Workhorse COO Bob Atkins explains to RV News editor Don Magary (extreme left) how tires are sent up a conveyor and delivered to the tire assembly area in the proper sequence so the right tires get on the right chassis.

Atkins himself seems elated with his decision to leave GM and move to an entrepreneurial company. "It's really different," he said. "For example, one of our commercial customers came through the plant and was looking at the product and the processes and asked, 'What's this tank?'

"That's a gasoline tank for a motorhome. It has a fuel pick up for a generator.

"'That's exactly what I need.'

"In the GM system it's a long process of clearing hurdles to be able to accommodate that request. First you'd have to make it important enough to get it into the fuel system engineer's calendar so you could have the fuel system engineer look at it. "And he'd have to justify to management why he didn't need to do a rear barrier test. This would all take time. Then he'll have to answer questions and convince top management. And of course with GM's deep pockets and large legal department, many times you've got to barrier test everything.

"If it passed all those hurdles it might go to a possible releasing process, which might take weeks. And then all this time the poor customer is saying, 'You know, he said this would be pretty quick. I wonder what he meant by that -- in my life-time quick?'

"But here at WCC it doesn't take that long to talk to the fuel system engineer, and say, what do you think?

"'Shouldn't be a problem.'

"That's how quick it can be. That's the difference between what this business will be and what GM was. And its no fault to GM, their focus is on producing hundreds of thousands of units and they're very good at it."

Atkins believes the engineering staff gives WCC a competitive advantage. He said, "They're awesome. They ask a lot of really good questions. Before in the "GM world" many of the engineers already knew the answers so they never asked. It wasn't like that with a GM leading edge project, but when it came to P-chassis, maybe the questions were asked 10 years ago. They tried something and it didn't work so they weren't going to ask the question again this year.

"With this group its got a fresh attitude, fresh look.

"In fact the whole organization is kind of that way ­ asking a lot of questions about why we do this or that. Changing the systems is fundamental.

As part of the buyout, Workhorse has a long-term agreement with General Motors which will ensure an uninterrupted supply of GM powertrains. Here, engine installation work is being completed on a chassis on the line at Workhorse Custom Chassis plant.

"And in the future that's going to turn into a real competitive advantage -- that looking inward process. Right now there isn't a problem -- the 99 Chevy P-chassis is the same as the 99 Workhorse chassis. So from a customer point of view, parts are available. We have a few more significant start up things to get past, but we'll get past them."

Taitz said the cooperation from GM has been a key factor in the successful transition. He said, "It's still a partnership. We continue to buy powertrains from GM and that's how they can continue to participate in the market. We have an exclusive long-term supply agreement and will get the current generation as well as future generations of the powertrains which was a critical part of the transaction."

GM will also continue to provide service and warranty repairs at the national network of authorized GM service centers as well as supply parts on the Chevrolet P-chassis they produced. In addition to this, WCC is establishing an additional service program that allows qualified RV dealers to provide service and warranty work on the WCC chassis. Taitz said, "So a motor-home customer can now have his vehicle serviced at the place that he bought the unit. We're going to have about 300 RV Dealer authorized service and warranty centers that can do service and warranty work for their customers and the chassis.

"And we're still looking for a few good dealers to round out our service and warranty network."

And speaking of warranty, WCC provides a 36-month/ 36,000 mile warranty, plus free roadside assistance on motor-homes built on new Workhorse chassis.

So how's business now that WCC is up and running? WCC has received chassis orders from motorhome manufacturers Fleetwood, Winnebago, National RV, Damon, Forest River, Four Winds, Tiffin Motor Homes, Safari, Georgie Boy and Airstream. Yet, Taitz said the volume of orders from both RV and commercial customers is less than he anticipated. Taitz explained, "During the last quarter that GM produced chassis customers were stockpiling inventory so GM really produced about twice as many units in that quarter than they normally would have produced.

"I think that a lot of companies doubted that we would be running this quickly so customers stocked up on inventory."

On the commercial side, which is about 50% of the business, WCC is getting a steady flow of business as well. "We've been very well received in the commercial market," Taitz added. "Frito Lay just placed 100% of their 1999 orders with us -- 575 units. That was a vote of confidence for us; we were very pleased to get business from them."

Surprisingly, Ford's earlier announcement about a possible cut back in chassis deliveries this year to class A builders has not seemed to have much affect.

Atkins said, "From an industry perspective if I were a motor-home body builder like a Fleetwood, I would certainly want to have two volume players out there so I couldn't be held hostage. I think the industry sees that and wants us to succeed. I'm not sure they felt we could in the beginning, but that's changed.

Taitz said, "I would have thought the "eye opener" customers had at the beginning of the year would have had a bigger impact. continued