Bridgestone Commercial Truck Tires

I N D U S T R Y V I E W

When the “old dog” is Great Dane, one of America’s trucking icons, the curriculum better be well prepared.
Great Dane, pioneer in custom trailer design, merged with Pines Trailer, high volume fleet supplier,
to create Great Dane Limited Partnership, one of the world’s largest trailer companies.
The match combines two former competitors into a synergistic unit that shares design and engineering,
uses what one does better to improve the other, and expands manufacturing locations to benefit the customer.
Successful operations individually a production powerhouse as a unit. In truth, two companies made for each other.
We visited Great Dane’s division office and plant in Savannah, Georgia, where custom trailer making began in 1930. What we learned is that Great Dane continues to be head of its class.

How is the merger with Pines Trailer working out?

Skip Skipper, senior vice presidentsales and marketing: “Extremely well. Great Dane was purchased by CC Industries in Chicago, the company that owned Pines Trailer. Now, we’re one company Great Dane Limited Partnership.
     “Great Dane has been a specialized manufacturer of custom designed trailers, and Pines was a large-customer, large-quantity manufacturer. Through our distribution system, we will now have available products that appeal to both markets.”

How will expanded manufacturing facilities benefit both divisions?

Mike Thomas, senior vice president manufacturing: “We now have a larger company with more depth, more purchasing power, and manufacturing expertise coming from two different backgrounds. Each learns from the other.
     “The Great Dane philosophy was customization, high end, value added. The Pines philosophy was high volume and low cost.
     “We now have eight plants, not all doing the same thing. Five plants build dry freights, while Wayne, Nebraska has only one product, the Super Seal refrigerated trailer. Our Terre Haute facility is geared toward producing fleet business. It has such a high capacity, it could be one of the top ten trailer manufacturers. They build a simple product that fleets like and buy a thousand at a time. It’s a basic, strong, durable trailer that’s a good value.
     “Now with Pines’ philosophy of building for fleets, we can use their experience and knowledge, combined with what we already know, to make us better at what we’re doing.”

How have Great Dane workers become so adept at building custom trailers?

Thomas: “Building custom trailers is like building custom homes. If you want a custom home, an architect can draw a set of plans. But he won’t give you detail on every single nail, how to trim every 2x4, or cut every bevel.
     “He’ll design a basic profile of the trim and rely on the carpenter to produce it. You rely on the tradesman’s skill level to interpret the basic blueprint. And build the end product. That’s what we do here.
     “We don’t provide finite details to build a trailer, or the shop would load up with paper. They have to know how to build it. We provide the minimum amount of information required for the product. That’s a problem in some places, because you can’t hire cabinetmakers right off the street. It takes time and training to get there.”

How does this fit in with your motto, “Built Better To Last Longer”?

Charles Henry, director of advertising and industry relations: “A big problem with mass-produced products is defects. It’s little things that drive you nuts. Often, it’s more trouble to get the little stuff fixed than the big stuff.
     “No one stands behind trailers like Great Dane. Our people take responsibility. Each worker knows the job they do is important to the customer, so it’s important to them. It’s everyone’s job to deliver value.
     “You cannot inspect quality into a product. You can find defects, but you cannot inspect quality into a product. And, quality is key to a long, useful life.”

That sounds like W. Edwards Deming. Does Great Dane follow Deming’s quality principles?

Henry: “Yes and no. We’re not trying to follow Deming so much, we’re just trying to get it right
the first time. There’s a lot
of pride of workmanship.”

Mike Thomas Senior Vice President Manufacturing	Charles Henry Director of Advertising and Industry Relations	H.T. (Skip) Skipper III, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing

Has the merger affected morale?

Skipper: “Our morale is very high. We are pleased with the direction our company has taken, and we couldn’t be happier with our new partners. They’ve given us the resources we need to grow, and that’s what we intend
to do. Of course, our business is very good. We have increased production to give our customers improved delivery and make them more competitive.
“As you know, quality has always been a part of the Great Dane mystique. We’re proud to be considered the industry’s premier quality manufacturer. That’s very important to us and a reputation that we will always protect. When you try to mix maximum production with a high level of quality, those two things don’t always work together. However, we’re doing a fine job of keeping product quality high while building more product.”

What can be specified on a trailer?

Henry: “Every application for a trailer will be totally different. A trailer might look like a box on wheels, but you can’t always buy a used trailer made for one thing and use it for something else.
“It’s the same thing with Bridgestone tires. You have everything from different tread designs to wear characteristics and where the ribs and cavities are. It’s not just ‘a trailer is a trailer is a trailer.’”

