Word: caterpillar
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...array of capital equipment and heavy machinery conglomerates such as Remy, TRW and Bosch have realized they can extract healthy profits from sickly parts, but Caterpillar is reman's top dog. It's estimated that sales for the Peoria, Illinois, farm and construction manufacturer's reman division were $1 billion in 2005 - a small share of the $36 billion in total revenues the company generated that year. Nevertheless, remanufacturing is one of Cat's fastest-growing units and it is expected to continue expanding by 12-15% a year through 2010. Steven L. Fisher, who heads Caterpillar's reman division...
...three-year-old plant in England's West Midlands was Cat's first European facility. Each month, it processes 15,000 worn-out, grime-encrusted engines and parts. Caterpillar has moved beyond remanufacturing just its own diesel engines and components; 40% of the automotive, truck, rail and marine motors and parts remanufactured in Shrewsbury were originally built by other companies. Fisher calls reman a "nicely profitable business." How profitable? Cat does not break out the figures, but Fisher says the returns are "above average," and Nasr notes that profit margins for some reman goods are double those of new products...
...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...