Since 1919 Cummins Inc. has been a leader in innovation; from developing technologies to make diesel engines more energy and fuel efficient, to developing technologies allowing engines to be powered by natural gas, electricity and other alternative fuels, Cummins is a technology leader.

Cummins was recently honored with the 2019 Large Enterprise of the Year Mira Award by TechPoint, the nonprofit, industry-led growth accelerator for Indiana’s tech ecosystem. Judges awarded Cummins for its dedication to developing and implementing data-enabled services through the Digital Accelerator team, which has led to numerous smart connected products. Additionally, judges cited Cummins’ support of talent programs such as Xtern, School to Work Program for Cybersecurity, and Informatics Diversity Enhanced Workers (IDEW) at IUPUI. The company’s participation in recruiting events such as Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA, Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference (HENAAC); and launching diversity programs such as the Cummins Powers Women program that focuses its work on areas where barriers exist to the advancement of girls and women.

“It was an honor to accept the Mira Award on behalf of Cummins,” said Gulsu Law, Cummins Executive Director – IT Strategy and Planning. “Receiving this award during our centennial is exciting, as we continue to challenge the impossible, by developing and improving technologies that will power our planet in a sustainable way. We’re very appreciative of the recognition of our hard work and efforts.”  

The Large Enterprise of the Year Mira Award recognizes exceptional innovation and market position that is helping Indiana become a recognized technological leader. In addition to the company being headquartered in Indiana, the award is given to the company that demonstrates great financial performance, strategic business development, sustainability, impact on the industry/market, technical business and product/service excellence and accomplishments as an exceptional corporate citizen.

TechPoint states 52 independent volunteer judges reviewed and ranked each nominee, then selected the winners. As a result of Cummins’ scoring, the company received the highest Mira Award, the Large Enterprise of the Year.

Cummins has been recognized by TechPoint for their innovation in the past, however, this is the first time the company has received the Large Enterprise of the Year Mira Award.  Cummins was one of only 14 awardees chosen from 109 nominees. As the company moves into its next century, there are several promising technological innovations coming that will not only move Cummins’ customers forward, but sustain our planet.

“It’s worth celebrating. It’s worth stopping and wondering what got us here,” Linebarger said of the 100-year milestone the company reached in February. “…But we must also look forward. We need to ask ourselves, ‘What do we need to bring with us and what do we need to change and improve upon, in order to compete for the next 100 years?’”

He said Cummins anniversary theme, Challenge the Impossible, should help ensure the company doesn’t simply look backwards in 2019.

A SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENT

The company’s Annual Meeting is an opportunity for Cummins' leaders to talk about the company’s past year and the future to come. The meeting was held at the Columbus Engine Plant in the company’s headquarters city of Columbus, Indiana (U.S.).

Linebarger did not want to diminish the significance of the anniversary.

“An anniversary is an anniversary, but 100 years as an independent company is not easy to achieve,” he said. “It’s a really important milestone for our company and, frankly, given the change in industry and technology and competitive environment, it’s just getting harder and harder to last 100 years. The odds are pretty strongly against you and here we are 100 years later, still fighting, still succeeding.”

He said 2018 was a very strong year, with a company record of $23.8 billion in sales, a 16 percent increase over 2017, which was also a strong year. In the first quarter of 2019, the company had the most profitable quarter in its history.  

INNOVATION IS KEY

Linebarger said to thrive like that in the next 100 years, during good economic times and bad, Cummins must continue to be a leader not just in diesel platforms, but also natural gas, hybrids, electrified power and fuel cells, if that’s where the technology develops.

“Diesel engines have been a leader in our industry for 100 years, but if we look out 100 years they will not be the product of choice in all of our markets,” Linebarger said.

In addition to technology leadership, he said the company must continue to build strong partnerships around the world. Some of the company’s partnerships go back as many as 80 years and have been critical to Cummins’ success.

Linebarger said the company must also continue to help build stronger communities, praising the company’s Cummins Powers Women program launched in 2018. The program is the company’s commitment to the advancement of women and girls around the world by working with nonprofits with proven programs in place to advance gender equity.

DOING MORE TO USE LESS

Finally, he said environmental sustainability will be increasingly important in the future.

“I think all of us know that in order to continue, in order to thrive a hundred years from now, there will be significant challenges to all industrial companies, and certainly a company in the power business, about what impact we’re having on the environment,” Linebarger said. “We will have to produce wealth for all stakeholders while using less, and it’s just that simple.”
 

Cummins engineers, using 3D printing and computerized tomography scanning, created a new water pump for the car, which will return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway later this month after setting a one-lap track record of 139 miles per hour in qualifying for the pole position in the 1952 race. 

“Without 3D printing, we would not have gotten this project done in the time frame that we had to do it,” said John Rupp, Advanced Manufacturing Technical Advisor at the Cummins Technical Center in Columbus, Indiana (U.S.). 

BUILDING A FASTER RACE CAR

To commemorate Cummins’ 100th anniversary, the 2019 Indianapolis 500 will include a parade lap featuring the five company-engineered cars that participated in previous races, the first in 1931 and the last, the No. 28 car, in 1952.

Cummins’ founder Clessie Cummins occasionally used the 500 to demonstrate and promote the virtues of his company’s engines. By 1952, he had left the company, but the goal was essentially the same.

