UNION CITY, IN — Exceeding customer expectations continues to be the mantra for Workhorse Custom Chassis. Recently Workhorse enhanced its quality control procedures by opening a new 10,000-square-foot Pre Delivery Inspection Center next to its Union City manufacturing facility.

“This center represents a significant investment in extended quality control,” said Workhorse President Dave Olsen. “We are continually looking at our systems to discover new ways to better serve our customers, and this facility does just that.”

Twelve new employees staff the center. There are six inspection bays (that accommodate 2 chassis each). Chassis are inspected and tracked with the assistance of a computerized state-of-the-art diagnostic system custom designed for this purpose. The center performs pre-shipment quality checks to all platforms manufactured at the Workhorse facility. This includes all chassis for motor homes and walk-in trucks.


The "New" Workhorse PDI Center

“Before, pre delivery inspection (PDI) was usually performed at dealerships,” said Jaco Calitz, project manager for the new center. “Among other things, this meant a delay for new replacement parts when bugs were uncovered and Workhorse often received little feedback about its build quality for its production line.”

“By conducting PDI before the vehicle is shipped to the customer, feedback to the plant is immediate and any problem can be quickly solved,” said Calitz. Delays for paperwork and parts shipments are eliminated. “Dealerships have welcomed this move. First, when problems are found, it eliminates the time and expense of moving things through the warranty system.

“Second, without the need for PDI at the dealership, motor home manufacturers and truck body builders can more quickly get vehicles into production and more quickly deliver units to customers, which is what everyone wants. The PDI center improves the whole delivery process.”

“Finally, with our inspection crew in close communication with our production crew, we have another great way to continually assess our quality procedures on the line,” said Calitz.

“We want to give our customers every edge in today’s competitive business environment,” concluded Olsen. “At Workhorse, our goal is to provide the highest level of quality and outstanding value in every way we can.”

Specializing in the manufacture of chassis for motor homes, walk-in trucks and buses, as well as integrated walk-in trucks, Workhorse Custom Chassis is ISO 9001 certified and considered a leader in the motor home and walk-in truck industries. For more information call toll-free 877-294-6773 or visit Workhorse.com.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DriVer,

Yo DriVer:

Just got around to reading your post about Workhorse's new "Pre Delivery Inspection Center." Based on personal observation of many errors of both omission and comission on brand new RVs sitting on dealers' lots, I have always suspected that manufacturers shifted much of the responsibility for post-construction QA checks to the dealer, in effective, asking the dealer to complete the construction of the unit during purchase PDIs.

Workhorse's new Pre Delivery Inspection Center is a long overdue, much needed manufacturing QA step. Now if we can get the other RV manufacturers to follow suit, the industry may just move into the 21st century!

Al Daniels AKA Nomad Al
Owner/Manager - Treasure Caravan
Little Rock, AR

You can tell if your chassis was processed at the PDI. There will be a small (yellow) sticker on the left inside of the front bumper. The sticker should be dated and signed by the inspector.

-But I don't think the WCC chassis came with a bumper when it was shipped to Winnebago to get the coach built. And Winnie adds their own front bumper.

quote:

Originally posted by troth:
.... Winnie adds their own front bumper.

File photo of the W22 chassis


Photo of W22 Chassis shipping from Union City

When I took the factory tour of the Workhorse assembly plant in Union City, IN all the motorhome chassis that I saw there had bumpers. When I visited Winnebago Industries’ chassis yard in Forest City, IA the Workhorse chassis there had Workhorse bumpers. Reviewing the bumper on my motorhome it has both the square cutout on the left side and the rounded rectangle opening on the right side looking at the front of the bumper. The large opening in the middle of the bumper is also present

These indicators are consistent with the photos that I have included. I can only conclude that Winnebago uses the bumper as shipped from Workhorse. Winnebago welds so much stuff on the bumper that it's hardly recognizable.

I’m not posting this to be argumentative, just verifying with pictures what I previously wrote. You had me going there for a minute.

Thanks DriVer! I was envisioning a bumper-looking bumper, certainly not what you've pictured.

If anyone starts up with rubber baby buggy bumpers ....

You mean they are made out of rubber?

quote:

"Before, pre delivery inspection (PDI) was usually performed at dealerships,” said Jaco Calitz

WOW!!
That's scary to think that I am driving 22,000 lbs of motorhome down the interstates at 60 MPH with NO inspection. You know **** well that the dealer is not going to climb under there and inspect the chassis.