Introduction to Dirt Bikes Presentation
The second option is to create a 15-20 slide PowerPoint presentation with accompanying voiceover. Your work should be written in proper APA format with appropriate citation of all outside sources and with a title page, table of contents, and reference page. Note that you must submit either a paper or a presentation and build to one of these options each week; you cannot do a mix of both.
Introduction to Dirt Bikes
Dirt Bikes USA is a small company headquartered in Carbondale, Colorado that manufactures and sells its own brand of off-road motorcycles. It was founded in 1994 to produce dirt bikes that could be customized for racing and off-road recreational ridingusing the best quality components and parts from all over the world. The company has continued to grow and now faces a new set of challenges and opportunities. You have been asked to serve as a consultant to apply your information systems knowledge to help Dirt Bikes solve some of the problems it is encountering.
Company History and Background
Dirt Bikes USA was founded in 1994 by Carl Schmidt and Steven McFadden, two young but experienced bikers with engineering backgrounds who saw that dirt bikes were becoming very popular in the United States as both sporting and racing motorcycles. They developed frames for dirt bikes that were more suited to off-road handling. They started using these frames to build their own dirt bike models using motorcycle engines manufactured by other companies, such as Honda and Rotax Motors of Austria. Riding on one of their customized dirt bikes, Steven finished first in the famous Barstow to Las Vegas race. There was so much interest in Carl and Steve’s bikes that they decided to open a production facility that could manufacture large numbers of their dirt bikes for the retail market. They opened a small production facility in Carbondale which has since expanded to house 120 workers involved in production, design, and engineeringand a corporate sales and administrative staff of close to 20 employees. Over the years Dirt Bikes USA has enhanced and expanded its product line to include dirt bike models optimized for racing and off-road recreational use. Its racing models have placed well, and often first, in the many dirt bike races staged throughout the United States, including the Barstow-Las Vegas race and competitions at Daytona Bike Week.
Organization Chart and Employees
Dirt Bikes USA is still privately owned, with Carl serving as CEO and Steven as President and Chief Operating Officer. About 120 employees work in design, engineering and production, including three full-time product designers and three engineers. In addition to a four-person Parts Department, Dirt Bikes maintains a ten-person Service Department to service warranties and customer problems with parts and motorcycle performance. Five employees work in Dirt Bikes’ Shipping and Receiving Department. The sales staff consists of a marketing manager and five representatives, two for the West coast and Western United States, one for the Midwest, one for the Northeast, and one for the South. The corporate administrative staff has one controller, one accountant, one administrative assistant, two human resources staff members, three secretaries, and two information systems specialists to support systems servicing all of the business functional areas. The data file “Dirt Bikes USA Organization Chart” shows Dirt Bikes’ organization chart.
The company maintains a friendly, family atmosphere which encourages teamwork, attention to detail and quality, and continuous learning and innovation. Employees, distributors, and retail customers are urged to contribute ideas on how to improve Dirt Bikes’ products and services.
Products and Services
Dirt Bikes’ founders and wanted to capitalize on their proximity to the dirt bikes racing circuit and market in the United States. Carl and Steve hoped they could develop bikes that out-performed and looked better than the competition by using the best custom parts available. Realizing that the most popular dirt bikes were foreign brands, Dirt Bikes does not hesitate to use quality components from all over the world, such as Rotax engines from Austria and tires are from Dunlop. But many of their parts, such as shock absorbers, front wheel forks, exhaust pipes, and headlights are from the United States. The company makes its own frames, shaping them in the unique, spirited style for which Dirt Bikes is noted.
Manufacturing and selling dirt bikes is a complex business. Dirt bike racing has many different categories, including races based on a variety of bike sizes and race length (with some lasting as long as six days). Enduro bikes are for cross-country racing. Motocross bikes are specially designed for racing in an enclosed dirt course that can consist of a variety of terrains; uphill, downhill, corners, jumps, and so forth. Dirt Bikes currently produc
