Following the acquisition of FGW by Caterpillar Inc., the majority of overseas subsidiary companies were sold to their locally based managers in line with Cat Inc.’s business model which involves the sale of manufactured products to third party territorial dealers

A new Global Manufacturing Footprint strategy was embarked on to build new factories nearer to where customers were located to reduce logistics and duty costs

Michael was the finance representative involved in the set up of a new 500,000 sq. ft. factory in Newberry, South Carolina, USA

New Cat EPD factories were subsequently built in China and Brazil

Prior to 2012, Cat NI manufactured 1 product (gensets)

In 2012, the business was downsized by 1/3rd with lost production being replaced by 3 new product lines over the next 4 years: 

• Wheeled Material Handlers

• Axles for Trucks

• Portable Gensets sold via the Omni Channel

Michael made a substantial contribution in collaboration with multiple departments towards architecting, redesigning and implementing the required changes to business processes during this period.

From a finance perspective, significant changes had to be made concurrently with SAP reporting and master data to accommodate the reporting requirements of three Caterpillar divisions, rather than just one.