2009.10.02 - Portland Western Star
Until this week, the plan was to move the production of Western Star Trucks to Santiago, Mexico. There were technical and political reasons for such a move, but they required ignoring the stake through the heart of the classically Canadian marque. If not actually assembled by Canadians (while still being largely designed by Canucks like myself), then the Pacific Northwest is the next-best thing.
Of course, that's not why the Portland plant (and the brand) was saved. No, it's because we're selling mostly-Western-Star armoured mongrel-trucks to the US military, and they have an overwhelming preference for domestic product. So it goes.
Essentially unspoken for the past year has been my assumption that the Western Star brand would die (either mercifully and abruptly or a horrible lingering demise), and I've been resigning myself to finding a less-dynamic niche in the Daimler Trucks engineering monolith. I say less-dynamic because, frankly, that's the simple truth of it. The engineering efforts to support the Freightliner brand are ruthlessly chopped up into very narrow specializations for the relentless pursuit of efficiency. And this makes sense, because the competitive nature of most of the market means that pennies per truck are important. But it makes for really miserable engineering work, because you end up working on things like just the window winders for cab doors.
With the renewed life of the Portland Truck Manufacturing Plant, it was also mentioned that the Daimler intends to renew focus on the Western Star brand in the premium segment. This means that I probably get to keep on doing the diverse work that I have loved so far, and that takes an edge off the stress I've been accumulating of late.
Today I watched the beginning of the first Western Star to be built on the regular production line with the new EPA2010 configuration equipment. It's been two years of hard work for me (still not done) and a couple hundred million dollars for Daimler (still not all spent), but I have to say it looks pretty fantastic. A couple things went wrong - they always do, and we'll get them put right. But they're nothing compared to the staggering number of things that went off without a hitch. And the extra improvements we've made as we've re-designed things really make the truck come together nicely. Western Star Trucks are going to be cleaner, more efficient, and cooler-looking than they've ever been.
More than that, looking at the competition really shows how much of a competitive advantage Daimler Trucks North America in general are going to have come 2010. The Detroit Diesel engine group and the Daimler aftertreatment group didn't waste time trying to play games with the upcoming regulations; they just set to work and have clearly created something special. Every other engine supplier has been late in coming to terms with having to actually meet the EPA2010 requirements, and every other truck manufacturer has not had the same integral packaging and system-development opportunities - and it shows.
The present is still slow, and recession-mired. But the future is bright, and it will come.