Harley

Harley Davidson Motor Company was founded in 1903 by two young men, William Harley and Arthur Davidson, and since then has grown successful at producing motorcycles and related products. Harley Davidson currently employs approximately 6000 people, supports over 600 independently owned US dealerships, multiple manufacturing facilities in various states and wholly owned subsidiaries in different countries. Harley Davidson is a company that appreciates individual participation and teamwork, in which their organizational structure consisted of three interconnected circles: Create Demand (CDC), Produce Products Group (PPG) and Provide Support (PSC). To further foster its teamwork mindset its information systems (IS) organization, specifically its "Office of the CIO," consisted of three IS directors to share the CIO responsibility as opposed to just one IS individual. Leadership for Harley Davidson's purchasing organization was housed in its Purchasing Unity Group (PUG) which consisted of different purchasing managers from various sites and other members from other functions of its purchasing activities. However, the site independence that was encouraged by the various purchasing functions resulted in different methods and separate systems that were not compatible with one another across the board. So in 1995 when Garry Berryman joined Harley Davidson, his main goal was to change its existing purchasing organization. Berryman believed this could be accomplished by changing the way the company interacted with its suppliers. Harley Davidson would have to become a common enterprise-wide point of contact for suppliers through the development of a corporate wide Supply Management Strategy (SMS).