Navistar Comes Clean
Navistar is realigning its purchasing strategy through a balance of outsourcing and in-house production in its mission to reduce emissions.
Shannon Wetzel, Senior Editor A
t the end of the engine manu- facturing line at Navistar’s Melrose Park, Ill., facility, plant manager Ronald Poland pointed out a half-dozen
engines to a small group of visitors. Each engine is a different version than the last. The engines may look high production, but Poland said the plant runs like a jobbing facility. “If we build 200 engines a day, all
200 engines could be different,” he said. “We don’t build to stock. Ev- ery engine is an order. We’ll build today what [our customers] are run- ning next.” The sentiment is a
glimpse at a new strat- egy for the truck and diesel engine company. “Our business here
at the engine group has changed,” said Houman Kashanipour, president of the truck maker’s Pure Power Technol- ogies company. “We have to be able to run one-of-a-kind, fast. We are not a GM, we are not a Ford, we are not the old Navistar.” The job-shop mental-
ity stems from Navistar’s larger mission to develop clean emissions tech-
Navistar produces International brand commercial trucks and diesel engines used in a wide variety of applications.
22 MetAl CAsting Design AnD PurChAsing
nologies, maintain its global status and retain key in-house business compo- nents that hold the largest advantage. To meet those goals, the company
has re-positioned its captive Wauke- sha, Wis., iron casting facility as part of a new Navistar company called Pure Power Technologies, which houses many of the businesses asso- ciated with Navistar’s clean emissions technologies. The casting facility
soon will go to market as Pure Power Metalcastings Group. Further, Navistar just announced it
will keep its engine block and head casting facility in Indianapolis open, following a vote by the employees’ union approving a new 5-year labor agreement two days before the plant was set to close.
World of Risk Even with in-house
casting capacity, Navi- star sources its parts to other suppliers globally when the engine-mak- er deems it appropriate or cost-effective. As an engineer who migrated into a purchasing role, Kashanipour has con- cerns about his cast- ing sources. He sees a North American cast- ing supply base—and the casting knowledge it holds—dwindling. Casting sources in low- cost nations carry risks associated with mis- communication and currency fl uctuations. “We have all been
hurt tremendously by this economy,” Kashani- pour said. “The amount of money we are spend- ing on expedited freight
July/August 2010
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