Word: stefanelli
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Every part on a new model has a team comprising a purchasing engineer, a design engineer and a quality engineer--called PDQ--in charge of taking that part from concept through production. "The three of them together act as a business," says Tony Stefanelli, Buell's senior platform director. "They're like entrepreneurs, developing a product that they sell back to Buell every day on the assembly line." Instead of handing off their work to the line engineers, Buell designers own their parts through the manufacturing process. "If your part design isn't working, you have to go over...
Buell's collaborative style has led to some of the most innovative designs in motorcycles in recent years. "More than any other place I have been, we have a real blank-sheet-of-paper approach," says Stefanelli. Buell was the first to fit an exhaust underneath the bike so the weight stays low for better control. It was the first to put oil in the swing arm and fuel in the frame to distribute weight more evenly. And it pioneered a perimeter brake disk--replacing a central disk around the hub--that weighs a third less than the standard system...
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