Motors & Drives Information

Most people may be surprised to find out that the nearly century-old General Motors Corp. has become something of a leader in innovative HR practices. Over the past two years, the world's largest automobile manufacturer has completely reshaped the way HR operates within the company, and GM officials like to say that the corporate HR function is changing from a tactical to a strategic role. Indeed, one of the world's largest and most complex corporations understands that it cannot become a truly global corporation without strategic support from HR.

To this end, GM CEO Rick Wagoner appointed the head of HR, Kathleen S. Barclay to the company's overall strategy board. He also gave her the authority to reshape the HR department. Barclay accomplished this through a strategy she calls the 3Ts: technology, talent and transformation.

While many businesses flourished during the boom years of the 1990s, GM, like other U.S.-based automakers, struggled to maintain the status quo. During those years, GM's market share continued to shrink as a steady stream of consumers bought cars from its Japanese, German and Korean competitors.

When Wagoner took over as president and chief operating officer of GM in 1998, he knew the company had to change its approach to manufacturing and selling cars or it would continue a downward spiral and eventually lose its place as the world's pre-eminent automaker. Wagoner set into motion an effort to reorganize and rebuild GM from the inside out. One of Wagoner's primary objectives was to refocus and revamp the company's HR department.

"In my mind, HR is paramount to our reorganization effort. If we are to hire, train and keep the best workforce possible, then we must have the best and most up-to-date HR practices possible," Wagoner says. "While the change in HR is just one element of making GM a more globally focused and competitive company, it is a key element."

One of the first things Wagoner did as president was to organize a senior executive management committee, which he named the Automotive Strategies Board. The newly formed board includes the top-level executives at GM such as the chief financial officer, the chief information officer and the vice president of communications.

Wagoner, who had promoted Barclay to the position of vice president of global human resources for GM, named her to the strategies board. The move to place the head of HR on a top-level management team is something new within the organizational chart at GM. Essentially, Barclay now is considered the chief human resource officer at GM, and she reports directly to Wagoner.

Wagoner says it is crucial that GM's head of HR be a member of the top management team and says the board now actively seeks Barclay's input and opinions at its monthly meetings.

"Katy is a great asset to our organization, and I seek her counsel and perspective constantly," says Wagoner. "She has demonstrated a tremendous capacity to think and act strategically, which is essential to our HR function and what we want to achieve in making GM a globally competitive business."

Wagoner, who assumed the CEO position two years ago, is a relatively young chief executive at age 49. He has received some high marks from business analysts and the media for the changes at GM. Many have praised his fresh and energetic approach, which has helped GM maintain and actually show market share gains in a slumping economy and competitive global marketplace.

"Rick Wagoner is doing a wonderful job at GM, and he is taking the correct approach in involving and placing HR into a leadership role in the reorganization process," says David Ulrich, a management professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. "I believe he is doing all the right things to help turn GM around. I think they have turned a corner here and are positioning themselves well for the future."

Some observers, however, don't quite share Ulrich's optimistic outlook and say that GM faces some serious obstacles to becoming the globally cohesive company of Wagoner's s vision.

"GM has always been a very siloed corporation with all of its different divisions really operating like separate companies. There have been numerous reorganization efforts at GM, and most have not fared well, because of the turf battles and independent nature of GM's divisions," says Jay Conger, a management professor at the London School of Economics and a research associate with the Los Angeles-based Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California.

Conger does admit, however, that GM appears to be taking a different approach. He says that focusing on HR and making it a key element in the reorganization effort is the right thing to do and is something that GM has never really attempted before. He also adds that reorganization on such a massive level and within an organization the size of GM will take several years to take root.

In much of the equipment industry, the trend over the last several years, particularly when it comes to hydraulics, has been toward systems. As a company that has offered complete packaged hydraulic power units almost from the beginning, Hagglunds Drives Inc. understands the appeal of the systems approach. But in the case of the Columbus, Ohio-based arm of Sweden's Hagglunds Drives AB, the systems message has overshadowed the fact that the company also offers a wide range of discrete hydraulic components.

