I'm Rachel Corrie, and I approved this ad.
Posted on 10/31/2005 1:48:50 PM PST by janetjanet998
PEORIA - Caterpillar Inc. plans to reach $50 billion in sales by the end of 2010 and is putting a strategy in place that could double that figure - and nearly double employment - by 2020.
Caterpillar plans to get there by meeting strategic goals, realizing several critical success factors and making improvements in key areas of the operation to control costs and enhance quality, according to the company's new corporate strategy being made public today.
The strategy was unveiled to employees in recent days, and Chairman Jim Owens will present it to industry analysts today at a meeting in New York City.
Loosely titled "Vision 2020," the strategy sets goals for the year 2020 but mostly focuses on what the company wants and needs to do in the next five to 15 years to achieve those goals. The company said this strategy is the first of three five-year plans to be formulated in that time that will set the course for achieving the 2020 goals.
"If we fully realize this vision, we can be world-class good. We could be a $100 billion company by 2020," Owens said in a message delivered to its approximately 84,000 employees around the world Thursday and Friday.
"We can more clearly define what we want to deliver by 2010 and beyond and position ourselves to achieve Vision 2020. We can go from being a really good company to a truly great one," Owens said.
Among the Vision 2020 goals:
- "We are recognized as the leader everywhere we do business;"
- "Our products and services help our customers succeed;"
- "Our distribution system is a competitive advantage;"
- "Our supply chain is recognized as world class;"
- "Our business model drives entrepreneurial zeal, growth and global scale;"
- "Our people are talented and engaged;"
- "Our work today makes the world of tomorrow possible;"
- "Our financial performance consistently rewards our stockholders."
To start, by the end of 2010, Caterpillar wants to reach $50 billion in sales and revenues, become the best financial performer in its industry and be in the top half of best performers in the S&P 500, with earnings-per-share growth of 15 percent to 20 percent each of the next five years.
"To that end, we have defined a strategic profile that articulates the type of business we want to be in, and each of our businesses will evolve to match this profile," the company said in its presentation to workers.
Caterpillar said it will achieve "best-in-class performance in quality, product development and order-to-delivery." It also plans to focus on China, "carefully" move into new businesses that will enhance its core businesses and grow earnings, and will continue to operate through autonomous business units while using "enterprise-wide focus and commonality in selected key processes to improve our performance."
The strategy was set up in a pyramid form, with the company's values at the base. The company updated its worldwide code of conduct and called it "Our values in action." To be given all employees, the values consist of integrity, excellence, teamwork and commitment.
The code of conduct gets into such matters as honesty, avoiding and managing conflicts, fairness, the handling of "inside information," providing employees opportunities to develop, managing risk, prohibiting discrimination, personal responsibility, the use of electronic communications technology, personal privacy and community involvement.
The next level of the pyramid consists of the "strategic areas of improvement," which are new product introduction; order-to-delivery; encoding the 6 Sigma operating process; sustainable development and growth.
Next, the Caterpillar strategy sets out its "critical success factors," which it said are "the few things that must be done right for us to achieve our strategy." They must be "measurable, quantifiable and controllable."
They are:
People: Includes creating a culture that engages employees, with a focus on safety and diversity.
Quality: Accelerating the pace of quality improvement for its products and focusing on improving new product introduction. The company said it will put much emphasis on quality throughout the enterprise in the coming years.
Product: Implementing processes to "become the highest-quality, lowest-cost producer of our high-volume products in each hemispheric currency zone."
Velocity: Caterpillar will "radically change our business model to reduce order-to-delivery time significantly compared to any competitor, with less total inventory in the value chain." That, the company said, will give it a competitive edge as it drives to be the leader in markets in which it does business.
Distribution: "Our distribution system will be the global benchmark in delivering integrated business solutions to our customers."
China: Caterpillar will enhance manufacturing operations in that country to establish a market leadership position. The company is not going to ignore other emerging markets but will focus on the exploding growth in China.
Trough: The company plans to establish a "flexible cost structure" that will enable it to improve financial performance during any cyclical downturns in business, known as troughs. That way, it will try to avoid having to cut costs, like layoffs, in cyclical downturns. Part of that could be through developing more business in counter-cyclical products.
Caterpillar's strategic goals for 2010 focus on what it calls the three Ps:
- People: As with the critical success factor focusing on its people, the company's goal is to have a "highly engaged work force" with a focus on world-class safety.
- Performance, product and process: The metrics of this goal are to be No. 1 in quality, No. 1 for every major product line on every continent where it sells and be a market leader in availability.
- Profitable growth: $50 billion in sales and revenues by 2010 and earnings-per-share growth in the top half of the S and P 500 companies. To help achieve this, the company plans to look for business opportunities that will help it grow and leverage its core business.
Caterpillar said as it grows, it believes its employment base may grow by as many as 80,000 people by 2020.
I'm Rachel Corrie, and I approved this ad.
Buy your lotto ticket ping.... ;-)
Double employment? That seems counter to the trend. The idea is to cut employment in half, and double production.
I certainly hope her message doesn't fall flat.
CAT PING!!
Cats factories are opertaing at capacity and many models have a 6 month waiting period...they have hired 6000 workers here in Illinois the past year alone
Just not in America.
Bingo!:
China: Caterpillar will enhance manufacturing operations in that country to establish a market leadership position. The company is not going to ignore other emerging markets but will focus on the exploding growth in China.
Just bought CAT on a recent dip.
alot of new prodcucts will be launched..and not just for contruction equipment
And you believe that?
and they are spending big bucks upgrading factories here
ping
thanks for that insight. it would be nice to see Ford use that technology to create more products- cause Dodge will use the Merceds diesel and GM is not going to change anything till they go out of business.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.