Word: catting
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...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, says Europe offers particularly alluring growth opportunities because, unlike in the Americas, its market is highly fragmented, "with no dominant players." Christophe Decaix...
...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...
...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 its remanufacturing operations...
...Reclaiming new life from old also requires advanced technologies: software systems that can detect metal tolerance, for example, and state-of-the art blasters that literally blow old paint, grease and oil from parts. Consider the flame spray machine Cat uses at Shrewsbury. Inside a tightly sealed booth, a nozzle attached to a robotic arm shoots out a constant spray of what look like white-hot sparks - picture a particularly robust Roman candle - onto a row of four cylinder heads. What it's actually spraying, however, is molten metal, adding a new 1-mm-thick layer of chrome or nickel...
...culture, this is the hate that dare not speak its name. Consider as evidence the best-seller lists, which are crowded with odes to mutts by philosophers and poets. Admitting to anything less than worshipping my dog will lump me with--heaven forfend--the cat people. The cult of the caninophiles does not allow for defection. Dog lovers will remind me that he has given me many things, not least among them undying loyalty. I know that. I even admit he has helped equip me for the trials of parenthood, not least among them the manual handling...