Cat^® Reman at 50: The People Who Make it Possible

Let’s begin with Steve Stark. After all, his work left such an impact that, according to his son, Jeff, “I’ve got some friends of mine who affectionately deem Dad the 'Godfather of Cat Reman.’ ”

Now retired, Steve spent more than 35 years with Caterpillar, first joining the company in 1970. Initially, he was an operator machining 3208 cylinder heads and blocks at the facility in Davenport, Iowa. As Steve puts it, “You have to understand the history. The old Davenport plant was later to become the Bettendorf facility. Caterpillar bought that business and, when Davenport built a new facility out at Mount Joy, that building just went vacant. Then, in late 1972, the remanufacturing idea started becoming a reality.”

Back then, before the research and development hub in Mossville was in existence, Caterpillar manufactured new products — such as cylinder heads, blocks and other components for 3406 and 3208 engines — out of Davenport. Once the focus transitioned to track-type equipment, Steve moved to the facility in Bettendorf, Iowa. This happened in January 1973, right before Cat Reman released its very first remanufactured engine.

Then, in March of 1973, Steve says he and a few other employees built the first remanufactured engine, an 1160. "That was before 3208s came on the scene. At that time, we were going to start building all the 3100 series engines, the 1100 series engines and a Marine engine."

In Bettendorf, Steve started as an engine assembler but, due to the nature of the work, “everybody got their taste of a lot of different operations.” He moved to the end of the line, making fixes related to the assembly process.

By the mid-1970s, the Cat Reman production line had grown to include remanufactured turbos and the first 3406 Cat Reman engine. When 1976 rolled around, Steve supervised the disassembly area as a production foreman before moving to the third shift as a production general foreman in 1979.

In 1986, Steve transferred to the new Cat Reman facility in Corinth, Mississippi. He followed in the footsteps of a former Bettendorf plant manager and two supervisors who moved when Corinth opened in 1982.

Through the 1980s and into the early 1990s, Steve moved up the ladder, managing operations, then manufacturing, then an entire business unit before rounding out his career as technical resources manager.

“That’s kind of how the Salvage Development process started,” Steve says. In the early 1980s, a centralized resource handled most of the product testing, but they prioritized new parts and components. “So, I started the technical resources group in Corinth. We developed our own salvage techniques and did a lot of our own testing.”

This process — refined over the years and applied to a variety of products —  like 3600 prechambers — has helped set Cat Reman options apart from others on the market.

By relying on process improvements and being open to change, the salvage development team considers the big picture. “If I don’t have this part, now all of a sudden, I can’t build an engine. I can’t build a water pump. I can’t build an oil pump.” As Jeff tells it, this issue highlights the need for the new developments his team provides.

Alongside other procedures, Jeff’s group has handled testing around laser cladding, wire arc spray and cold metal transfer. The results of these tests help define the next generation of salvage techniques. This work impacts what Caterpillar does in Corinth and other Cat Reman facilities — like the one further south in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.

Sergio Valdez Villarreal vividly remembers his first day at work. “I started on August 16, 1988, and the Nuevo Laredo facility opened in late September or October. My first job was to supervise the carpenter who was putting the sheetrock in the offices — without having floors finished and without a cafeteria.”

Prior to joining the company, Sergio spent nearly four years as an assembly supervisor before securing a meeting with Caterpillar in Laredo, Texas — just across the border. “I interviewed with Plant Manager Roland Turner for an hour. He asked me to go to the facility on the Mexican side the next day. There, I met with the operations manager at the time, Ron Thompson. He hired me as operations supervisor right there. That was the beginning of my happy journey.”

Steve Stark remembers the early days of the Mexico facility. “Roland Turner had been the quality control manager at Bettendorf and then he came to Corinth and then he went to Nuevo Laredo. And at that point, we were mostly doing the old needle-valve injectors and some of the 3406 injectors.”

At its start, a decade before Rosalinda joined, Sergio was one of only two supervisors and 12 employees. Now, the Nuevo Laredo facility has a service for pick-ups and drop-offs for each shift, with nearly 1,800 employees. Despite its size, Sergio seems familiar with much of the staff, thanks to his many roles over the years. After serving as operations supervisor, he became superintendent and then manager for fuel systems operation and assembly. He moved over to quality assurance planning and then spent a year on the logistics team in Laredo, Texas, before returning to Mexico.

