An Introduction to Caterpillar Equipment
Caterpillar Incorporated is a company located in Peoria, Illinois of United States. It is also recognized as CAT. It is a very famous company and the biggest producer of diesel and natural gas engines, construction and mining equipment and industrial gas turbines. Quality of CAT’s equipment has made it the most famous and well known company. The most famous product of CAT is the caterpillar D9 bulldozer. The distinctive feature of its product is their unique yellow paint and caterpillar track. They manufacture equipment for many different purposes and export to all over the world.
History of Caterpillar
Founders of CAT are Daniel Best and Benjamin Holt and before they founded, they manufactured a track tractor and gasoline engines in 1925. Holt family became very famous after this and then they were busy in fulfilling their promise of constructing a steam tractor. They were conducting experiments on this process in 19th century. After all this, there was a merger between Best and Holt companies and these companies went through many changes in World War 2. They grew very fast after this era and launched their first international venture. This was done in 1950 and was the beginning of the biggest company named CAT.
The equipment of CAT range in variety and they serve many different markets. Their products include:
- Hydraulic excavators
- Diesel and gas engines
- Off road trucks
- Wheel loaders
- Tractors
- Track type tractors
- Motor graders
- Gas turbines
- Backhoes
All these equipment are used for different purposes e.g. excavation, construction, and mining, building roads, forestry, energy and transportation.
Sales
Products of CAT are sold in 200 different companies and more than half of its sales are from outside the country. CAT has 200 dealers all around the world in almost all countries. 63 dealers are within the United States and 150 dealers are all around the world. 42 plants of CAT are present in the United States and 58 plants in Brazil, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, England, India, Germany, Japan, and many other countries.
Labor
CAT faced a lot of union strikes in 1980s and they almost took it down. They also face a lot of decrease in the product demand due to these strikes. A lot of news reports were against CAT and they said that due to the increase in facilities of these products the employees, who were hired on temporary basis, could not even reach their stations for job.
CAT also faced a very long and dangerous strike in 1990s. Then companies hired the permanent replacement of unions which were on strike. Many executives and employees were troubled in these strikes and jack rocks were sited in front of their houses. Their tires were punctured and things were made more complex for the company.
