Cummins Inc. 2007 Sustainability Report

“Cummins
can create an
advantage over
our competitors
when we
understand
our customer’s
feelings
and provide
a positive
experience for
him or her.”
Jose
Parra-Morzan
Cummins recognizes that its duty goes
beyond the bottom line. While the Company
must deliver value to shareholders, it also
strives to responsibly and effectively serve
all stakeholders – customers, employees,
business partners and the communities in
which it operates.
The Company actively engages all
stakeholders, seeking feedback and doing
its best to keep them informed of Cummins’
actions and performance. The Company’s
policies reflect a commitment to financial
excellence, environmental stewardship,
workplace equity, corporate responsibility
and fair competition.
Our activities related to the community
are detailed in the Corporate Responsibility
section of this book, which begins on
Page 88.
Customers
Cummins is dedicated to exceeding the
expectations of its customers, making
products and providing support that give
customers a competitive advantage in
the marketplace.
Cummins works with key customers
during development and production to
ensure that products are manufactured to
the customers’ satisfaction. Increasingly,
Cummins is using Six Sigma tools to help
its customers and suppliers reduce costs
and improve quality.
The Company’s goal for using Six Sigma
with customers is to create the shared
belief that Cummins cares as much about
12 Cummins Inc. 2007 Sustainability Report
Commitment to Stakeholders
the customer’s business as the customers
themselves. Cummins currently has
approximately 220 active customer-focused
Six Sigma projects and has completed
nearly 640 projects since 2005.
In some cases, Cummins has sent
Six Sigma “belts” to work directly with
a customer to solve a specific challenge.
In other instances, Cummins has trained
and provided support to belts working
for our customers. Some recent
examples of Cummins’ customer-focused
Six Sigma efforts:
• Reducing a customer’s soot filter field
issues without an adverse effect on the
aftertreatment system.
• Increasing the fuel filter change interval
on certain heavy-duty trucks from
30,500 miles to 34,500 miles.
• Increasing a co-generation plant’s
average monthly availability to
90 percent and meeting all emissions
requirements of the operating permit.
Customer Care
One of the biggest challenges for Cummins
in our extremely competitive global business
environment is becoming and staying the
first choice of customers. That is why
Cummins launched its Customer Support
Excellence (CSE) initiative.
As a company, we realize it is not enough
to develop the most innovative technology
or build the most dependable engines. Our
customers have to believe, and we must
show them, we care as much about their