Caterpillar
1. What were some of the key steps that led to Caterpillar’s becoming the industry leader in earth
-Moving machinery? Caterpillar produced over 300 different kind of machinery for sales around the world. Its products give solution to eight industries such as residential, nonresidential, industrial, infrastructure, mining and quarrying, energy, waste and also forestry. Besides that, the use of Caterpillar’s trademark farm treads on the Army tank in World War 1 and World War 2. The huge postwar construction and also strong overseas demand made the sales of Caterpillar’s products increased. Due to the recession of the early 1980s, Caterpillar lost about $6.5 billion and the company was forced to lay off thousands employees, closed several factories and suffered a long United Auto Workers strike. Therefore, Caterpillar recognized that a change in the company would overcome the crisis. The company undergoes the new leadership and it was successful pull off one of the biggest turnarounds in corporate history.
Caterpillar boldly fought the United Auto Workers and outlasted two strikes and seven years of disagreements. Due to that, it decentralized and restructured into several business unit and each of the business unit will responsible for its own P&L. Caterpillar invested a significant amount of money about $1.8 billion in a factory-modernizing program that automated and streamlined its manufacturing process with a combination of just in time inventory and flexible manufacturing. By automating its manufacturing system, the company became more efficient and competitive, although it also was forced to lay off more its workforce. Furthermore, the company realized that the research & development will made the company even better than its competitors. Caterpillar invested hundreds of millions of dollars in new technologies, products, and also the