Harley-Davidson has suspended production and shipments of all motorcycles for two weeks due to a problem with a supplier part. Production was shut down on May 18, the day after Harley was notified of the problem by the supplier.
In a brief statement dated May 19, Harley-Davidson said it had made the decision on May 18 to suspend assembly and shipment of all motorcycles, excluding LiveWire, for a period of two weeks.
The decision was made “with great caution” according to Harley, based on information provided to Harley by a supplier on Tuesday regarding a regulatory compliance issue related to the supplier’s part.
What can we deduce from this? The fact that not only the production, but also the shipment of engines has been stopped indicates that the part has already been used during assembly. Whether it is also in motorcycles that have already been shipped is not discussed, but it is certainly not inconceivable that this is indeed the case and that Harley will roll out a major recall in the near future.
In the press release, Harley says of the part that it is a “regulatory compliance” issue, suggesting it is more of a legal issue than the part not meeting spec or quality requirements. That would not make it inconceivable that the problem is limited to a specific market (eg only the US).
For now, Harley expects production to only need to be shut down for two weeks, which should give the supplier enough time to produce and deliver a new batch of the part, but it is possible that it will take longer if the part is not received within two weeks. weeks to be delivered. It is also not clear how long it will take before the already assembled engines can be delivered.
– Thanks for information from Motorfreaks.