Steve,
I just caught up with your post. Perch was at least an interesting Governor. However it can only get better in MN, First Jesse "The body" Venture, now maybe Al Franken, I am sure that Pee Wee Herman will be next to get elected in this crazy place. (I am not kidding)
i]When you have a higher tech product like this engine labor is a factor but not a huge factor (RE is a union environment) and volumes are relatively low.
You are basically right here although while the engines are machined by modern Rubicon machines, they are assembled by hand. At present the frames and most tanks are also literally made by hand. A lot of the fenders are as well ,although with the UCE bikes that is changing. There is still a lot of hand work done on these bikes, more than most I would say. Even at that labor is not the big deal at present.
The R.E. factory in Chennai is Union? I find this both surprising and gratifying. (Yes, I'm union too)!
Many if not most of the larger industries are unionized in India near as I can tell. This surprised me also when I started to travel to India. However I would guess that the largest part of the populating works "off the books" and that is another matter. Workers at Enfield get a living wage and the jobs are really sought after. Here is an interesting example of how things work in India - The airlines in India are in trouble much like the rest of the world. They are so overmanned that is it absurd - but they do give totally excellent service, like the old days. Jet Airways laid off 2,000 people while I was there, The next day they were all back at work as the government demanded that Jet hire them back.
From what I've seen and heard on here, (and other forums), and YouTube, the Bullet and Royal Enfield in general, enjoys a pride of distinction amongst its workers and Indian people overall. This is cool
They'll continue to want to do it better. Design, implementation, assembly/construction, and distribution. Reward the workers, integrate them into the process, and the system perpetuates itself..
On the flip side, make sure your employees know they are involved in an "interim" situation, the company is looking for a buyer, (even a holding company), cut wages,
issue onerous memos, and promote from outside the firm, and see what you get.
REM is as bureaucratic as any Indian company or many large international companies for that matter. They are not for sale as they are wholly owned by the Lal family. They just made hundreds of millions by selling a stake in their main company to Volvo so the CEO is very happy with REM. It is his passion
Fact is, the costs of everything have been going up, over most of the globe. We all know this. And most of us know, you get what you pay for.
I don't know what R.E has into these things (Bullets) when they roll off assembly, but I know the transportation business, and what with freight expeditors, agents, stevedores (on both ends), ocean shipping, fuel surcharges, longshore services, and rail/truck distribution on arrival, it can add up to a lot. Oh yeah, don't forget Customs, insurance, and the importer/dealer mark-up.
To give you an idea, on this end after we have paid to get the goods to the port in Norfolk and unloaded, it generally costs at least another $1,000 to get the container cleared through customs and into the warehouse. Customs charges outrageous fees now due to extra security, a clearing agent to do the paperwork is quite expensive etc.
The new three stage catalytic converter bears a cost of $600 making it by far the single most expensive component in the bike. They buy them from Germany. At present no one in India is making cats for two wheelers, but sooner or later someone will. When you read about some EPA official saying that the extra cost to comply with this rule or that, is only $12.57 you can laugh outloud.
The oddest new cost is for power. India is short of power and to it's credit is not throwing up dirty unregulated coal power plants every day like China. They use coal, but they are trying to build cleaner ones. The answer for them is the nuclear technology deal they made with US. Hopefully Obama will go along with it. Factories in southern India have been told to only use power for one half of the time they are open. The rest of the time they have to use internal generators. This is adding $30 to the cost of each bike just for this alone.
'm intending on buying a UCE, later if not sooner. I want to see if there will be some options on that "exhaust" pipe.
It'll still be cheaper than a new Sportster, and nobody has tagged the Bullet as a "girls' bike" either.
By the way, Perpich was a pretty good Guv., don'cha think?
Steve[/i]