FEATURE
Powering world leading customers Caterpillar in Northern Ireland is generating power solutions for major projects from data centres to hospitals as Adrienne McGill hears from its Operations Director Mark McClure.
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aterpillar may be best known for its mammoth yellow earth moving machines, but it is the world’s largest manufacturer of generator sets with Northern Ireland serving as one of the key global locations for manufacturing. The corporation employs approximately 1,800 people across 3 facilities, one based in Larne and two located in Springvale in West Belfast. The US giant acquired Larne-headquartered FG Wilson (Engineering) Ltd (rebranded as Caterpillar) in 1999. The Larne plant is a major producer of diesel and gas powered electrical generators ranging in size from less than 10kW up to levels of over 3MW. Thousands are produced annually at the factory. The facility produces generating sets for prime and standby power as well as rental applications. Typical customers are those who rely on power to keep their systems running – basically all businesses but they are especially important for the likes of hospitals and data centres. Smaller units are also manufactured for small business and domestic use. The generators range in size from that of a modular home to a small lawn mower and come in a range of options to suit customers’ power needs. Meanwhile the Springvale operation is a key producer of axles for articulated trucks which are used for earth moving, mining and quarrying throughout the world. The majority of products produced at both plants are exported to countries in Europe as well as Africa and Middle East, CIS, Southern Asia and parts of the Americas. Mark McClure is Operations Director for Caterpillar in Northern Ireland, a position he has held for the last 11 months. A native of Carrickfergus, he has been immersed in engineering throughout his 25-year-long career which started after he graduated in 1993 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Ulster and joined FG Wilson where he initially worked on new product design and engineering support. His leadership skills were noticed at an early stage and his next role was in production where he headed up the fabrication, assembly
and testing of the custom power solutions products. “It was quite a transition moving from a small engineering team based in an office to leading a sizable production team on the shop floor,” says Mark. “This brought new challenges and a development opportunity to extend my leadership skills and build capability in decision making, managing diversity and supporting a safety focused culture.” The global reach of Caterpillar, which is headquartered in Illinois, is unmatched in the engineering industry. The company serves customers in more than 190 countries with several hundred different products. It is a manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, diesel-electric locomotives and diesel, gas and dual fuel electric power generators. More than half of Caterpillar sales are outside the United States. Its manufacturing, marketing, logistics, service, R&D and related facilities along with its dealer locations total more than 500 locations worldwide, which means the company remains geographically close to its global customer base. As a manufacturer, Caterpillar works closely with its dealer network with a common goal to provide solutions that will help its customers build a better world. “It is important we have a global footprint close to our customers and have capability to produce products across our facilities giving us the flexibility to respond to changing global and economic conditions,” says Mark. Prior to taking up his current role, Mark spent four years in Brazil with the company as Facility Manager in the Piracicaba area and in Tianjin City, China for two years. He says he learnt much from the experience. “I was delighted when the opportunity arose to work in Brazil, where I relocated with my wife and 2 children. “Caterpillar allowed me and my family to have a tremendous and very rewarding experience. The children were able to broaden their minds, learn a new language and mix with pupils in a school which had 30 different
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nationalities. It was also great for me to work in a different business environment, culture and language. “After Brazil, we went to China where I ran one of Caterpillar’s largest facilities for genset production – the Asia Power Systems plant. “We have a long history of genset manufacturing within Northern Ireland and we know we need to serve the global market and be best positioned to compete internationally. Caterpillar’s operations are spread across the world but we strive to work to common principles and standards, and share learning across our various facilities world-wide. “So, when I went to Brazil and China it was a great opportunity to understand business and operations from a more global perspective and to share knowledge between our facilities for the overall benefit of our business unit/ division. “For everyone, spending time abroad is a fantastic benchmarking and learning opportunity. Within the wider Caterpillar group, we have opportunities to share best practice, understand each other’s initiatives and ideas, and apply them within our facilities and operations. “We want every Caterpillar factory in the world to apply common standards and principles to ensure we are ultimately delivering what our customers need, on time, with efficiency and to the highest quality. Alongside this, we want to ensure that our processes in our factories support our employees from a safety and rewarding experience perspective. “Caterpillar Northern Ireland has a capability built over many years of design, development, fabrication, assembly and testing of products – we have a lot of experience, a highly skilled team and we need to use that for the benefit of our customers, company and in turn our employees.” In 2016 Caterpillar announced the restructuring of its operations in Northern Ireland, including the closure of its Monkstown facility in Newtownabbey and “consolidation of logistics” at its sites in Larne and Springvale. Investment has been made to achieve this with the production of electric power generator sets, which previously took place