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08-02-04, 08:16 PM
We went to the Trek headquarters and factory in Waterloo, WI last week for a tour on Wednesday, and then toured the Trek assembly plant in Whitewater, WI on Thursday. When we got to Waterloo, there were about 20 other people already waiting in the lobby for the tour. The front lobby has some of the bikes that Lance rode in the 2003 TdF hanging from the ceiling... you could see the cracked frame on the bike he was riding up the mountain and caught his bar on the bag and fell. The time trial bike is there too, as well as some others. The lobby and front office is nicely done with lots of large photos...quite professional. They split us up into two tour groups with separate guides. First we saw the office areas of building which include partitioned 'cubbies' in areas for product development, marketing & advertising, Trek Travel, accounting, customer service & warranty support, etc. Most of the office cublicles had bikes racked next to the desks or helmets on top of their computers. We saw a bunch of new products under development (panniers, accessories, clothing, etc.) People were dressed casually and were quite friendly. Our guide estimated that about 85% of the office/administrative employees were cyclist, and only about 30% of the factory workers ride.
In the Waterloo factory itself only frames are produced and painted. They manufacture Trek, Gary Fischer, Klein and LeMonde frames. After the frames are finished, they are sent to Whitewater or other facilities to be "hung" with parts (bars, derailleurs, brakes, etc.) -- more about that later. We saw the huge parts/inventory area where all the tubes, fittings and parts are stored and staged for the production lines. In othere areas, we watched everything from steel frames being welded by hand on jigs to carbon fiber tubes and fittings being glued, contoured and sanded for finishing. It was cool to see large wheeled racks of 20-50 bike frames sitting around waiting for the next operation. There is an off limits area for the carbon fibre production/assembly work. We also saw the testing area where they subject sample frames to stress and impact tests, and a rack of rejected frames with tags detailing the flaws. All of the frame painting work and detailing is now done at Waterloo (until recently, some of it had been done in Whitewater too) and that line is automated. Big ovens for baking the finishes. Our guide was great about answering questions of all kinds from everyone. Lots of folks asked about the relationship between the different brands and their marketing strategies, since it would seem that in some cases they are competing with themselves (e.g. Trek vs. LeMonde.) At one end of the facilility, near some large doors, is the employee bike "garage" where about 50 bikes of all kinds were hanging. Some were stock bikes, but a lot of them were one off bikes and prototypes with no paint or finish. Most of those, we were told, were made by their owners. Our tour started a bit after 10am and ended around noon. As we left the building we saw employees in full riding gear gathering in the parking lot for their noon ride. These were mostly road bikers, but Trek owns some undeveloped property across the road from the plant and has begun developing some trails for the mountain bikers. Our visit was the week after the Tour de france and our guide said that they had set up a big screen TV in the office area and things sort of slowed down in the offices during the mornings for a couple of weeks since lots of folks were watching OLN and Lance, while the assembly lines kept running and the production/factory workers just did their usual work. Our guide was in no hurry to get rid of us and spent as much time as we wished taking questions. I've been on a few brewery and winery tours and always looked forward to the free samples at the end... I was hoping to take home a sample Madone at the end of this tour, or at least a discount coupons for a Trek Travfel vacation, but it wasn't to be! (They did have some stickers and keychains for the kids, though.)
The next day my brother-in-law and I went to the Trek assembly plant in Whitewater, WI. We arrived at 8:30am and joined two others for a tour. In Whitewater all the parts are mounted on the frames and they are boxed for shipping to retailers. They assemble most of the higher end bikes. The bottom of their lines are assembled in Asia and shipped back. They also make the Bontrager wheels here... both alloy and carbon fiber. That's fun to see.... extruded materials formed into hoops, cut, machined, and drilled. For the most part the bike assembly is typical assembly line work, mounting parts on the frame as it comes down the line. One cool thing we saw was wheel building. They have one area where experienced wheel builders build their top end wheels by hand, one at a time. This is where the Postal Team's wheels were built, and where the Bontrager high performance wheelsets are made. They also have a second area in the production line where a small number of workers (a 'cell') build wheels for the mid level and production bikes. Each person does one part of the job, and they switch stations every two hours to stay fresh (and to avoid repetitive streess injury). Lots of steps... adding nipples to spokes, bundling spokes, spoking hubs, threading/mounting rims, tightening spokes, trueing wheels, tensioning spokes, adding rim tape, mounting tubes and tires. There is a pretty cool robot that tensions the spokes on each wheel after it is assembled. At another location, there is a hive of activity where 6-8 people are gathered around a table assembly bars (threading cables, monting shifters & derailleurs, wrapping bartape, etc.) With all the bikes they make, there's lots of different bars awith lots of different components. Eventually, all these come together and are either hung (zip tied) or mounted on the frames, along with bottom brackets, headsets, forks, pedals, racks, bottle busses, suspension shocks, etc. Then at the end of the line they are wrapped and packed in boxes (big machine for this) and labeled for shipping. Quite an operation. The plant itself is quite large, and there is a lot of unused space now that all the painting operatins have been relocated to Waterloo. Interestingly, there wasn't any marketing material or bike displays here like there were at the waterloo headquaters... it's just a production plant. I enjoyed seeing how the things were put together, and expecially the wheelbuilding. Both tours were free, but you should call ahead to check the schedule.
