A Factory Visit - Behind The Scenes

resqguy · 08-30-2012, 10:07 PM

I have a job that keeps me busy, away from my RV except for vacation time, but it also takes me to some interesting places. This week I had the opportunity to install some computer storage equipment in the datacenter at the Winnebago factory in Forest City. I've been doing this type of work for about 30 years and have come to the conclusion that you can tell a lot about a company from their datacenter and the people that operate it.

My impression about the company is that it is a small company that builds big things. I mean this in a good way. Some companies have a big company attitude in that the employees think they are special and that customers should feel privileged doing business with them.

I happen to volunteer, to the group I was working with, that I have owned several Winnebagos over the years including my current rig, a 2003 Journey DL. When I arrived this week the contact at Winnebago introduced me to various people in the IT group. So many times I would hear "Is this the guy that owns the Journey"? They seemed proud that I was a customer of theirs.

The contact I was working with had worked for the company since the late '70s. He had tons of insight into the company's history and their venture into other "businesses". A common theme was "That didn't work so well, so we went back to what we do best, building motorhomes".

I got to meet their webmaster who is the guy that is responsible for posting all the technical diagrams and legacy documentation on the web. I told him how thankful I was to have access to that information and how helpful it has been for me over the years.

No visit would be complete without a tour of "Big Bertha" their main assembly building for their class A motorhomes. I also got to look at a few of their completed units in "finished goods". I told my contact how impressed I was with the Journey 42E model. He was nice enough to get me a copy of the owners manual, hot off the press.

Needless to say I was impressed with the culture of the company and the employees I met. The workers probably don't get paid enough to buy one of their new class A motorhomes yet they didn't seem jealous at all of the people who can. They seemed proud that they made a product that others enjoy.

goldviper · 08-30-2012, 11:30 PM

Hello Resqguy,

Very nice write up. DW and I did the factory tour a couple of weeks ago and were very inpressed with the people we talked to. Our dealer is Lichtsinn Motors, one mile from the factory, and they are very nice also and we got a private tour of the Itasca Ellipse 42QD we are having built. Our sales rep called one of his contacts in the factory and an hour later Winnie had a model ready for us to look at. It was great. We will go back in mid Oct and drive it back to AZ. Can not wait.
Les

RickO · 08-31-2012, 01:10 AM

Nice write up X2.

It really does seem like a small company/family atmosphere there. I've had my coach back there three times now. They send the tech doing the work out to meet with you in the am so you can speak directly with them instead of having your issues filtered through a service writer and I like asking the techs about their history with the company. They are usually the most experienced folks from the production line and have worked nearly every position on those production lines so they have seen it all.

Rick

resqguy · 09-01-2012, 11:48 AM

I stopped by Lichtsinn Motors while I was there. Their building used to belong to Winnebago as well as the Ford dealer across the street.

The Salesperson at Lichtsinn gave me a tour of their Journey 42E, which was virtually the same as the one I saw at the factory. Even though it was sold and it was over 90 degrees at they took me through. They even floated me their low price. I didn't expect that.

1ciderdog · 09-01-2012, 06:05 PM

When we toured the factory in May it seemed as though several of the employees were encouraged to stop work for a minute or two and just talk to us. Not an employee with an "I gotta get this done right now attitude". We enjoyed the tour and were pleased with the repairs done on our RV. The overall Winnebago company & attitude pleased my wife and me.

RickO · 09-01-2012, 06:13 PM

I retired from Hewlett-Packard after 33 years and the atmosphere in Forrest City really reminds me of that at HP in the early/mid 70's. Much like a family run business in a small community. I'm sure they take great pride telling their friends and neighbors that they work for Winnebago.

Let's hope Winnie doesn't grow so big that they follow HP's historic path.

Rick

bdickson · 09-01-2012, 07:05 PM

The description of "family atmosphere business" reminded me of the tour of Blue Ox I took last month. Small company with long term employees. Every one stopped what they were doing and showed us the component or process they were working on, and it was evident every one of them took pride in their job. One guy stopped in the hallway and asked us all about our motor home and our experiences. Later I asked the tour leader who he was. "The company president" was the reply.

Muddypaws · 09-01-2012, 07:39 PM

HP was a unique place to work then. I was in HP's Page Mill facility in the mid 70's to early 80's. The concept of 'Government Work', I.e. personal projects with free off hours use of HP facilities is what got the HomeBrew Computer Club going, which led to the founding of Apple as well as several others. I suspect that the fist Apples were stuffed by hand and run through HP's wave solder machines, along with dozens of Other homebrew boards. Another group i belonged to made nakata swords in the annealing oven several weekends in a row. The machine shop was always busy! Sadly that explorative and fun mindset died at HP a long time ago.

That an employee on a production line can stop and talk to a visitor speaks volumes about the culture of the company.

resqguy · 09-03-2012, 05:35 PM

Wow, I worked in Cupertino in the late 70s over at ISS Sperry Univac. I think HP was a block or two away.

Back on topic, I just remember the guys at Winnebago talking about getting one of those "water jet" machines for making interior parts.

Winnie is spending $$ guys. Along with our box they are upgrading their disk storage. They still have some old IBM mainframe (AS400) stuff that they are replacing with blade servers and virtual machines (VMs).

goldviper · 09-03-2012, 09:12 PM

My first home brew computer was make in off hours by a couple of engineers at HP in Andover, MA in the late 70's. We did the board screen and solderwave the components, can not do that now.

Uncle Albert · 06-29-2020, 11:35 AM

We have an Appt. in Sept. 2020 for service under a warranty we bought when we bought the coach brand-new in 2015. We have many questions about our upcoming visit.
1. Since we will have an empty frig. as per instructions, we plan on staying at a motel and renting a car since we do not have TOAD and allow them to have access until our list is done. Therefore, we need recommendations for motels in the area and are rental cars available in the area?
More questions as we are curious...good recommendations in above posts and will use them to good effect...thanking y’all in advance