KICK START

One industry insider scoffs at this timetable. "At Excelsior-Henderson, it took three years and a dream team to design an engine, validate its performance and start building them," says a former Excelsior-Henderson insider who spoke on condition of anonymity. "So you can’t just design a new engine and put it in the present bike; everything has to change. Absolutely everything?and there just aren’t many ways to speed up that timetable."

O’Connell (who owns and rides one of the few Minnesota Excelsior-Hendersons, as well as several Indians) scoffs right back and says Indian can cut that time in half by designing the engine and new motorcycle in-house, but outsourcing the engine’s manufacture and testing. Meanwhile, Indian will continue to manufacture the frames and sheet metal components, and provide the powder coating, painting and assembly. He also points to Indian’s technology strength as another key to this timetable.

Wagenseller agrees. "The power of our applications gives us a handle on our manufacturing processes, specifically time to production, by controlling how components are handled within the organization and fed to the final assembly area. These are all pieces of business functionality that many companies struggle to accommodate quickly, but we have under good control," he says. "We learned how important it was to put a business process system in place that allows you to grow quickly and intelligently. We picked a good system early, got it in place quickly and put the right people in place to use it."

Cycleworld’s Edwards says the proof will be in the pudding, but Indian’s sales and efforts have been a pleasant surprise so far. "They turned a lot of people’s ideas around with their dedication to building a cycle with what they had on hand. If they are able to come out with a new Indian, designed from the ground up to be a new Indian all of one piece...I think they could be well on their way to being a long-term player in the American motorcycle market."