"Over the years, we've positioned ourselves as a drives company," said John Duncan, President of Hagglunds' U.S. and Canadian operations. "We've been doing complete drive systems for all kinds of industrial applications but we've not been necessarily known as a discrete hydraulic motor supplier.

If they don't, perhaps it's because of the success Hagglunds has had pioneering its packaged drive systems that are used in a variety of market segments, including mining, marine, pulp and paper, chemical processing, etc. The company's integral and open power units have been sold in the U.S. for more than two decades. But over the same span, the company has also developed a new range of hydraulic motors that are becoming increasingly recognized for their capabilities in very rugged mobile and semi-mobile applications such as bucket wheel stacker reclaimers, marine dredges, heavy-duty shredders, C. & D. grinding, piling machines, heavy-duty augers, trenchers and drilling, boring and tunneling machinery.

"Looking at our business, we're into 10 different segments," noted Duncan. "Mining is very strong for us, and you'll see a lot of our orange drives around the world.

"One of the areas where we think we have the most potential to grow is construction. We have a lot to offer the OEMs with our Compact CA/CB line of LSHT hydraulic motors that have a very high horsepower to weight ratio. We also are expanding our North American capabilities by adding additional sales and engineering personnel to enable us to respond to our growing customer base."

Hagglunds' product line consists of an array of recent and well-proven components that span a very wide application range. It includes:

CA motors--the smallest of the company's signature line of LSHT radial piston hydraulic motors, the motors incorporate a stationary housing with a rotating hollow shaft that is connected to the shaft of the driven machine with either an integral mechanical shrink disc or via splines. Motors can be flange or torque arm mounted. Displacements range from 76.6 cu.in./rev to 805.5 cu.in./rev with rated operating speeds from fractional to 400 rpm and torques to 53,000 lb.ft. They are available in a two speed version with many bolt on valve accessories. A space saving tandem version is available in many combinations, along with integral enclosed brakes.

CB motors--a similar, but larger range of LSHT radial piston motors, the CB model covers a displacement range from 920 cu.in./rev to 3220 cu.in./rev, with operating speeds from fractional to 125 rpm. Torques range to 213,500 lb.ft.

Marathon motors--a range of LSHT radial piston units, the Marathon motors incorporate a stationary housing and a rotating hollow shaft which is connected to the shaft of the driven machine with either an integral mechanical shrink disc or via splines. The Marathon displacement range is from 542 cu.in./rev to 15,330 cu.in./ rev. with speeds up to 90 rpm and torques to 1 million lb.ft.

Viking motors--the original Hagglunds motor is a rotating housing version. These motors are used in many winch applications with displacement beginning at 203 cu.in./rev to 2319 cu.in./rev. Maximum torque is up to 110,000 lb.ft at speeds up to 200 rpm.

Hydrex motors--Hagglunds purchased this line of LSHT motors from Flender in 2001. Motors range in displacement from 77 cu.in./rev to 2562 cu.in./rev. The comany offers factory service for the line and sell new replacements where required.

SP piston pumps--Among the company's newest products are a range of eight hydraulic piston pumps covering a displacement range of 2.4 cu.in./rev to 45.7 cu.in./rev. They can be stacked for applications requiring tandem pumps with full through drive horsepower and are used primarily in their power units as well as diesel engine driven mobile applications. The pumps incorporate standard crossover reliefs and flushing.

Known for motorcycles, the company actually makes everything from Jet Skis and ATVs to industrial robots and light rail cars, so the daily workouts differ, depending on the type of work. (Painters, for instance, get exercises that strengthen rotator cuffs and shoulders.) That's just a tiny piece of this company's huge commitment to wellness. The 10,000 sq. ft. fitness center is free; on a typical day it's visited by more than 100 people. During the holidays, teams compete in the Holiday Butterball Derby to see who can maintain their weight in the face of temptation. Yearly confidential health risk appraisals catch early symptoms and spur employees to visit their doctor or make lifestyle changes. In the cafeteria, meal choices are accompanied by fat and cholesterol information; more than half the entrees are either heart-healthy or low-fat. Wellness coordinator Jim Townsend explains that in 1998 the company went through the Wellness Council of America's Well Workplace process (he calls it 1809000 certification for wellness). Now they conduct regular audits, assess how well they've met their goals, and set new ones. "Our management," he says, "knows the benefit of productivity, morale and the quality of life. We work from there."

