CATERPILLAR MOTOREN (MaK)
OUTLINE OF COMPANY
1.1 Organisation of the Company
For many years there were three MaK companies in Kiel, owned by the German conglomerate Krupp. One made military vehicles (tanks and other armoured vehicles), one made locomotives and the other made engines. In the early 1990s Krupp undertook a review of its operations and decided to focus on its core business as a steel manufacturer and sell off its manufacturing businesses.
In 1990 the military vehicles business at Kiel was sold to Rheinmetall and two years later the locomotives business was sold to Siemens (which has since sold it on to Vossloh). This left Krupp owning only the engine business in Kiel. However, rather than seek to sell it off the group decided to renovate the product line and from 1992 onwards developed an entirely new family of engines, with new series launched every two years.
Caterpillar had been manufacturing engines since 1925 and over the past 25 years engines have become an increasingly important part of the group's activities. Indeed, the group has ambitions to become a full line engine company, offering products across the size range from smallest to largest.
At the top end of the size range, Caterpillar identified MaK as being the ideal means to extend their product offering through acquiring the expertise and products of an existing manufacturer.
Although it had invested heavily during the 1990s in developing the new family of MaK engines, there was a feeling that Krupp could not sustain the levels of investment in R&D necessary to compete with larger manufacturers of engines. Caterpillar on the other hand had the resources to invest, could spread the cost across a much larger engine manufacturing organisation and could operate through a more extensive sales and service network. The sale of MaK to Caterpillar was concluded early in 1997.
Since 1 August 2000 the company has been known as Caterpillar Motoren GmbH & Co. KG. The change of name from MaK Motoren was designed to help to integrate the Kiel operation within Caterpillar group and to demonstrate the long term commitment of the group to the Kiel factory.
