John Deere engineers tour Quad City Cartridge Case Facility

ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL, Ill. -- Forty engineers from John Deere & Company toured the Joint Munitions Command's Quad Cities Cartridge Case Facility on Aug. 7 to learn more about its processes.

Derek Feld, a strategic process leader with the company's facilities engineering service, requested a tour of a facility on the Rock Island Arsenal with new equipment and processes.

"The tour was an excellent opportunity for our (John Deere) U.S. Facilities Engineering group, coming from manufacturing locations throughout the Midwest and Southeast, to experience and understand another industrial function," he said.

The QCCCF is a government-owned, contractor-operated facility that produces steel case cartridges for the Department of Defense. At its current location, the case cartridge operations started last August. The contractor, NI Industries, previously operated the facility at the Riverbank Army Ammunition Plant in Riverbank, Calif. The operation was moved to Rock Island in 2010 due to the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure commission.

Feld stated that his group came from several specialties.

"Our facilities engineers range in technical expertise across mechanical, electrical, structural, civil, and architectural disciplines, and all of them were very engaged and excited to learn about the QCCCF facility from both process and building infrastructure perspectives," Feld said. "I personally was impressed with the ability to execute major facility improvements and equipment installations to create the QCCCF."

To host the largest group ever to tour QCCCF, JMC and NI officials had to create a strategy to accommodate a two-hour tour.

"This tour emphasized the importance of manufacturing at the Rock Island Arsenal and its capability to provide the Department of Defense the materials it needs, while also underscoring the importance of manufacturing capabilities in the Quad Cities," said James Scott, an industrial specialist with JMC's Industrial Support Directorate. "It opened the door to a better understanding and will expand the long term cooperation between two of this area's premier manufacturing organizations.

"Due to the size of the John Deer's group (approximately 40 engineers), we split them up into three groups. This allowed us to give them more individual time to explain the details of the production capability and to answer their questions."

NI Industries Vice President and General Manager Anil Shanbhag, also addressed the group and spoke of his hope of future partnership opportunities with John Deere.

Feld, a captain-select with the Navy Reserves, expressed in Naval terminology his thanks to those who set up the tour.

"Bravo Zulu (Great job)!"

"My thanks to the (JMC) public affairs office and the QCCCF staff for hosting this John Deere group," he said. "We truly appreciate the time and attention in sharing the facility with us to provide this valuable learning experience."

Headquartered at Rock Island Arsenal, Ill., the Joint Munitions Command provides America's Joint Forces with ready, reliable and lethal munitions at the right place and time, in a cost effective manner, to enable successful military operations.