N AUTOMATION HISTORY, THE motor goes all the way back. Every so often, changes and advancements in technology allowed for major new motor products, but for the most part the process of improving motor offerings has been incremental.

When electronic variable-speed drives came to the marketplace, they gave automation designers a whole new direction-and in the beginning they gave maintenance and service personnel a whole new headache. To say the least, some early industrial electronics were finicky and unreliable.

Time has passed and technology has improved. Advancements in microelectronics, microprocessors, and power electronics have all improved the capability and reliability of electronic drives.

Every year it seems that drives have been decreasing in size in the same manner that computer microprocessing power has increased in size, so it just seemed obvious that eventually the motor and the drive would come together.
ntegrated motor/drive products seem to break down into two categories.

First is the speed/torque combination. These units put a speed controller as part of a motor and would propose to handle the majority of motor drive applications.

The second category handles positioning applications. These units combine a motor, position feedback, power control, and motion control to cover motion applications.

Applications

Speed control units generally would be used in any application where previously a motor had been connected to a variable-speed drive. The drive was mounted either locally or in a remote control panel.

Roddy Yates, product manager for Baldor Electric Co., says that Baldor has been marketing its SmartMotor product line since 1995. The product was originally developed for the fan and pump market. It has really become more utilized, however, in the singlemotor applications, such as small machines.

According to Yates, Baldor is "committed to the product line" which is growing at a rate of "about 3% per year." This experience fits with a reasonable conclusion that a motor/drive combination would sell most easily where it would be the only motor in the application, effectively reducing the number of components for electricians to purchase and install.

At TB Woods Sons Co., Rick Kirkpatrick indicated that their product, the IMD, has been available since 1998. Kirkpatrick says that they have had some success with "direct OEM sales." However, they see what others have seen-that the traditional thinking patterns of separating the motor and drive with the drive in the control panel continue.

Kirkpatrick also says that customers have "not yet transitioned fully to this new thinking." TB Woods has seen more success with their European product release, where they believe the service personnel are more interested in a "higher-tech" product. They also stress that the cost analysis needs to be handled in an honest manner to include not only component costs but labor and time costs as well.

Proving that the concept applies to all sizes of motors, Bodine Electric Co. has the INTEGRAmotor product line. Rod Maksinovic of Bodine indicates that smaller electronics packages have promoted their concept of a product line that is easy to apply and while Bodine has "had some good success stories," Maksinovic believes that it will be "a year or two before wide acceptance." This sentiment seems to be widespread. There is also the feeling, however, that the economic sluggishness in capital equipment may be affecting product sales.

Integrated systems

Certainly, the more complex catego

INTELLIGENT MOTORS continued

ry of products and perhaps the "hotter" in terms of technology are the integrated motion systems. Machine builders and designers have long been involved in applying motion products. These products, including servomotors, controllers, and power amplifiers, have been steadily decreasing in size, yet increasing in technological features.

Because most motion applications require a significant level of accuracy, manufacturers have attempted to provide a complete line of products, which would include the motor, a coordinated power amp, a motion controller, and some sort of feedback device such as an encoder. Designers could choose from these and feel fairly confident that their application would be successful.

However, these still required some control panel building and special wiring or cabling. The integrated motion products seem to be trying to resolve some of these issues. Now on your servomotor you have an encoder, a power amplifier, and a motion controller all built together.

Animatics of Santa Clara, Calif., was "the first in the market to do a servo motion controller," according to Nathan Turner, vice president of sales and marketing. Animatics' products reached the marketplace in 1995. Turner says that Animatics has seen a significant growth in their market in "especially multi-axis" applications in the past year.