While most companies have suffered enough from the recession’s impact on the United States, Deere & Company has blamed its 27 percent drop in quarterly profit on the recession’s impact on the world’s economy at large. The world’s largest farm equipment maker has experienced a significant decline in sales thanks to a weak economy across the globe.
This comes after Deere trimmed its sales projection for the rest of 2009, stating that the year will bring the single largest single-year drop in sales in at least the last 50 years. In spite of the grim prediction, however, Deere maintained its prediction …read more

John Deere, a leading provider of lawn, construction, agriculture and forestry products, announced on Tuesday that about 800 workers have decided to leave the company via a voluntary separation program.
All the workers who left were salaried and will receive an unspecified package due to their decision. John Deere will reportedly save about $75 million over the first year, however they will record a $100 million expense in the 2009’s fourth quarter.
When John Deere first announced the voluntary separation program, the company expected about 200 employees to take advantage of it. Instead, about four times that number ended up liking the …read more

Recently I toured a John Deere production facility in Mannheim, Germany. John Deere is an excellent company – great brand, great products, good growth and profitability. They have used Lean Management techniques for years and have been able to reduce their hierarchy levels down to four (!). Production workers work in teams without supervisors and are directly responsible for improving their key metrics.
The tour was great. It started off at their new welcome center which houses a selection of their products (from small to very large), a bit of their history and a small shop. The facility was clean, full …read more