Taking advantage of rules allowing for larger diesel engines, a crew of Cummins’ engineers and technicians used a modified truck engine in the No. 28 car, with the first turbocharger ever used at the track. Some parts were milled from aluminum or magnesium to reduce weight. The team used a wind-tunnel to design a more aerodynamic car body.

An air of secrecy surrounded the effort in the days before the 1952 race and many interpreted that silence to mean the car was a flop. Imagine the surprise when the Cummins Diesel Special captured the pole with a four-lap average of 138 miles per hour, and set the single lap record. It would complete 70 laps (175 miles) in the race that year before retiring with a clogged turbocharger caused by rubber debris on the track.

MAKING OLD NEW AGAIN

Over the years, some parts on the No. 28 car didn’t age particularly well, according to Greg Haines, an Off-Highway Design & Development Leader at the company and a member of the Cummins History & Restoration Team. The team worked to get the Cummins cars running again for the anniversary.

The water pump, one of the custom parts made of magnesium to reduce weight, was especially concerning. Haines said it was pitted all the way through in one place and very thin in others. To make matters more challenging, no plans for the pump could be found to make a replacement.

It was around this time that the Cummins Diesel Special was invited to participate in the 2017 Goodwood Festival of Speed, which describes itself as “motorsport's ultimate summer garden party.” The hill-climb in West Sussex, England, features modern and historic racing vehicles, and draws big crowds of devoted fans. The Cummins Diesel Special participated in the event in the late 1990s but sat for many years after. It would never make it without a new pump. Suddenly the clock was ticking again for No. 28.

There wasn’t time to make a new part using traditional sand casting methods, so the Cummins team turned to 3D printing. The company had been studying the technology for use in manufacturing for several years, Rupp said, but it had not yet purchased any printers capable of creating metal objects one ultra-thin layer at a time.

Building a new pump was a great chance to tackle a problem facing the company when it comes to aftermarket parts for older engine models.

“A real problem we face in the aftermarket space is finding a supplier willing to manufacture a 40-year-old design that was once a high-volume part to fill an order for two or three parts economically,” said Brett Boas, Director of Advanced Manufacturing at the Cummins Technical Center in Columbus. “The tooling to make the casting just no longer exists. Additive technology solves this problem.”

Cummins worked with 3rd Dimension Industrial 3D, an additive manufacturing company in Indianapolis. The old pump was scanned to “reverse engineer” its unique features and create a digital file for the 3D printer to use.

In less than a week, the new part was printed and ready to go and No. 28 was off to Goodwood.

A RARE FIND IN THE BASEMENT

The History & Restoration Team is using the same techniques to restore a rare Model F diesel engine found in the basement of the Cummins’ Corporate Office Building, partially disassembled and missing parts. Considerably older than the Cummins Diesel Special, the Model F engine was produced from 1924 to 1931 to power lighthouses, industrial shovels and other uses. 

Cummins engineers are reverse engineering any missing parts and using 3D printing. They hope to have the engine running by the company’s anniversary celebration in June.

“The 3D scanning, reverse engineering, and advanced manufacturing technology that are available today are helping to make these projects possible,” Haines said. “This is an excellent example of using modern technology to restore our historic artifacts.”

Watch: The No. 28 Cummins Diesel Special run a test lap at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (April 2019)

Cummins was among 571 businesses receiving perfect scores as part of the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) Corporate Equality Index (CEI). The index was released last week by a foundation affiliated with the HRC.

“The top-scoring companies on this year’s CEI are not only establishing policies that affirm and include employees here in the United States, they are applying these policies to their global operations and impacting millions of people beyond our shores,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. 

The HRC said the CEI was the most comprehensive assessment of workplace lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer inclusion in its 17-year history. The group said it found a growing number of companies have adopted supportive inclusion guidelines for transgender workers who are transitioning. Cummins has had such guidelines for more than five years.

The group also found that 83 percent of companies participating in this year’s CEI offer at least one health care policy that is inclusive of their transgender workers. Cummins has various policies and benefits to support employees transitioning.

OTHER HONORS

The other recent honors include recognition last month from the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), which awarded Cummins its We Award for Outstanding Professional Development. 

In 2018, Cummins hosted its sixth in-person, global Cummins Women in Technology Conference. The conference was the largest to date with 138 attendees representing eight countries and all Cummins business segments.

This event was part of the Cummins Technical Women’s Initiative to attract, develop and retain technical women across all levels within all regions.

“Connecting with each other to learn about technical topics, but also to support each other on our journey is invaluable, and this conference helps us do that,” said Cheryl Lavalley, a Marine Engineering Leader at Cummins. 

The company was also recently honored by the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), which presented Cummins with its prestigious Chairman’s Award at the group’s 45th annual convention last month in Detroit, Michigan (U.S.A.).

The award recognizes NSBE’s most committed partners who show dedication to the group’s mission to “increase the number of culturally responsible Black Engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally and positively impact the community.”

Among the initiatives Cummins and NSBE have partnered on is the Summer Engineering Experience for Kids (SEEK), the largest summer engineering program geared toward African-American and other underrepresented elementary school youth in the U.S. The three-week program wrapped up its 12th year last summer in Minneapolis, Minnesota where NSBE mentors and Cummins volunteers worked to give students the chance to learn about science, technology, engineering and math in a fun environment.

“It is my hope that NSBE and Cummins will continue to collaborate to increase the number of Black students enrolling in engineering disciplines at the collegiate level and entering the technical workforce as graduates,” said Karl W. Reid, NSBE’s Executive Director.