RVBusiness, July/August 2020

J U L Y A U G U S T 2 0 2 0 RVBusiness 81 ternate part relationships and building them into your selling systems is extremely helpful for assisting customers in finding work arounds to their initial options if those wind up being unavailable Shift to e commerce Even though you presumably have basic business processes like ordering look up customer service etc nailed down in traditional ways be enabled online as a backup and viable alternative Take care of your best performers As your resources dwindle it is the key contributors who will get you through the experience Challenging times bring out different qualities in people and some may differ from your assumptions both good and not so good Taking note and using the information gained to make future personnel decisions on rewards and incentives future roles hiring and personnel development is invaluable Be careful restarting If you have ever taken apart for maintenance a complex fishing reel you know the disassembly is the easiest part Putting it back together of course is anything but easy with lots of spring loaded and torqued components After business comes back its a definite challenge to re assemble the business Like bringing back employees things may be different than they were before so its important to address the reintroduction like you would a new hire orientation And make sure the associates have all the information on protocols and process changes up front so there are common expectations Stay true to your organizations values If they include integrity teamwork commitment etc then make sure the decisions you make during the heat of the moment are consistent and reflect well on those vales when you get a chance to look back Safety should always be the first priority and remaining vigilant on this is a must Finally always stay humble and kind As the country songs says so well this is always good practice and good advice RVB GuestView from page 24 Tiffin Motorhomes from page 36 would say its much more efficient in many ways Not just the communication but just the time you spend between buildings and between places Witt added that a side benefit of the new Operations Building is weve got a nice place to bring vendors into for meetings or dealers can come into for meetings or even recruiting new employees Its an impressive building LaRue added People walk in they see the glass conference room walls the high ceilings and its got a nice décor to it It modernized the look of the company As Warner put it Tiffin now has an impressive office facility that represents our product Weve never had that before It is something were proud of I couldnt be prouder to work for a company than I am working for this one Warner said We hear the old saying It takes money to spend money and thats really true but were always willing to invest in a building or a piece of equipment or some technology to make us slightly better than our competition PowerGlide Chassis The one exception to all of engineering being moved into the OB is the chassis engineering team That crew under the direction of Corbette Davis has remained in the five year old 47500 square foot PowerGlide building where the company manufactures its exclusive custom built diesel pusher chassis At the time we introduced the Power Glide said Gary Harris plant manager for the PowerGlide division it had some significant differences that a lot of other chassis manufacturers now have basically come around to doing things the same way We used a large capacity radiator to overcome some of the overheat issues with some of the chassis we were using at the time We used D link style parallelogram rear suspension that was unique to the industry at the time Some of the other manufacturers are now doing similar things But I guess the No 1 thing is that its designed and manufactured for Tiffin Motorhomes and supported by Tiffin Motorhomes he said adding that the PowerGlide is the only chassis used for the top of the line Zephyr all Allegro Bus and Allegro Breeze models and two floorplans in the Phaeton line Since its inception in 2007 Davis explained the PowerGlide has undergone constant upgrades and innovations in order to offer the latest technologies and optimal durability reliability performance and control Depending on the model the current PowerGlide iteration is paired with Cummins diesel engines ranging from 380 605 hp and offering a GVWR range upward of 51000 pounds Initially the majority of the engineering was specd out from another manufacturer but once we started taking on all of the designer responsibilities we really had to worry about all of the EPA requirements from year to year Davis mentioned Plus were keeping up to date with the model change requirements from the house side and then any of the new technologies And about every three years weve got a pretty major overhaul on the engines or you have to go through and make a lot of design changes there Other significant upgrades for this upcoming model year Davis added have been a host of safety innovations such as stability control traction control and collision mitigation That was a challenge getting all that designed and approved he said RVB From left Jeff Clark Corbett Davis and Gary Harris The Tiffin Phaeton ranges from just over 38 feet long to 45 feet