In the Waterloo factory itself only frames are produced and painted. They manufacture Trek, Gary Fischer, Klein and LeMonde frames. After the frames are finished, they are sent to Whitewater or other facilities to be "hung" with parts (bars, derailleurs, brakes, etc.) -- more about that later. We saw the huge parts/inventory area where all the tubes, fittings and parts are stored and staged for the production lines. In othere areas, we watched everything from steel frames being welded by hand on jigs to carbon fiber tubes and fittings being glued, contoured and sanded for finishing. It was cool to see large wheeled racks of 20-50 bike frames sitting around waiting for the next operation. There is an off limits area for the carbon fibre production/assembly work. We also saw the testing area where they subject sample frames to stress and impact tests, and a rack of rejected frames with tags detailing the flaws. All of the frame painting work and detailing is now done at Waterloo (until recently, some of it had been done in Whitewater too) and that line is automated. Big ovens for baking the finishes. Our guide was great about answering questions of all kinds from everyone. Lots of folks asked about the relationship between the different brands and their marketing strategies, since it would seem that in some cases they are competing with themselves (e.g. Trek vs. LeMonde.) At one end of the facilility, near some large doors, is the employee bike "garage" where about 50 bikes of all kinds were hanging. Some were stock bikes, but a lot of them were one off bikes and prototypes with no paint or finish. Most of those, we were told, were made by their owners. Our tour started a bit after 10am and ended around noon. As we left the building we saw employees in full riding gear gathering in the parking lot for their noon ride. These were mostly road bikers, but Trek owns some undeveloped property across the road from the plant and has begun developing some trails for the mountain bikers. Our visit was the week after the Tour de france and our guide said that they had set up a big screen TV in the office area and things sort of slowed down in the offices during the mornings for a couple of weeks since lots of folks were watching OLN and Lance, while the assembly lines kept running and the production/factory workers just did their usual work. Our guide was in no hurry to get rid of us and spent as much time as we wished taking questions. I've been on a few brewery and winery tours and always looked forward to the free samples at the end... I was hoping to take home a sample Madone at the end of this tour, or at least a discount coupons for a Trek Travfel vacation, but it wasn't to be! (They did have some stickers and keychains for the kids, though.)
The next day my brother-in-law and I went to the Trek assembly plant in Whitewater, WI. We arrived at 8:30am and joined two others for a tour. In Whitewater all the parts are mounted on the frames and they are boxed for shipping to retailers. They assemble most of the higher end bikes. The bottom of their lines are assembled in Asia and shipped back. They also make the Bontrager wheels here... both alloy and carbon fiber. That's fun to see.... extruded materials formed into hoops, cut, machined, and drilled. For the most part the bike assembly is typical assembly line work, mounting parts on the frame as it comes down the line. One cool thing we saw was wheel building. They have one area where experienced wheel builders build their top end wheels by hand, one at a time. This is where the Postal Team's wheels were built, and where the Bontrager high performance wheelsets are made. They also have a second area in the production line where a small number of workers (a 'cell') build wheels for the mid level and production bikes. Each person does one part of the job, and they switch stations every two hours to stay fresh (and to avoid repetitive streess injury). Lots of steps... adding nipples to spokes, bundling spokes, spoking hubs, threading/mounting rims, tightening spokes, trueing wheels, tensioning spokes, adding rim tape, mounting tubes and tires. There is a pretty cool robot that tensions the spokes on each wheel after it is assembled. At another location, there is a hive of activity where 6-8 people are gathered around a table assembly bars (threading cables, monting shifters & derailleurs, wrapping bartape, etc.) With all the bikes they make, there's lots of different bars awith lots of different components. Eventually, all these come together and are either hung (zip tied) or mounted on the frames, along with bottom brackets, headsets, forks, pedals, racks, bottle busses, suspension shocks, etc. Then at the end of the line they are wrapped and packed in boxes (big machine for this) and labeled for shipping. Quite an operation. The plant itself is quite large, and there is a lot of unused space now that all the painting operatins have been relocated to Waterloo. Interestingly, there wasn't any marketing material or bike displays here like there were at the waterloo headquaters... it's just a production plant. I enjoyed seeing how the things were put together, and expecially the wheelbuilding. Both tours were free, but you should call ahead to check the schedule.