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At Harley-Davidson, Ed Magee is GM
of a major plant
“Think in terms of developing a skill set for creating value,” Magee advises. That’s what he did in the Marines, and he’s still doing it at Harley-Davidson
 Ed Magee likes to tell people that he traded a Marine Corps flight suit for a motorcycle helmet at Harley-Davidson Motor Co (Milwaukee, WI).
Magee is a former lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps and long-time flight navigator for fighter jets. Now he’s general manager of Capitol Drive Powertrain Operations for Harley-Davidson in Wauwatosa, WI, where he oversees the production of transmissions and engines for all Sportster and air-cooled Buell motorcycles. He’s also responsible for the company’s Genuine Parts manufacturing group, which does factory rebuilds of Evolution and Twin Cam engines and makes replacement parts for Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
Making dreams real
“I’m living out the Harley-Davidson slogan, ‘We fulfill dreams,’ he says.
“We joke about it, but the fulfilling dreams part is real,” Magee says. “The pride, passion and professionalism of the workforce, getting out on the floor and engaging the people who are making the engines – it all creates a lot of energy!”
Harley-Davidson makes heavyweight motorcycles designed for highway cruising. Its product is recognized for heavy customization: the “chopper” style of motorcycle.
A balancing act
As general manager at Powertrain, Magee oversees a 320,000-square-foot facility with 512 hourly and 105 salaried employees. The facility ships its products to the Buell plant in East Troy, WI, and to the final assembly plant for Sportster bikes in Kansas City, MO.
“What makes our production challenging is that we sequence the engines,” Magee explains. “We look at the daily production and anticipated production of our customer plants and sequence our production based on their needs. So if Buell is running higher one week, we’ll sequence in more Buells. “It’s a balancing act,” Magee says.
Magee’s technical knowledge of Navy aircraft transferred easily into manufacturing, he notes. In the squadron he spent a lot of time in training, process improvement, aircraft maintenance supervision and other technical work that transferred well into his current civilian manufacturing environment.
Asking questions
“As manager, I tend to ask a lot of questions,” Magee says with a smile. “A lot of it is curiosity, and a lot is because when you deliver an order to people, it’s not as well received as when they create the solution themselves.
“It takes patience to let folks work through and understand what needs to be done, but when they do arrive at it themselves, it’s more powerful.”
Magee and his boss agree that his priority should be to spend 80 percent of his time at the plant, and 25 percent of that time on the floor. The 80/25 rule works for him because it gives him a lot of contact with his workers, he explains.
In the Marines
Magee grew up in Lafayette, LA. His father was a high school counselor and his mother an elementary school principal. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy (Annapolis, MD) in 1987 with a BS in science and math, then opted to go into the Marine Corps. About 16 percent of every academy graduating class enters the Marines, he notes.
He became a naval flight officer (NFO), serving as navigator in the A-6E Intruder and the F/A-18D Hornet. He was responsible for communications between the aircraft and ground controllers, to coordinate available flying assets with needs on the ground.
During the first Gulf War Magee was stationed in the Philippines, and during the second he was at Marine HQ in Quantico, VA. While there he earned an MS in public admin from George Mason University. Then he left military service and went to Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business for his 2004 MBA.
Moving to Harley
At the 2002 National Black MBA conference that year he went to the career fair, expecting to apply for jobs in banking or on Wall Street. At the Harley-Davidson booth he met an employee who suggested he submit a resume. His family had always had motorcycles, “so I figured, ‘Why not?’” A month later the company called him to interview.
Magee was impressed with the company, and the quality of the execs who interviewed him.
He signed on for an internship at Harley’s York, PA plant, where he worked for the materials organization, developing and mapping material process flow for the startup of a new
Softail plant.
“We identified various processes where material would enter and leave the plant, and I
worked with individual workers and area leaders to map and agree on specific process flow,” he explains.
KC and Milwaukee
When he finished his Duke MBA, he moved into the job of process lead for manufacturing engineering at Harley-Davidson’s vehicle and powertrain operations facility (Kansas City, MO). While there he worked on his Six Sigma black belt certification. And, he says with pride, the plant was awarded a 2006 U.S. EPA Region VII environmental excellence award in energy management after it implemented some of his projects.
In 2005 Magee was brought to Harley-Davidson’s Milwaukee, WI HQ where he eventually became director of service strategy and technical communications for the quality, operational excellence and technical services division. There he developed Digital Technician II, a next-generation electrical system diagnostic tool, and launched it to more than 1,400 Harley-Davidson dealerships around the world. He moved into his general manager job last November.
After hours
Outside of work, Magee is involved in public service. He’s been with Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Greater Milwaukee since 2005. He serves on the boards of the Vince Lombardi Charitable Funds in Milwaukee, the Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership, and the Carver Academy in San Antonio, TX. He’s also an avid motorcycle enthusiast, and enjoys riding his 2008 Harley-Davidson 105th Anniversary Road Glide.
He and his wife have two daughters, aged nine and four. “My oldest has wicked strong math skills. She says she wants to be a doctor,” Magee notes proudly.
Ignite your passion
Magee advises former military techies to look for civilian jobs that will ignite their passion. “For me, it’s much more than just the dollars. I feel strongly about Harley’s values and mission,” Magee says.
“When I do career counseling I tell people, ‘You want to be known as a fixer or a creator.’
“Develop skills to help you fix problem situations and create value for your company. Take
Six Sigma or emotional intelligence training. Think in terms of developing a skill set for
creating value.”
D/C
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