Bobcat Celebrates 50th Anniversary

Tractor manufacturer Bobcat marks its 50th anniversary this month. ASSEMBLY profiled the facility in the June 2007 issue.

The 750,000th Bobcat skid-steer loader is slated to roll off the assembly line this summer in Gwinner, ND. Coincidentally, Bobcat also celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

The skid-steer loader was invented 50 years ago by brothers Louis and Cyril Keller in their blacksmith shop in rural Minnesota. From a simple, cardboard-drawn sketch, the Kellers built a three-wheel, self-propelled loader to ease manure-removal chores on area turkey farms.

Fifty years later, Bobcat is a $2.5 billion business and the seventh largest manufacturer of construction equipment in the world. The company now employs 4,000 people worldwide. Its network of dealers extends across 90 countries. In December 2007, South Korean manufacturer Doosan Infracore Co. purchased Bobcat from Ingersoll-Rand for $4.9 billion. The deal was the largest overseas acquisition by a South Korean company. You can read more about Bobcat’s 50th anniversaryhere.

ASSEMBLY magazine profiled the Gwinner plant in the June 2007 issue. The efficient, innovative facility encompasses 750,000 square feet of manufacturing space spread across 11 acres. The plant operates around the clock, running three shifts per day, five days per week. It employs approximately 1,000 hourly workers and 300 salaried workers. Read more about it

here.

Ironically, the company’s founder, Eugene Dahl, died last week at age 83. You can read his obituary

here.

Real Bobcat afficionados may want to check the new book,Bobcat: Fifty Years,by Martin J. Padgett.

John has been with ASSEMBLY magazine since February 1997. John was formerly with a national medical news magazine, and has written for Pathology Today and the Green Bay Press-Gazette. John holds a B.A. in journalism from Northwestern University, Medill School of Journalism.

The ASSEMBLY Show South

ASSEMBLY is thrilled to return to the Music City Center in Nashville, TN for The ASSEMBLY Show SOUTH on May 1-2, 2024. This is a booming time for manufacturing and the U.S. South is right in the heart of the action. According to ASSEMBLY’s most recent annual capital spending survey, the South is projected to account for 31 percent of total spending this year, marking the fifth straight year this region has accounted for at least 30 percent of capital spending in the U.S.

In this session, manufacturers will learn how Quality function deployment (QFD) can transform consumers’ qualitative demands into quantitative parameters that will shape the design of their product and, ultimately, their manufacturing process.

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