In advance of the upcoming split from its specialty steel business, The Timken Company introduced a $60-million plan to improve its product development programs and advance its technical capabilities, as markets require. The manufacturer of bearings, transmissions, and gearboxes, among other engineered products, indicated it would hire nearly 200 engineers and technicians in the next three years to carry out the “DeltaX Initiative.”
The company also reported it would increase the number of new products and features it introduces to the market by approximately 30% over that three-year period.
After more than 100 years producing both steel and bearing products, Timken will separate into two firms on June 30, The Timken Co. producing the bearings, transmissions, gearboxes, chain, and related products and services; and TimkenSteel Corporation, producing large alloy-steel bars (SBQ) and seamless mechanical tubing, and associated supply chain and steel distribution services.
“We’ve been the tapered roller bearing experts since our founding,” stated Richard G. Kyle, Timken president and CEO. “Over the past decade, we’ve leveraged that expertise to successfully expand into other types of bearings. Today we’re announcing a major move taking us more deeply and more broadly into our targeted market space, a move intended to firmly position us among our customers as a full-line leader in industrial bearings and power transmission products and services.”
In recent years Timken has added cylindrical, spherical and housed bearings to its product lines, as well as transmission, chain, augers, lubrication systems, gearboxes and a host of power system rebuild and repair services.
In addition to tapered roller bearings, Timken has added a variety of different bearing products, including spherical, cylindrical, and housed bearings, as well as transmissions, chain, augers, lubrication systems, and gearboxes. It offers power system rebuild and repair services, too, and most of these additional offerings have been added through acquisitions.
"Through DeltaX, we're integrating Timken talent, technology and tools in a way that will allow us to be even more agile and competitive," Kyle continued. "From design to delivery, a more product-focused infrastructure, supported with new customer-facing systems, will replace our traditional functional structure.
“We believe this new, more collaborative design, the first step in our initiative, will allow us to execute even better on our strategy to grow, delivering to the marketplace much faster and more efficiently those products that customers value."
Timken appointed three executives — Douglas H. Smith, Tapered Roller Bearings; Amanda J. Montgomery, Industrial Bearings; and Hans Landin, Power Transmission and Engineering Systems — to oversee different aspects of the DeltaX program. It also appointed a head for Research and Development, Dr. Stephen P. Johnson.
Christopher Coughlin, group president, to whom the product line executives will report, stated: "We're organizing for speed and focus, and expect DeltaX to ensure we work on and invest in what matters most to our customers and ultimately to our shareholders. … We expect the increased accountability for growth and profitability as well as acceleration of development activity to be an exceptional investment," Coughlin added.
