John Deere, like most industrial complexes, started from humble beginnings. A blacksmith dealing with the farmers of America’s Midwest developed a better plough blade. The blade proved so popular it eventually led to the company’s expansion into other fields and its evolution into mobile machinery. {{image2-A:R-w:300}}
Today, John Deere is a modern manufacturer with production and service facilities across the globe, covering an enormous range of equipment across a diverse range of industries.
Having started operations in 1837 in Grand Detour, Illinois, John Deere moved to Moline, Illinois in 1848.1 The worldwide corporate headquarters of John Deere is still in Moline today. The Davenport and Dubuque factories of the John Deere group are both located across the Mississippi River, in Iowa.
The Dubuque works opened in 1947 and, with a number of upgrades and improvements since then, is now a modern, efficient factory producing crawler bulldozers, crawler loaders, backhoes, tracked harvesters, tracked fell bunchers, knuckleboom loaders and skid steer loaders.2 {{image3-A:R-w:300}}
The Davenport works was set up some time later, starting production in 1974. It now produces articulated dump trucks, four-wheel-drive loaders, motor graders, felling heads, wheeled feller bunchers, log skidders and cabs.2 All equipment is made to order; dealers may choose to carry stock but Deere manufactures to orders only.
Deere has numerous manufacturing facilities around the world, including some joint ventures with Hitachi, producing hydraulic excavators for various markets. In Australia, Hitachi Construction Machinery (Australia) is the dealer for John Deere, as well as the Bell line from South Africa.
GREEN MACHINE “REVOLUTION”
The accompanying photos illustrate the diversity of manufacturing skills and capabilities at each of the sites visited.
With an extensive product range in the lawn and turf industry, it is only natural that John Deere sponsors a major golf tournament. The John Deere Classic is held each year in July at the TPC Deere Run course in Silvis, Illinois, not far from the Moline headquarters. Aussies frequently account for the highest number of non-American players.3
Most municipal bodies or councils in Australia would have some type of John Deere equipment, ranging from ride-on mowers to tractors. While the green machines are widely recognised in this area, a quiet revolution has been taking place in earthmoving. From graders to front end loaders, John Deere equipment is becoming more prominent across the country and across the globe.
From fashioning a steel plough in the 19th century to being a multinational company in the 21st century, covering an enormous range of industries, with production facilities all around the world, John Deere has evolved from an innovative blacksmith to a leader in numerous markets.
Celebrating more than 175 years since the development of the revolutionary plough in America’s Midwest, in 2014 John Deere is truly an international corporate citizen.
REFERENCES & FURTHER READING
1 http://www.deere.com/wps/dcom/en_US/corporate/our_company/about_us/history/history.page
2 http://www.deere.com/wps/dcom/en_US/industry/construction/learn_more/factory_information.page
3 http://www.johndeereclassic.com/press_release.html?id=204
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