19. Restructuring and Asset Impairments

The Company initiated restructuring plans in 2015 to focus on its cranes business and Spin-Off of MFS. The Spin-Off was completed in the first quarter of 2016. Refer to Notes 1 and 3 for further information regarding the Spin-Off. The Company is continuing its restructuring activities to right-size the business by balancing capacity with demand. During the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015, the Company incurred $27.2 million, $23.4 million and $9.4 million of restructuring expense, respectively. These costs related primarily to employee termination benefits associated with workforce reductions. The workforce reductions are part of ongoing manufacturing and operations rationalization programs, including the closure of the Company's manufacturing facility in Manitowoc, WI which was completed in 2017. The restructuring expense for the year ended December 31, 2017, and December 31, 2016 included $2.8 million and $2.3 million, respectively, of expense related to executive severance.

The following is a roll-forward of the Company's restructuring activities for the twelve months ended December 31, 2017 (in millions):

Restructuring Reserve

Balance as of

December 31, 2016

Restructuring

Expenses

Use of

Reserve

Reclassifications

Restructuring Reserve

Balance as of 2017

Total

8.2

27.2

28.8

1.0

5.6

The Company recorded $.1 million of asset impairment expense for the year ended December 31, 2017.

In the year ended December 31, 2016, the Company recorded $96.9 million in asset impairment expense. This included a $13.8 million write-down to fair value related to the fixed assets of the Manitowoc, WI manufacturing facility. Further, during 2016, the Company, in conjunction with the decision to close the manufacturing location in Manitowoc, WI, made the decision to permanently stop any further work on implementing its SAP enterprise resource planning (“ERP”) platform, and recorded a write-off of $58.6 million related to SAP construction-in-progress and $18.6 million related to SAP and other information technology assets. The remainder of the impairment expense incurred in 2016 was related to other restructuring actions.

Asset impairment expense for the year ended December 31, 2015 was $15.3 million. The impairment recorded in 2015 resulted from the write-down of manufacturing facilities in Brazil and Slovakia.

Asset valuations are estimates and require assumptions and judgment by management. While the Company believes the estimates and assumptions are reasonable, a change in assumptions, including market conditions, could change the estimated fair value and, therefore, further impairment charges could be required.