October 31, 2011
Georgia On My Mind
Big time snow in the east over the weekend, I hope this is an indication of more to come!
I received a comment from ‘Bosco’ asking my thoughts on ‘what-if’ Yamaha moved snowmobile production to North America: “I know you probably can’t comment but was just thinking about the impact on the industry if the sleds get built in Georgia with the ATV’S. It looks like Yamaha is really starting to align them self’s with the aftermarket suppliers and bringing them into their product development. It would seem that building them here and keeping corporate out of it over there would ramp up new product to market. Thanks for the great effort here! (BLUE FOREVER!)”
This subject has been kicked around as long as I can remember. First off, what would be the impact to the industry? Probably not much. I think the impact would be realized more internally based on the assumption that the Yamaha sled division would become more profitable. We would be able to purchase cheaper parts from North American manufactures who are already supplying Cat, Doo and Polaris. We would also be saving the costs of shipping crated units from Japan.
Now if this additional money was invested into development and technology then the industry would feel the impact with Yamaha raising the ‘competitive advantage’ bar more frequently. On the other side of the coin, Yamaha snowmobiles are manufactured using proprietary techniques developed for large volume quality control and consistency. Our CF die-casting and automated assembly lines are a couple of examples. It would be a great challenge to move the current manufacturing process to Atlanta and I’m guessing here, but it would probably be very cost prohibitive based on the small number of snowmobiles we produce, this being a relative quantity compared to our motorcycles and marine products.
Now I don’t think we would ever leave ‘corporate’ out of the picture as Bosco suggests but
having NA production would most likely impact product planning and allow quicker response to market changes and requirements. To that end, maybe the factory in Georgia would not be the ultimate location in lieu of a facility a bit farther north> I elect we build a new factory in Muskoka!
Another factor, Yamaha is first and foremost, an engine builder. If we moved our snowmobile production to Atlanta, our engines would still be built in Japan as there is no engine plant in North 
America, so it really boils down to chassis and assembly. We know there are certain advantages we could enjoy with North American production, but there are also some major draw-backs, mostly in the costs associated with the start-up, that pretty much negate the opportunities.
The one factor that could really swing the vote is found in the roots of the industry and that is growth. With the economy in recession and the industry showing no signs of increasing sales, we are faced with competing for the same slice of the pie year after year. Making things more difficult; we have the costs of meeting environmental conditions, climate change ‘doomsayers’ warning of a December malaria epidemic in the Arctic and a crusty demographic of aging motor-heads demanding more performance every season (Hey CR, why don’t you guys bring back the Snowscoot?) ;-) . It’s my hunch that the directors and share holders of the company would not be easily convinced of the investment potential in pulling up stakes and moving to America.
All that said, I don’t think our snowmobile production has been based on strong business fundamentals and ROI in a very long time. Our past three presidents have all enjoyed sleds and shared in the passion for our sport. It’s a deep connection we all maintain with the thrill of winter riding, the beauty of frozen nature and the common bond, shared with other sledders. Come to think of it, maybe we should move to North America damn-it!
cheers cr
Hey Chris, just a quick response because it’s such a fun topic to kick around and I can’t get the image of that ASSEMBLED IN THE USA logo on the side of my sled out of my mind!. I think bang for the buck wise if you could gain what the overseas car manufacturers have gotten in the mentality of It’s o.k. to buy em now because they’re built here would get ya a bigger piece of that small pie all things else being equal.That to me would be a real GAME CHANGER. And hey, you don’t need that fancy CF Die Casting stuff, just build em out of aluminum lawn chair tubing like your competitor does! HEE HEE, just kiddin!
November 1st, 2011 at 10:42 amLookin’ forward to the new snow-scoot. I’m sitting on about 7 weeks holiday’s to take this winter if you want a consumer test pilot again
Cheers,
November 1st, 2011 at 2:11 pmYK
Very interesting analysis. Always plenty to think about when making a long-term strategic decision such as this one.