With his historic knowledge of the Nuevo Laredo location, Sergio makes an ideal tour guide. “In two facilities, we remanufacture fuel systems. Also, we remanufacture turbochargers. That was the second business we opened in January 2006. In the third facility, we remanufacture starters, alternators, filters, hydraulics and electronic control units (ECUs).”

In Rosalinda’s day-to-day role as general supervisor for Cat Reman turbos, pumps and injectors, she collaborates with team leaders, analyzing and evaluating ways to keep production flowing as efficiently as possible. “Every day, I work with my peers to establish and execute strategies that allow us to achieve PQVC (people, quality, velocity and cost) goals.”

At a higher level, Sergio looks for ways to improve how Nuevo Laredo does business. After overseeing the turbocharger launch in 2006, he moved on to the roles of supply chain manager, warehouse manager and technical services manager before his current position. Despite his impressive resume, Sergio remarks, “I was eating lunch with Jose. He’s been with us for a couple of months, and he asked me, ‘How long have you been here?’ I said, ‘I guess you weren’t born when I started.’ He said, ‘I’m 20.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I’ve been here for 34 years.’ It’s been really fast. I mean, I’m just happy to be here all that time.”

As a lean Six Sigma black belt, Sergio spearheads efforts to improve Nuevo Laredo’s operation. Six Sigma is an approach to streamlining and improving processes, and in the early 1990s, Sergio ran a Six Sigma test for reducing waste and improving efficiency. Around then, Nuevo Laredo also implemented 5S, a five-step methodology for organizing a productive workspace involving sorting, straightening, shining, standardizing and sustaining.

“Now that I’m leading projects, I feel very happy working with people and working on problems that affect them with the business.” With his Six Sigma background, Sergio addresses issues similarly, “to define, measure, analyze, improve and control — so at the end of the day, it’s a process improvement.” Mainly, he develops leaner ways of tackling problems as they arise, practices that can be taught and replicated across the organization.

Specifically, Sergio and the team are working on two exciting projects. “On one project, we’re implementing an improvement on shipments from suppliers. Another is to improve the flow of materials from the warehouse,” he says. “We are looking at the whole chain because improving one link in the chain might impact another one. So, we look at involving the warehouse, receiving, traffic and customs, purchasing and accounts payable. Anyone who has a say in the chain, we’ve got them together. Even on the American side.”

“In addition,” Rosalinda says, “we’re working under ISO 9000 standards, and I have five focuses when it comes to personnel administration: sociability, communication, responsibility, inclusion and consistency.” Considering the results of their hard work, Rosalinda comments that when she started, Nuevo Laredo resembled a mechanical workshop. “We are now a business with highly qualified people and automated processes, seeking continuous improvement day by day.”

Jeff continues, “Of course, he got to telling me the history of how he met Dad and trying to get everything going down in Nuevo Laredo. I think Dad even took him golfing one time.”

Simply put, the work of Jeff, Steve, Sergio, Rosalinda and other Cat Reman employees was never limited to one location. As time progressed, Cat Reman expanded to acquisitions in North Dakota, Indiana, Brazil, China and Indonesia. “In the technical resources group, we did salvage development for all those facilities,” Steve Stark says. “And Caterpillar subsidiary Progress Rail was originally purchased in the remanufacturing group — before it went out and had its own division,” which Steve’s team supported.

“That’s our job,” Jeff says, “to develop processes to be able to reuse parts. And then, once we do that, we don’t work just for Mississippi. I go to Fargo. I go to Nuevo Laredo. We actually go on-site and help them implement those processes. Right across from my desk, I’ve got a 900-pound wheel that’s come from Fargo that we’re currently looking to do some development processes for.”

That personal approach means a lot to Sergio, too. Every day, he’s motivated to make a difference with his team, and it all comes down to the people who design, inspect, remanufacture and salvage these products. “That defines Cat Reman,” he says. “The company takes care of people and, together, we put safety and quality as number one priorities. Even people from other facilities. We help each other.”

To Steve, “Cat Reman was my life. I loved it. We had a great group of people in ’73. And when I left in 2005, we still had a great group of people. Those that know Cat Reman fall in love with Reman. And a lot of them don’t want to leave. That included me.”

“You know,” Jeff adds, “my wife makes fun of me all the time. She’s a nurse, and she always tells me, ‘I wish I loved my job as much as you love yours.’ Well, I’ve got a fun job. I’ve probably got one of the best jobs in Mississippi. It’s something new every day.”