<b>By LINDA McGURK<br>
Indiana Correspondent</b> </p><p>

EAST MOLINE, Ill. — As a nasty winter storm was pounding the Quad Cities in Illinois and Iowa with freezing rain, causing fatal wrecks and hours-long power outages, most residents kept their traveling to a minimum.</p><p>
But the inclement weather didn’t deter about 5,000 John Deere employees and their families from attending the combine manufacturer’s Dec. 1 open house at the Harvester Works in East Moline, Ill.</p><p>
“We had people lined up outside at 8:30 this morning, and we didn’t open until 9,” said Seth Crawford, factory marketing manager. “One thing we’re blessed with is a very dedicated workforce. Nobody is required to be here today; everybody who’s working has volunteered to come.”</p><p>
The open house celebrated the completion of several major remodeling and reorganization projects at the Harvester Works, which is the largest combine manufacturing plant in the world. Every year, the 223-acre plant uses 50,000 tons of steel and 32,000 miles of weld wire to build combines and headers that are exported to 35 countries. And every year, more than 17,000 visitors from all over the world come to watch the intricate process that turns 17,000 separate parts into a complete STS-rotor harvesting machine.</p><p>
“The people who build our machines love to meet the customers and we like to show off the plant,” Crawford said about the company’s tours. “We hope it enhances our overall brand.”</p><p>
John Deere is banking on one of the plant’s recently completed construction projects – a 6,100 square-foot visitors’ center – to give a boost to customer relations. The new center boasts a gift shop, displays that highlight the company’s operations around the world, several meeting rooms, a 100-seat auditorium and an atrium where visitors can have their pictures taken with one of John Deere’s characteristic green-and-yellow combines.</p><p>
The new visitors’ center is also where the company’s Gold Key tours will start. The Gold Key program began in the mid-1990s and allows buyers of John Deere combines to follow their machines as they are assembled in the factory, a process that takes approximately a half day, according to Crawford.</p><p>
“Roughly 10 percent of our customers take advantage of the Gold Key program,” he said.</p><p>
During the open house, John Deere showed off another major part of the remodeling project: A new laser-cutting operation that allows for greater precision and efficiency than the old metal-punching machines.</p><p>
“With (the old machines) we’d get sharp edges that we had to sand off. With the laser, we don’t have to deal with that and we get a much cleaner paint process,” explained Crawford, adding that the new lasers are run 24/7 by robots that calculate how to get the most parts out of each sheet of metal.</p><p>
The new laser department is part of a continuing effort to move more of the company’s operations in-house, said Crawford. The plant already manufactures a significant number of its parts and almost all sheet metal components are cut, bent and welded onsite. Engines are sourced from a sister factory in Waterloo, Iowa, whereas electrical components, valves and bearings are shipped in from all over the world.</p><p>
As of last month, the 1,100 assembly-line workers at John Deere Harvester Works were busy producing the new 70 series combines and 600C series corn heads. “We’ve been running pretty much every Saturday. When corn prices are where they are, there’s a pretty good demand for combines,” said Crawford.</p><p>
Eric Eshelman, a CNC operator who’s worked at the plant for four years, brought his wife, Christy, and 6-year-old son, Noah, to the open house. “All the stuff they fit in here and all the processes it takes to put a combine together … It was really impressive,” Christy said, learning about the ins-and-outs of the plant during a guided tour.</p><p>