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| Getting on the Factory Tour bus |
We have stopped over in Minneapolis 4 times this trip,
staying with our daughter and her family for a few days. During one such visit, Russ was filling up
the motor home at the neighborhood gas station.
A young man approached Russ, he worked next door at an ad agency and
Winnebago was their client. He loved
meeting and talking to Winnebago owners and finding out how they used their
motor home. And, did we know that the
Winnebago factory was just 2 hours south in Iowa? Factory Tour!!! Let’s go…
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| An old, old Winnebago in the museum/gift shop |
There are not many photos in this blog post because
Winnebago asks visitors not to take photos during the tour.
Winnebago employs 3000+ people in a town of 4000 people. Some employees drive from 60 miles away to
work each day. The company is buying
factories in other areas because they can’t expand any more in Forest
City. There isn’t anyone left to
hire. The company gives $1M back to the
community each year in grants. It is a
non-union shop. Every employee we saw or
talked to was welcoming, pleasant and interested in telling us about their job.
The tour took us to "Stitchcraft" where the fabric goods were sewn, then we went
to welding. The final part of the tour
was both ends of the huge building called Big Bertha where the motor homes are
assembled. There are 3 assembly lines
that start with the chassis built by Ford, Mercedes or Chevy. They put on the floors, then the walls,
etc. It was fascinating to watch.
What we learned was that most of the pieces in a Winnebago
motor home are made at this plant. The
water tanks and waste holding tanks are created on plastic molds; aluminum
support members are extruded from aluminum logs, the chairs, couches and
cushions are sewn and stuffed; the different layers of walls are laminated together; wooden furniture
pieces are built. You need a replacement
piece? The specs and design are on file,
and they will make it for you.
The plant has automated places; fabric and wood are cut with
machines driven by computers. However, most
of the assembling is done by hand. We
now know why these things are so doggone expensive.
In the 1980s Winnebago sold off all of its completed motor
homes. From then until the present, they
only make motor homes that have already been sold to dealers or individuals
through dealers. This mean that every
unit in the assembly line is different.
A computer decides what fabric to cut, or cabinets to make. The completed pieces are bar coded. The wooden built-in furniture pieces hang on a revolving
rack on the ceiling like the machines used at a dry cleaners. The pieces are made available for the
appropriate unit at the time it is to be installed.
They make 36-40 motor homes a day, about 200 a week.
We love factory tours, and this one was particularly
interesting to us. While the
ShoreXplorer is relatively modest as far as motor homes go, it was nice to know
that it was made with the same care and craftsmanship
as its fancier siblings.
Once again in my Iowa.
ReplyDeleteI remember when the Winnebago plant started. People in Forest City were offered the opportunity to invest. Some did and some did not. Many became millionaires. Many families split when those who invested became millionaires and those who did not invest felt cheated. I don't know if it still holds true but at one time Forest City had the highest number of millionaires per population. That is also in lake country. Close to Clear Lake and Lake Okoboji.
Wow, that is really interesting! We heard that one of the founders liquidated his furniture business in town to start the company. He founded it in Forest City because he was born and raised there.
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