Once I obtained invited to tour the Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing Company (KMM), I used to be excited; I like manufacturing facility excursions. However I’ll be trustworthy: Lincoln, Neb., isn’t identified to be probably the most thrilling of locations, particularly in February.
My invite promised I’d meet former professional wrestler, Kawasaki spokesperson, and UTV racer Stone Chilly Steve Austin. As Stone Chilly famously says, “Oh hell, yeah.” Now I used to be actually wanting ahead to Lincoln.
A Manufacturing First within the USA
In 1974, Kawasaki turned the primary overseas automobile producer to have an meeting plant on U.S. soil. What began as a comparatively small manufacturing facility has expanded to 2.6 million sq. ft with 3,000 staff. The corporate’s well-known ATVs and UTVs come out of this manufacturing facility, however there’s much more happening right here than I anticipated.
A Lengthy Manufacturing Historical past
KMM’s dad or mum firm, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, was based in Japan in 1896 within the shipbuilding enterprise. Maybe greatest identified globally for its bikes, such because the Ninja, Vulcan, and KLR, the corporate makes all kinds of merchandise.
These contains trains (such because the Shinkansen bullet practice), plane, protection, and aerospace merchandise. Want a helicopter, bulldozer, or manufacturing robotic? They do this, too.
So, what comes out of this manufacturing facility within the heart of America’s heartland?
The Lincoln Facility
There are 4 important merchandise manufactured on the Lincoln, Neb., facility: ATVs, UTVs (aka side-by-sides), rail automobiles, and cargo doorways for Boeing’s 777X. I had no thought Kawasaki constructed the final two, not to mention in Nebraska.
All Kawasaki ATVs and UTVs are made in Lincoln, with the 2011 Kawasaki Teryx 4 750 being the primary KMM automobile totally designed and developed within the USA. Whereas North America is the biggest marketplace for Kawasaki powersports merchandise, KMM exports to 143 nations, all originating from Nebraska.
This manufacturing facility takes uncooked metal and turns it into completed items. Many of those supplies are formed and shaped utilizing Kawasaki robotics, too. From tube bending and welding, to the manufacture of its personal metal wheels — there’s so much happening right here.
Welding & High quality Checks
We started our tour by seeing how UTV frames had been manufactured. Bins of sq. metal inventory get minimize and formed, after which put into welding fixtures for robotic after which handbook welding.
Tyler Furman, Deputy Director, Analysis & Improvement and Price Planning for KMM, famous that regardless of robotic and automation exercise, KMM has by no means displaced human staff with robots.
As soon as that body is welded, it will get inspected. Considered one of many rigorous high quality inspections in the course of the manufacturing course of.
The corporate makes use of quite a few lean manufacturing processes. The meeting traces all use issues like kanban, andon, poka-yoke, and different ideas that assist hold high quality tight and manufacturing buzzing alongside easily. On the tour, it was evident that Kawasaki has a powerful emphasis on high quality and precision.
Numerous In-Home Operations
One factor struck me: There was quite a lot of manufacturing performed in-house as an alternative of counting on suppliers. Furman says it retains the standard up and prices down.
We obtained to see many components of the UTV manufacturing course of. This contains the 18-stage e-coating space that totally submerges a Ridge UTV’s complete body to stop rust, even on the within of chassis tubes.
We noticed the three,000-ton Mitsubishi injection molding machine. It cranks out plastic hoods and fenders, roofs and grilles in quite a lot of colours, with every bit’s mildew weighing 32,000 kilos.
These injection-molded components hardly ever get painted. As a substitute, about 70% of those components are molded within the desired colour, full with a high-gloss sheen if needed. Then the components are despatched off for ending, all in-house.
Tube benders (utilizing Kawasaki robots) bend steel for issues like roll bars to a 1mm tolerance. And sure, that spec is checked a number of occasions in the course of the day throughout all three shifts, which run 5 days per week.
The metal wheel station cranks out round 400 wheels a day, though it has been as excessive as 11,000 — sure, a day.
We witnessed the hydro dipping course of, which applies graphics to sure fashions. Hydro dipping happens the place a sample printed on a cornstarch movie is laid on prime of a water bathtub. A sprig dissolves the cornstarch, leaving the printed portion floating on the water.
An element, akin to a hood, is dipped into the water, the sample sticks, the hood dries, after which it’s clear-coated. If you happen to’ve ever seen a camouflage sample on a UTV, that is normally the way it’s performed.
A completed Kawasaki UTV can have as many as 16,000 SKUs. To deal with this, the corporate has a complicated warehouse of components. There are semi-automated components pickers, forklifts, and a fleet of components folks whizzing across the plant getting objects to the place they must be. It’s very spectacular.
Whereas KMM doesn’t forged its personal engine and transmission components in Nebraska, they’re performed by Kawasaki in Japan and shipped to Nebraska. All this continues to make sure high quality. And annually, the plant is producing round 70,000–80,000 UTVs.
