I did a last minute tour of the plant today. I had business in Cadillac this afternoon, so I'm heading up there and it dawns on me that I should have set up a tour. Never been to any of the facilities, so after I was done I located the cruiser division, and stopped and asked about tours. They were awesome, the accommodated me on such short notice.
I didn't get any pics, didn't have a camera with me and not sure they would have let me or not. The floor was pretty full with boats in production on the finish side. The cruiser mold line was dead, nothing in mold production, the H line was fairly busy, with hulls, stringers and floor pans being molded.
On the finish side I seen (from memory) 2 - 278's, 2 - 358's, 3 - 458's, 1 - 288, 4 - 248's, 1 - 258, to many Horizons, a few SL's and several Wellcraft Scarab center consoles. The 458's wow are they huge!! They had one on a trailer ready for delivery and 2 were still being finished. They all had the hydraulic platform with their own zip code...
I was bummed their were no 318's in production.... (my next boat) . He told me they haven't built one in awhile.
They are running at about 25% capacity, and he told me its looking better everyday. This guy (Bill I think) he was in lamination quality control. He has been there since the Winns brothers owned it.
I did ask him about the S series being phased out, he said he hasn't heard the decision had been made yet, I didn't push it having read the post that says it is.
All in all, it was a great experience, its only 1.5 hours away for me, and I might go thru again with a little more preparation and notice to the factory. I really didn't expect to show up a 3 in the afternoon with no notice and expect to take a tour, but they were very accommodating, and very patient with me when I was out in the plant.
Just thought I would share, let me know if you have any questions, be happy to try to answer any.
Thanks......
Edit.... I misstated on the 25% capacity, I have no idea what they are at capacity wise, He told me the are at about 25% staffing from where thy were at full production.
