HARLEY-DAVIDSON has confirmed that its York, Pennsylvania manufacturing facility will temporarily pause production. The production pause is being linked to a ‘potential quality issue’ relating to one of Harley’s tier-2 suppliers.
Harley is stating that the York manufacturing plant, which is reported to employ around 1,000 employees, is anticipated to be reopened and back to producing bikes on June 26th 2023.
The parts in question are ‘brake hose assemblies’ supplied to the firm by a tier-2 supplier, Proterial Cable America (PCA). The firm makes a range of different products for different sectors, including medical equipment, communications hardware and automotive parts such as brake hoses, fittings and wiring harnesses. PCA’s tier-2 status means it doesn’t directly supply Harley’s final products, but instead supplies the tier-1 suppliers which do supply Harley directly.
It's not known exactly which Harley-Davidson models will be affected by the news.
The statement from Harley-Davidson (which you can read here) does go on to confirm that the firm’s two new CVO models, the Road Glide and Street Glide, are unaffected by the shit down, as these two new models do not utilise the brake hose assemblies. It also confirms that the firm’s international production facilities, in Brazil, India, and Thailand, are unaffected.
Speaking about the production pause, Harley-Davidson CEO, Jochen Zeitz said:
"While retail sales have improved in the quarter, as we had expected, we have a strong inventory position in the network to help us navigate through this situation - our teams are working very hard to minimize the impact on the business."
