Restructuring and Other Charges

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Restructuring and Other Charges [Abstract]

Restructuring and Other Charges

4. Restructuring and Other Charges

Over the past several years, we have adopted plans to restructure portions of our operations. These plans were approved by our Board of Directors and were designed to reduce operational and administrative overhead costs throughout the business. For 2009, we incurred $21 million in restructuring and related costs, of which $16 million was recorded in cost of sales, $1 million was recorded in selling, general, administrative and engineering expense and $4 million was recorded in depreciation and amortization expense. In 2010, we incurred $19 million in restructuring and related costs, of which $14 million was recorded in cost of sales and $5 million was recorded in depreciation and amortization expense. During 2011, we incurred $8 million in restructuring and related costs, primarily related to headcount reductions in Europe and Australia and the closure of our ride control plant in Cozad, Nebraska, all of which was recorded in cost of sales.

Amounts related to activities that are part of our restructuring plans are as follows:

	December 31, 2010 Restructuring Reserve		2011 Expenses		2011 Cash Payments			Reserve Adjustments			December 31, 2011 Restructuring Reserve
	(Millions)
Severance		$7		8		(13	)		(1	)		$1

Under the terms of our amended and extended senior credit agreement that took effect on June 3, 2010, we are allowed to exclude $60 million of cash charges and expenses, before taxes, related to cost reduction initiatives incurred after June 3, 2010 from the calculation of the financial covenant ratios required under our senior credit facility. As of December 31, 2011, we have excluded $17 million in cumulative allowable charges relating to restructuring initiatives against the $60 million available under the terms of the senior credit facility.

On September 22, 2009, we announced that we were closing our original equipment ride control plant in Cozad, Nebraska. The closure of the Cozad plant will eliminate approximately 500 positions. We are hiring at other facilities as we move production from Cozad to those facilities, which will result in a net decrease of approximately 60 positions. Much of the production is being shifted from Cozad to our plant in Hartwell, Georgia.

During the transition of production from our Cozad facility to our Hartwell facility, several customer programs, which were planned to phase out, were reinstated and volumes increased beyond the amount in our original restructuring plan. To meet the higher volume requirements, we have taken a number of actions over the past few months to stabilize the production environment in Hartwell including reinforcing several core processes, realigning assembly lines, upgrading equipment to increase output and accelerating our Lean manufacturing activities. Based on the higher volumes, we are adjusting our consolidation plan. Our revised consolidation plan includes temporarily continuing some basic production operations in Cozad, and redirecting some programs from our Hartwell facility to our other North American facilities to better balance production. These actions are anticipated to conclude during the third quarter of 2012. As of December 31, 2011, more than 95 percent of the positions at our Cozad facility have been eliminated.

During 2009 and 2010, we recorded $11 million and $10 million, respectively, of restructuring and related expenses related to this initiative, of which approximately $16 million represents cash expenditures. In 2011, we have recorded an additional cash charge of $2 million related to this initiative.

In 2011, we recorded $3 million of restructuring and related expenses, all of which represented cash expenditures, related to the permanent elimination of 53 positions in our Australian operations as a result of the continued decline in industry production volumes in that region.