Word: caterpillar
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Those concerns are weighing heavily on UAW members, who are very much aware that VEBAs at Caterpillar and Detroit Diesel have gone bankrupt. Three former UAW executive board members recently signed a letter criticizing the VEBA plan as "knowingly placing members at risk." The other option, though, is losing retiree health benefits entirely. "If you don't go along with a VEBA, the automakers may reach a point where the only alternative is to file Chapter 11," says Eric Merkle of IRN Automotive Intelligence. "The UAW has to take on more of the risk...
...smart kid to be popular too, Annalisee is witty and pretty, and it's easy to imagine she would get along well at school. But until last year, Annalisee's parents--Angi, a 53-year-old university assistant, and Marcelo, 63, who recently retired from his job at a Caterpillar dealership--couldn't find a school willing to take their daughter unless she enrolled with her age-mates. None of the schools in Longview--and even as far away as the Dallas area--were willing to let Annalisee skip more than two grades. She needed to skip at least three...
...that Caterpillar is waiting for regulators to drive its business. To attract old parts otherwise headed for the junkyard, the company has devised a trade-in scheme that gives customers an incentive to return worn-out goods to its distributors. If the part is deemed remanufacturable, the customer gets an already remanned replacement at a fraction of the cost of a new one. Cat is also a service provider, advising other manufacturers how to set up a similar system, or in some cases actually running their reman efforts for them. In Europe, for instance, Cat helps Land Rover manage...
...Caterpillar's reman business is also influencing the design of the company's original parts. The firm's reman engineers now work closely with designers to produce components that will be easy and profitable to revitalize years later. "That's an absolute key," says Fisher. "It's designing for several life cycles." Take those cylinder heads, for instance. When they're first cast, they're now given a slightly thicker layer of metal on top in expectation that they will ultimately be milled down several times. Fisher says that makes the original manufacturing a bit more expensive...
...Hefty profit margins are the main driver of Caterpillar's enthusiasm for remanufacturing and its ongoing expansion into Europe. But reman's practitioners also relish the challenge of giving clapped-out parts new leases on life. "It's all about taking back old stuff in mass quantities and doing something with it," Fisher says. That waste-not ethic is evident on the shop floor of the Shrewsbury complex. Tim Baker, the plant's operations manager, says employees get excited about coming up with new ways to salvage. "Our people are very passionate about not throwing things away," says Baker...