A Trip to Caterpillar

The first thing that I thought about the name Caterpillar was not about a huge remanufacturing plant but rather the green little insect that we all know since young. My school, Hwa Chong Institution, with the help of EDB, managed to organised visits to the Multi-National Corporations in Singapore to help us(students) gain exposure to manufacturing and working life as a whole. It is hoped that students This is a once in a lifetime opportunity which our school and her students are really grateful to be given this opportunity.

On the 16th of November, we arrived near Pioneer Road or 7 Tractor Road to be precise. Our school had organised a visit to Caterpillar and job shadow some of the engineers over there for half a day. It was a huge facility with 188 employees. So what do all of these people do? This specific site or part of the focusses sole on remanufacturing. To be honest, I did not know about the existence of remanufacturing. I knew at best vaguely of reusing machine parts but not much about the details. Caterpillar remanufactures old worn-out machine parts usually from giant engines of off-road trucks. The people dissemble worn-out engine parts, clean them with chemicals and environmentally friendly methods like laser metal deposition, inspect them, salvage as much parts as possible, reassemble them before putting on a new coat of paint to be resold. The worn-out parts becomes as good as new!

We were first welcomed by a Caucasian man, whose name I could not remember...(I apologise). He was cheerful and looks like he had years of experience in the remanufacturing plant in Singapore. He gave us an overview of Caterpillar.

These are some cold hard facts ---
1.The company remanufactures 2.2 million metal products which is 134 million pounds of remanufactured products every year

2. Caterpillar have 18 remanufacturing facilities in 8 countries

3. Caterpillar does not do only remanufacturing but also manufacturing such as engines, batteries, machines etc

4. Caterpillar remanufactures old worn-out parts to as good as new parts with the same performance, specifications, reliability and durability

5. Caterpillar has been awarded the Greenmark gold plus award. This means they are very environmentally friendly. The remanufacturing process by Caterpillar uses 93% less water, 86% less energy, 61% less greenhouse gas emissions, 99% less material and landfill space when compared to manufacturing new machine parts.

With that out of the way, I shall recount my "Caterpillar" experience. A friend and I jobbed shadowed an engineer for two hours at the remanufacturing plant. She was an environmental engineer and held another engineering degree which I have forgotten. Apparently, most engineers in Caterpillar have a degree in mechanical engineering.This engineer that we followed was from the Philippines and completed her studies there before coming or rather being transferred to Singapore to work. She seemed very passionate for her work, explaining the process of the remanufucaturing to us in details.

Firstly, the remanufacturing process starts with the  disassembly. After checking that the machine parts or engine parts are in acceptable condition for remanufacture, the engine is taken down into pieces, down to the nuts and bolts. Each nut and bolt is very important as they would be used later in reassembly of the machine. The parts were all categorised into different metal cages. Those that are beyond repair are put into the scrap box, where it would be melted for scrap metal. Well, working in the diassembly line is not the cleanest job as you can see black oil along the surface of parts. Those workers that can take pride in their work should be respected.

Next is the cleaning process. There wasn't much said in this process. Either the engineer did not really want to say, have forgotten to say or perhaps it was that it was not in her field or expertise since she was the quality engineer for the company. The cleaning process is done through chemicals to remove paint, oil and other potential harmful substances.

Following that, we entered the clean room where the cleaned parts are inspected. The workers and engineers, based on their judgement, decide which parts are accepted and which are rejected. They have a huge database for all the parts of every machine they have manufactured. When they have not seen a part that comes into the workshop, they would check the database or enter in a new part. I bet there are billions of guides of machine parts in their database. Workers check for cracks and damages that could potential affect performance. Every few days, the team meet up to discuss "controversial" machine parts. Some would be scraped or put in the rejected box. The rejected box will be sent to the salvage team where the magic of remanufacturing happens.

The clean room was huge and it is where the assembly line is. The parts are brought over and the skilful engineers assemble them by hand. It is amazing that they know how to screw everything in place but I guess that they did it over thousands of time already so practice makes perfect. The workers there gave us a quick lesson on how engine works. They gave a very simplified overview. Combustion of fuel leads to the pushing of pistons and transfer power to the torque converter which transfers energy to the transmission(gear system) before to the final drive which turns the wheels.

At the back of the facility, salvaging of materials take place. There is grinding of machine parts to remove rust or make the parts shinier.There is a crackhouse, which is a black box, to find cracks on parts using ultraviolet light. People fixes threads which nuts go into while huge machines that look like refrigerators wash parts with chemicals green in colour. There is a huge storage space of machine parts which was at least 6 metres high and workers drive forklifts to carry boxes containing parts. The workers replaces parts too worn out with new manufactured part there so that there is a complete set of parts to be reassembled. At the back is where the final products are painted too since the cleaning process had removed them. They are given the characteristic yellow colour which is representative of Caterpillar. These remanufactured engines are sent and resold

Even though the workspace is hectic, the workers remain cheerful and take pride in what they do. Though they make jokes during work, they always focus on task and get the job done. We could really see that they love what they do. In Caterpillar, everyone works as a team and this should how companies should work. Every step of the remanufacturing process is vital since no one can do everything. Everyone relies on another. Everyone does their part in the process until the final product is completed. If anyone questions why Caterpillar is so successful, I would say it is due to their committed staff and their impeccable teamwork. Even though they are not meeting their goal of 1 engine a day, I believe they are already very efficient.

I think that I took notice was that the work in the remanufacturing plant was rather manual. Most work was done by hand such as diassembly, assembly and even the cleaning process. Before this trip, I thought stuff are made on a conveyor belt. Apparently, the machinery were not so sophisticated ( the word the manager used) as the other plants in the United States but I guess it does have its advantages. The painting in Singapore is done by hand ( Spraying by hose). They said that the Singapore Branch has the best paint job which is the pride of many workers there. Painting done by machine is not as good.

The visit to Caterpillar was an eye-opener. Not only did I learn a bit more about remanufacturing but also take a peek into how is the working life in such a company. Remanufacturing is the way of the future as we always have to consider the sustainability of manufacturing processes. Although Caterpillar, as a company, at the end of the day aims to make money, they never once put money above sustainability and customer satisfaction. Their environmental friendly methods and consideration for their customers put Caterpillar as world's best remanufacturing company. It was a pleasure for us students to take part in this tour.