What is the current total market share world-wide and in North America of the 4 brands.
Thanks,
Den
Hey Den, the current market share of the four brands available in North America is 100%… okay I’m being a smart a$$ but we don’t disclose exact share, it is approximately 15% – 20% – 25% and 40% respectively (you choose the colors) globally things change with the Lynx brand quite strong in Europe, they are owned by BRP so I guess you could add the two together. Russia and China both produce domestic sleds that also would need to be counted but they do not report their numbers as part of the industry association (ISMA) where we capture the data… cheers cr
November 1st, 2011 at 4:02 pmI like the impeccable quality of Japanese manufactured goods made and assembled in Japan.. That J at the begiining of the serial number gives me piece of mind. Not to dis any body but Asian products assembled in other locales have a higher failure rate” for some reason”Ive seen it in autos, bikes sleds and outboards. The growing pains of training a work force spells warranty clams . I recall OMC dissassembling V4 and V6 outboards and installing drive shafts (missing) from new assembly plants. Not confidence buiders for sure.
November 1st, 2011 at 5:58 pmKeep the stories coming. Hope to get to see you in the near future, maybe during this coming winter! You probably need to come back out to Revelstoke to assess the snow conditions for your Global Cooling article!
November 1st, 2011 at 10:23 pmI can recall magazines in the early 1990s suggesting yamaha would move sled production to north america.After finding out that the sleds are produced in the summer on the same assembly line as motorcycles it only makes sense to leave the building process in japan(less to no downtime for the workers,if im correct?)As for your question on which countrys still sell the banshee heres a link to yamahas european site http://www.yamaha-motor.eu/eu/products/atv/sport/yfz350.aspx They are also still sold in australia.A few years back the quad magazines stated that yamaha was testing a banshee replacement with the phazers 80hp twin and two different transmission types(CVT and 6 speed gearbox).Guess the prototype got canned when the economy went south.Hope what yamaha got planned for the 2013 snowmobile line-up remains on track.
Thanks LS, I am surprised they can still sell based on emissions, the Euros are generally more strict than EPA denotes in North America. Perhaps it’s closed course (racing) only… cheers cr
November 2nd, 2011 at 7:19 amGlad to see new posts and everything is is okay at Yamaha Canada!
I think the NA production would benefit Yamaha the most when it comes to R&D. Having the production facility located where a majority of the sleds are being sold and used would provide immediate feedback and a desire to fix flaws in design (i.e the Nytro front end geometry).
Even though I didn’t want to switch back to a 2-stroke I’m impressed with what Polaris and Cat do to help people race their sleds. Even then, there is more to it than that. While I feel those OEM’s release their products without doing enough testing, for the most part, people put up with it because they want performance and most of the time the issues are not that big of a deal (not including the Polaris 800 CFI-4 here):)
Yamaha does a better job testing their products to make sure they are reliable but they also fail because they often refuse to fix or update other items. I think this is due to the engineers and production being isolated by both distance and language. There are defintely workarounds, Yamaha’s bikes and ATV’s are competitive performancewise but for whatever reason, there is not the same emphasis on sleds. I still think Yamaha could make a bunch on money selling a 3/4 size sled. With the high cost of snowmachines and no real entry level models available between the 120 and a 550, it’s like a huge niche everyone can see but no one is doing anything about. Honda did well for itself in the 1960′s by selling inexpensive, entry level motorcycles in a market dominated by expensive, big heavy road bikes. Seem’s like the sled marekt is very similar right now.
November 4th, 2011 at 2:05 pmwe all know yamaha does a great job on reliability fit & finish. i would buy a yamaha in a minute but in canada we pay approx. 5000.00 less for compeditors 2 stroke sleds also the weight is still an issue on yamaha. however they have done a super job on the nytro mtx sleds could be my next purchase.
January 20th, 2012 at 11:55 am