Harley-Davidson worked hard to establish and/or reinforce long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with its suppliers. Through these collaborative relationships,it has gained access to technical and commercial resources for application directly to product design and development. Management anticipates the focus on collaboration and strong supplier manufacturing initiatives to lead to increased commitment from suppliers. This strategy has resulted in improved product quality,technical integrity, application of new features and innovations, reduced lead times for product development, and smoother/faster manufacturing ramp-up of new vehicle introductions. Harley’s initiative to improve supplier productivity and component cost has been instrumental in delivering improvements in cost and in offsetting raw material price increases.