CMME was in the sultry confines of Indore last month to visit CASE Construction Equipment’s impressive and sprawling Pithampur plant. Close enough to the city to plug into all the travel links a major manufacturer needs, it is also nestled in an area with a rich agricultural heritage, not unlike the world’s second largest maker of farm equipment itself.
However, this was a trip to look forward with CASE, and the perfect opportunity to find out why the state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in the heart of Madhya Pradesh is at the centre of its plans to revamp and renew its ranges and global operation.
The CNHI owned powerhouse machinery-maker is clearly confident that its 8 plants in India can help position itself in a number of segments where it is traditionally not the strongest player.
During the event, CASE revealed that it has invested $6.5 million to move 4,000 of its 15,000 units annual production of skid steer production to the plant. Models moving to India cover the skid steer loader range from SR130B up to its SR210B models to cover Tier-3, including the Middle East, and Tier-5 markets.
The CMME team was also treated to first-hand experience of the advanced manufacturing processes and technologies used at the facility to produce construction equipment ranges for the global markets.
At the event, CASE presented a selection of products catering to various markets with demonstrations of the 1110EX compactor, and the newly launched V-Series backhoe loader and the CX220C LC HD crawler excavator.
“Our state-of-the-art facility in Pithampur operates to the high manufacturing standards of CNH Industrial plants across the world,” said Satendra Tiwari, Plant Head – CNH Industrial, India. “With its range of high-quality construction equipment that stands out for the reliability and durability that are the hallmarks of the CASE brand, it serves the Indian domestic market and exports to more than 75 countries. India is a global manufacturing hub and a strategically important market for CASE Construction Equipment’s growth in the region.”
The Pithampur manufacturing facility was built in 1989 and is one of the brand’s eight manufacturing hubs. Spread across 40 acres of land, the facility operates according to the company’s CNH Business System (CBS), which involves all employees across the entire organisation to drive “greater accountability, agility, efficiency and safety.”
The plant achieves consistently high quality with its class-leading and automated production technologies, including robotic welding, laser cutting and high-precision machining.
CMME saw first-hand how workers are also trained using VR and AR technologies for key jobs like welding and machine spraying.
In 2022, the plant achieved the significant milestone of manufacturing 50,000 loader backhoes. It produces a wide range of products for the global markets including India, Africa, the Middle East, the Asia Pacific region, North and Latin America. The plant also houses an important Research and Development facility to ensure that machines go through regular upgrades and are future ready.
CMME was told on several occasions that CASE is keen to be see as not using sustainability as just a word. On product level you can see this on its electric machinery development, where it is focusing principally in the mini, compact and lighter applications, but it is also examining the way it is making its machines, often by engaging with the local construction communities in sustainable projects.
As part of its efforts to contribute to CNH Industrial’s wider sustainability goals and its aims to reduce carbon emission, the company has also installed solar panels at its Pithampur plant which helps provide up to 25% of the facility’s energy through renewable sources, CMME was told.
The high-tech and high production methods being ingrained into the workforce at Pithampur are part of gearing up at global level to prepare CASE for the challenges ahead.
“The strategy company is now to be the first to reach the places where the other competitors will arrive later,” says CASE CE’s Andrea Bernasconi. “At the beginning of 2022, we went through a very important operation, the spinoff of Iveco company from the rest of the brands. Now we have, a single company that is composed of 10 brands.
“We can say that we have four global brands that are two for agriculture, and two for construction New Holland and CASE. On top of that, we have some regional brands. The strategy of the company is to identify leaders in some sectors, often very small companies and acquire them. The most important one for the construction brand is Eurocomach (a compact equipment specialist) and , and we more detail about this company. We have three segments, agricultural, construction, and financial. We can say agriculture is the big brother of the company, but in the last year, the construction business is growing. It’s progressing in terms of the number of sales, but also in terms of new products and innovation.”
Last year, collectively the group is over $20 billion in revenue. Of it’s 42 plants, eight are located in the Africa, Middle East, and APAC region. And one of these eight is the plant in Pithampur.
“This is a key plant for our region. Here, we produce for the domestic market, but we are also exporting modern machines all over the world to more than 75 countries.”
With 2022 seeing revenue increase by 20%, Mateo Calo, head of product marketing, APAC and AMEA, CASE, adds that innovation is one of three main pillars for the brand going forwards.
“You cannot do a 20% revenue increase, if you keep doing, the same product you were doing in the past. So innovation is the key now for every company. Carbon fossil fuel is a problem going through the future. And our company has for many years worked on alternative fuel. From the CNHI family we have a FIAT powertrain and a very close relationship with the engine manufacturer for our machines. In agriculture we have products running on LNG but that’s not the only alternative fuel. We have also have products running on batteries and replacing the diesel engine. And we are the first in the world, as a construction manufacturer, to have developed an electric back loader.”
Being the first to produce an electric back loader is clearly seen as a coup for CASE, although it is stressed it was one of the first to make the iconic machine back in 1957. Since first electric model was revealed in 2018, development has been rapid, despite the challenges it represented.
“But still, this was a big challenge because one that machine does two different applications, the front loader and the back hoe. It’s quite a complicated machine but we have taken the challenge and succeeded,” stresses Calo, adding that the machine is the first step in a ‘journey’ towards electrification.
“It was only the first step,“ he adds. “At ConExpo in Las Vegas in March, we just launch two mini excavators alongside the electric back loaders, compact loaders and a small articulated loader. These are four different products, platforms, where we are working on electric..and already in the market and in standard production. These are not prototypes. Development is closed. It’s done.”
According to Calo, many of the brands acquired by CASE will help it take a leap in other ways beyond the drivelines of the electric equipment.
“Those brands are working to the digitalisation, as well as electrification. We understand that we cannot win the evolution or the innovation game alone. So the company is heavily investing in acquiring expertise which were not part of our family. And that’s the way we can deliver. It’s an internal process plus emerging acquisition strategy combined,” he explains. “It’s a big effort from our company. There is a lot of investment, but if you want to be committed in the industry, that’s the only way. There’s no alternative to investment and that’s what we’re doing.”
Not all of its moves have been a success, but the experience learned from them are still used to help guide other product innovations.
“We introduced the electric back loader to the US in 2018 as that was our most advanced market. And then in 2019 at Bauma we demonstrated a revolutionary wheeled loader using methane. But we didn’t bring it into the market because the space required for the tanks on the front was not working for the customers. So there are good ideas which don’t always see the light of implantation for good reason,” continues Calo.
Fortunately for CASE it is able to rely on a steady stream of innovative ideas from its team like the so-called CASE Minotaur DL550 hybrid. The Minotaur’s C-frame blade is as big as the blade on Case’s 650M dozer. It’s a chassis-integrated six-way dozer blade, and it attaches to the DL550 via two C-shaped metal hooks. The DL550 can be outfitted with a five-shank ripper on the back for tearing up tough terrain. The new first-of-its-kind machine delivers true dozing and grading performance, as well as powerful site loading capabilities and compatibility with hundreds of attachments.
The C-frame then can be dropped with a few easy steps, and then the machine serves as a loader with a 1.25-cubic-yard bucket — or it can be run with any of the hundreds of attachments equipment owners already have for their current loader.
“The minotaur was a beast. A mix of a human and a horse. It has collected a lot of attention from customers as there are many applications where customers don’t want to buy two machines.”
