Catalyst

Historically, Cummins’ oil filters were manufactured from steel, as were other competitive products industry-wide.  Cummins had experimented with a composite plastic/metal filter earlier, but without success and had estimated that a filter made entirely from plastic might take 5 years or more to develop.  Nonetheless, the benefits of an all plastic filter—from cost effective manufacturing to ease of incineration and disposal—were apparent.

Catalyst was invited to join a cross-functional team and leverage their expertise in rapid product development and plastics to make an all plastic filter a reality.  Utilizing Catalyst’s 6-D methodology, the program began with a blue-sky brainstorming session which culminated in over 100 potential concepts, from those the team narrowed the field to 5, and then to one.  Catalyst continued to work with Cummins’ engineers through the mechanical design and prototyping phases.  Once the User-Friendly oil filter was designed, Catalyst collaborated with Cummins on a developmental tooling process based on Catalyst’s proprietary SPRInT insert technology.  Due to the difficult tooling process, Catalyst continued to manufacture production parts for the User-Friendly oil filter while high-volume production tooling was brought on-line.

The User-Friendly oil filter was widely accepted in the marketplace and can be purchased in more than 14,000 locations worldwide.  It was chosen as one of the top three innovative products by Equipment World magazine in 2006.