing of LiveWire electric motorcycle (de Morais & Barbieri, 2019).
Through this theory company argues that it increase the capability of the company to manage
competence resources. Therefore, company should continue producing LiveWire electric
motorcycle, further estimation revealed that Harley Davidson also adopt Agency theory for
supplying of products in effective manner and also apply “six sigma” and “reconfigurable
manufacturing system” to manage the operations of the organization.
Impact of supply chain management on product
The strategy and theories of supply chain management which Harley Davidson adopt for
manufacturing and supplying of LiveWire electric motorcycle to the consumers has positive
impact on the product. It s because this leads in delivering of 217,000 bikes to the consumers and
earn revenue of organization that is in the year 2019 the revenue of the company $5,342 million.
The estimations describes that this also support the organization to attract competent employees
in the organization which is revealed that in the 2017 the number of employees 5,800 who all the
highly focused in developing the strategies for increasing profits by increasing the sales of
LiveWire electric motorcycle (Ferrell et al., 2019).
It is the highly positive decision of manufacturing LiveWire electric motorcycle and can be
continued it is because estimation revealed that in future the demand of electric motorcycle will
increased and through this profits can be anticipated to increase because of less supplier of
electric motorcycle (Jonsson & Mattsson, 2019). The new supply chain management strategy
manage the operations and improve the procedure of supply chain , therefore through this
company can take competitive advantage and can expand their operations in international
market. However, company still face some issues which can be overcome for continuing in
manufacturing of LiveWire electric motorcycle.
Issues
The challenges which company face is to increase the customers and reduce the number of
operations it is because due to increase in the activities and strategies the process and framework

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of the company which raises cost and expenditure of the organization. Therefore, the profits of
the company do not increase in the same ratio which becomes one of the major challenges which
company suffers in 2019. However, still it is the best option to continue with manufacturing
LiveWire electric motorcycle it is because of investigation find that needs and demand of the
consumers about electric motorcycle will estimated to be increased.
The major issues due to which profits decreases is the lack of awareness about the product that is
the customers were not much aware about LiveWire electric motorcycle which leads in reducing
the customers. The company also does not invest more in research and development through
which the current demands of the customers is not recorded by the company (Kot, 2018).
Therefore, the other reason is selecting the appropriate method for supplying inventory
management in warehouses and in transportation of LiveWire electric motorcycle to the target
audience.
Recommendations
To overcome the issue in supply chain Procedure Company can change some changes but still
continue manufacturing of LiveWire electric motorcycle. Therefore, it can regularly update the
supply chain strategy by adopting the theory of SWOT analysis in which strength, weaknesses,
threats and opportunities of the company is described. To solve the issue of increase waste
company can follow the theory of lean manufacturing for operations management it can support
the organization to follow particular principles such as continuous improvement and this theory
also support the organization to manufacture LiveWire electric motorcycle by reducing waste
and increasing productivity of the organization (Tejwani & Stock, 2019). This also help the
organization to follow the principles of lean manufacturing which includes “value”, “perfection”,
“flow”, “pull” (Osunsanmi et al., 2019). It can support the company to produce more by reducing
cost and expenditure, further it increase the focus of organization to make changes according to
the requirement of LiveWire electric motorcycle.
The company adopts theory of six sigma by including new software for managing LiveWire
electric motorcycle in warehouses and transportation. However, still problems also arise because
of not much of suppliers included in supplying of LiveWire electric motorcycle. Therefore, for
this company can follow the principle of “Measure” and “analyze” to investigate the needs and

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desires of the suppliers and activities in each stage of supply chain management. This can also
support the organization to regular measure the performance so that goals of the organization
being achieved and leads in reducing the defects in the procedure of supply chain (Yu et al.,
2017). The estimation describes that six sigma leads in increasing capability of the company to
improve the procedure of supply chain so that regular supplying of LiveWire electric motorcycle
is done when need arises. It leads in increasing profitability because of improving the systems
and activities of the overall functioning of the organization. The company can also adopt the
theory of total quality management. It is because this leads in increasing the focus of the
organization to streamlining the overall procedure of supply chain which includes everything
such as providing training to the employees and ensure satisfaction of the consumers (Dong &
Kouvelis, 2020).
To increase the sales of LiveWire electric motorcycle company can adopt the theory of Material
requirements planning (MRP) it support the organization to use optimum resources without
influencing the productivity of the organization. It supports the organization to cut the cost of
warehousing and support the company in reducing the expenditure because of lowering the over-
purchasing material (Hawkins, 2017). Further, it allow the organization to maintain smooth flow
because of reducing the bottleneck and leads in identifying the constraint, however, it is revealed
that it is considered beneficial for the company to continue with the product because of less
suppliers an more demand of LiveWire electric motorcycle.
Conclusion
From the above it is estimated that Harley Davidson should continue manufacturing LiveWire
electric motorcycle because of increasing more demand in the future. The estimation revealed
that company use EZOfficeInventory software and other supplying and operations management
theories which includes Resource-based view theory. This leads in increasing the profits for the
organization but still face issue due to improper management of supply chain. Therefore, to
overcome this company can use lean manufacturing theory so that operations will be manage in
efficient manner and can also adopt principles of six sigma.

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