Jim Hofstetter, vice president, engineering: “Outside, trailers may look identical, but they have different ratings and capabilities. Much of what we do is custom-designed manufacturing. Spec’ed on everything from tires to axles to brakes to brake control systems, suspensions, colors, side walls, thickness of trailer, inside lining, length, height, width and type of floor. Of the 35,000 trailers we build a year, only 2,000 are stock. Great Dane asks what you want. Then we build it for you.”

Is Great Dane a turnkey operation?

Henry: “Very definitely. For instance, we probably install more cooling units on refrigerated trailers than anybody in America. Thermo-King and Carrier dealers don’t install as many units as we do. You can order a reefer trailer, pick it up in Savannah, Georgia, Wayne, Nebraska or Brazil, Indiana and it will already have the customer’s logos and colors, and a cooling unit. You can immediately pick up a refrigerated load and go. With other manufacturers, you may have to arrange individual purchases and installations for each item. We deliver ready for the road. That’s more value added for our customers.”

How does Great Dane balance price and value?

Henry: “We’ve never wanted to be the largest trailer manufacturer, we’ve wanted to be the best. We’re here to serve our customers. Without customer satisfaction, there’s nothing.
“You can sell a customer once on price, but you’ll never get a repeat order, unless the quality of the product and the way the customer is treated after the sale is fine tuned.
“Great Dane is not in the trailer business, we’re in the satisfaction business. If we don’t help people with their problems, then someone else will.”

Torture TESTS Prepare Trailers for the REAL World

When a Great Dane trailer leaves the production line, it has been professionally spec’ed, specially designed and built to precision.
But, how tough is it? To find out, we visited Great Dane’s Research and Development Lab. There, a series of torture tests put Great Dane trailers through exaggerated but real world situations to determine if the trailer is qualified to carry the Great Dane name.

Fork Lifts Cross Every type of floor 10,000 Times

Flooring inside Great Dane trailers is tested for wear by a scaled down, fully loaded fork lift. The truck travels 10,000 times, back and forth, over each type of flooring Great Dane’s and competitor’s. If there is anything wrong with the material, Great Dane wants to know it first.

Shower Survival Test for Leaks

Every trailer is washed before it leaves the assembly line, then washed hard with someone inside the trailer looking for leaks.

Desert Heat Inside Battles Air Conditioning Outside

To measure the heating and cooling efficiencies of its trailers, Great Dane operates one of only a few thermal testing facilities in America. Electric heaters are placed inside the trailer, while the outside is cooled by heavy-duty air conditioners. Once inside and outside temperatures have stabilized, the insulation R-factor of the trailer can be calculated by measuring the amount of electricity necessary to keep the inside temperature constant.

Dan McCormack, testing manger of Great Dane’s Research and Development Lab, readies the computer-controlled road simulator. McCormack stands beside one of six hydraulic cylinders resting on a 12-foot thick concrete foundation.

Jim Hofstetter Vice President Engineering

Finally, The Road Trip From Hell

Imagine being able to subject 65,000 pounds of trailer and cargo to 10 years of stress in just 75 hours. Great Dane does it frequently.
     A computer-controlled road simulator is the best single tool Great Dane has for product evaluation. It brings the road into the lab, from interstates to heavy-vehicle proving grounds.
     To create the simulation, engineers rig a trailer with strain gauges that actually record bumps and jolts onto magnetic tape. The trailer is driven over a section of road such as the interstate between Savannah and Atlanta then the tape is played back and edited to leave only the roughest parts of the road.
     This is typical of the tapes played through a computer that recreates grade crossings, pot holes and expansion joints driven at highway speeds compressing them into the 75 hours of torture given to Great Dane trailers.
     These computer-generated impulses drive six hydraulic cylinders which subject trailers to a variety of bouncing, flexing and shaking. The cylinders, with a total load capacity of 200,000 pounds, driven by four 125-hp motors, pumping 1,000 gallons of fluid at 3,000 psi, stress the trailers far beyond any real-life situations.
     “That’s just for road simulations,” said McCormack. “During durability testing, we virtually beat the stuffing out of the trailer for 75 hours.”
      In fact, the road simulator has the power to take the trailer, and the 50,000 pounds of concrete inside, and send it skyward to the roof fortunately, this has never happened.

End

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