Cab Specialist

Bergstrom Inc. was founded as a heating system manufacturer for mobile equipment in 1949, and over the years grew to become a supplier of complete systems that provide operator comfort in off- and on-highway vehicles.

With OEMs becoming increasingly interested in buying complete systems from their component suppliers, assembling complete cabs was a natural step for the Rockford, IL, company. That's what it is doing at Bergstrom's Contract Assembly Services facility, located just north of I-80 in Joliet, IL. When the assembly program started, one of Bergstrom's goals was to differentiate itself from its competitors and be viewed as a value-added supplier. The cab program has helped Bergstrom do just that.

"Building cabs gives us a closer relationship with our customers on the HVAC side of the business," says Gus Anton, general manager, Cat Global Sales, Bergstrom Inc. "We are confident that, as we grow the cab business, it will provide additional opportunities on the contract assembly side and the air conditioning side, as well."

In 1996, Caterpillar Inc., Peoria, IL, began working on a strategy for its cab design and manufacturing business. Caterpillar had worked with Bergstrom since the 1950s, and it approached Bergstrom to see if it would be willing to assemble cabs.

Previously, the cabs for Caterpillar's different business units — such as the mining operation in Decatur, IL, or track-type tractors in East Peoria, IL — were designed and sourced by the individual groups. That's changed over the past couple of decades, as Caterpillar has worked to leverage some of the assembly operations to provide a Caterpillar cab, with common seats, joysticks, and other operator interfaces.

"Leveraging that production base has a cost benefit, too," says Tom Holt, Cat Electronics Operator Environment/Interface product manager. "Rather than have the track-type tractor group building a machine and sourcing cab components independently, everyone can pull from a common pool. There was an opportunity to capitalize on some synergies, and we had a quality group in Bergstrom to do the assembly."

"We looked at the Bergstrom organization and how they developed their people and how they developed the processes to build their products," says George Formenti, operations manager, Caterpillar Cab Assembly Operation. "Bergstrom's Mastery program helps develop people on the shop floor who must meet certain expectations in order to maintain their Mastery level. We also looked at what they do for process control; they create CAPP sheets (computer-aided process procedure sheets) to assemble product."

Caterpillar moved the assembly line for one of its simpler cabs and installed it in Bergstrom's Rockford facility for nine months as a trial test.

"After that test period, Bergstrom knew it wanted to get into the business, and we were comfortable with the quality of the cabs and the way they had trained their people, so we decided that we both wanted to pursue this opportunity," says Formenti.

Bergstrom relocated its cab assembly business to a new facility in Joliet during the winter of 1998. That facility has grown to where it now covers 207,500 sq. ft.

"I believe part of our success is based on the fact that we had a good transition plan to ramp up," says Anton. "George's staff assisted in transferring the direct product knowledge to our team over the course of about a year, and it was almost two years to get all the products moved into the building. We worked in a methodical way to ensure that we met the quality levels and delivery performance expectations for Caterpillar during that transition. The goal was a ‘seamless' transition from the prime product plant's perspective."

Today, Bergstrom's Joliet facility is producing cabs for three of Caterpillar's plants, those in Decatur, East Peoria, and Aurora, IL. In terms of equipment, that includes scrapers, rigid frame haulers, motor graders, track-type tractors, and large wheel loaders.