Not Simply Powersports Merchandise
Earlier than visiting KMM, I had no concept that something aside from powersports autos was being produced right here. As beforehand talked about, this manufacturing facility additionally makes passenger rail automobiles and aerospace components.
On the rail aspect, the corporate manufactures passenger rail automobiles for locations like New York Metropolis, Washington, D.C., and Delaware public transit. As of 2025, Kawasaki has made 3,500 rail automobiles, some weighing as a lot as 200 tons and costing between $2 million and $5 million every. They’re constructed to buyer spec, and KMM even has its personal rail check space on web site.
The manufacturing space is neat, tidy, and spacious. Vehicles are moved round on pneumatic carts that enable one particular person to maneuver 200-ton practice automobiles, which is unimaginable.
Then there’s the corporate’s aerospace space. Right here, staff construct cargo doorways for the Boeing 777X. There’s a huge $15-million riveting machine, doorways in varied states of meeting, and big carts on in-floor rails that may be moved to accommodate manufacturing of those giant objects.
KMM builds six doorways a month, matching Boeing’s fabrication of three planes a month. Aerospace isn’t new to the corporate. Actually, Kawasaki Plane Industries was considered one of Japan’s first plane corporations, initially based in 1918.
After seeing all that goes on at Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing Company, I’m right here to inform you: there’s so much happening in Lincoln.
Stone Chilly Steve Austin + Kawasaki Racing
“Stone Chilly” Steve Austin was one of many largest names in skilled wrestling till his retirement from the ring in 2022. Along with his muscular construct and well-known catchphrases, Austin turned a cultural icon. He’s additionally a Kawasaki spokesperson and UTV Racer, and has been concerned with KMM since 2015. In 2023, Stone Chilly obtained concerned in UTV racing.
I rode with Stone Chilly in a 2026 Kawasaki Ridge UTV on the KMM check observe. I requested how he obtained concerned with racing. He stated after a UTV poker run, somebody known as him and requested if he’d wish to get into racing. “I stated, ‘Yeah man, I’d like to.’” He hopped in a Teryx KRX 1000 and began his racing endeavors.
From Racing Rookie to VORRA Champ
Austin said he “was inexperienced as grass” when he began racing, regardless of driving and driving powersports autos for years. “My first side-by-side was a ’98 Kawasaki Mule four-seater that went about 20 mph,” he stated, speaking about how he used it for work on his ranch.
He says he’s not the quickest man on the course, and that there are children a lot youthful (Austin is now 61) who grew up doing this. “I do know the place I’m at,” he says.
Nevertheless, Austin is humble. He received the 2024 Valley Off Street Racing Affiliation (VORRA) championship within the Sportsman UTV class. He’s since added expertise to his racing résumé, together with an look on the grueling Mint 400 in 2025, the place he competed and was additionally the Grand Marshall. For 2026, he’s constructing a brand new stock-mod UTV and headed again to the observe.
Wrestling vs. Racing
Austin stated there are similarities between professional wrestling and racing, particularly beginning out. “The primary mistake when somebody will get into professional wrestling is that they’re working too quick. You need to ‘go, go, go’ since you’re attempting to get that crowd to do one thing, attempting to maneuver the needle. However you need to inform the rookie to decelerate, study.”
He stated sooner or later, he made the correlation that you just’ve obtained to crawl earlier than you study to stroll. “It’s the identical with racing,” Austin stated. “In your first race, don’t even attempt to win, simply trip the course; simply end.”
He stated even in case you’re simply again there lollygagging, you continue to might find yourself on a podium. “In a struggle of attrition, if everybody else breaks down, you bought an opportunity to win it.”
Austin’s racing purpose? “Preserve racing; hold having fun with it.”
There’s a Lot Going On in Lincoln
After my go to to the KMM manufacturing facility, I saved pondering, there’s so much happening in Lincoln. There’s a military of devoted staff, merchandise being exported globally, and far more than simply ATVs and UTVs. This can be a international enterprise with a U.S. headquarters within the heartland. I met many staff who’d been employed there 10+ years, a few of whom labored there greater than 20 years.
I drove a 2026 Kawasaki Ridge on the check observe and skilled the product firsthand. The corporate is innovating and creating work autos, just like the Mule, and pushing boundaries with “play” autos just like the Teryx H2 fashions.
These Teryx fashions have 250 horsepower, 24 inches of suspension journey, and a supercharger transferring 57 gallons of air per second. The model, which pioneered the UTV market with the Mule, at present provides probably the most highly effective UTV available on the market.
This tour opened my eyes to Kawasaki’s breadth and variety of product choices. I’ll by no means consider the model, or Lincoln, Neb., the identical method.
As Stone Chilly Steve Austin would say, “And that’s the underside line.”
