Parker Hannifin

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Parker Hannifin Corporation
Company typePublic
IndustryManufacturing
Founded1917; 107 years ago (1917) in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
FounderArthur L. Parker
Headquarters
Mayfield Heights, Ohio
,
United States
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Jennifer A. Parmentier (CEO and Chairman)
RevenueIncrease US$19.06 billion (2023)
Increase US$3.44 billion (2023)
Increase US$2.08 billion (2023)
Total assetsIncrease US$29.96 billion (2023)
Total equityIncrease US$10.34 billion (2023)
Number of employees
c. 62,730 (June 2023)
SubsidiariesParker Meggitt
Websiteparker.com
Footnotes / references
[1][2]

Parker Hannifin Corporation, originally Parker Appliance Company, usually referred to as just Parker, is an American corporation specializing in motion and control technologies. Its corporate headquarters are in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, in Greater Cleveland (with a Cleveland mailing address).[3][4]

The company was founded in 1917 and has been publicly traded on the NYSE since December 9, 1964. The firm is one of the largest companies in the world in motion control technologies, including aerospace, climate control, electromechanical, filtration, fluid and gas handling, hydraulics, pneumatics, process control, and sealing and shielding. Parker employs about 55,000 people globally.

In 2022, the company was ranked 253 in the Fortune 500.[5]

History[edit]

1917–1950[edit]

Arthur L. Parker founded the firm as the Parker Appliance Company in Ohio around 1917 or 1918.[6][7] In its early years, it built pneumatic brake systems for buses, trucks and trains.[6] In 1919, Parker's truck slid over a cliff, causing the company to lose its entire inventory and forcing the founder to return to his previous job. Nonetheless, he restarted Parker Appliance Company in 1924.[8]

In 1935, Art Parker relocated his headquarters into an expanded Euclid Ave location on the east side of Cleveland.

By 1927, the firm had expanded into airplanes. For his flight across the Atlantic Ocean, Charles Lindbergh requested Parker parts be used in the construction of his aircraft the Spirit of St. Louis.[7] The firm contributed the system that linked the aircraft's 16 fuel tanks.[9]

During World War II, Parker experienced a boom in business as the U.S. Air Force's primary supplier of valves and fluid connectors.[7] By 1943, the firm employed 5,000 Cleveland, Ohio, residents. After Arthur Parker's death in 1945[10] and the end of the war, the company neared bankruptcy due to the sudden drop in demand. Arthur Parker's wife, Helen Parker, assumed control of the company and prevented its liquidation.[11] She hired new management staff and directed the company's focus back to civilian manufacturing.[10]

1950s–1960s[edit]

In the early 1950s, the firm's executives set a goal to make Parker, as The New York Times put it, "the General Electric of fluid power", a goal it generally achieved in the coming decades.[11] In 1957, the company purchased Hannifin, a producer of valve and cylinder products, and changed its name to Parker Hannifin.[10] Many more acquisitions followed, with the company reaching 40 acquisitions by the year 1979.[11]

In 1953, Arthur Parker's son Patrick S. Parker began working full-time at the company.[12] He rose to become its president in 1968, and served as CEO from 1971 to 1983 and as chairman from 1977 to 1999. During and after his tenure, the firm grew dramatically, with revenues rising from $197 million in 1968 to over $7 billion in 2005.[13]

The company debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in 1964, under the ticker symbol PH.[14] In 1966, the company joined the Fortune 500.[8] The company designed parts for the craft used in NASA's first crewed Moon landing in 1969.[7]

1970s–1990s[edit]

An economic downturn in 1970 forced the company to expand beyond its focus on hydraulic systems. In the following years it began to expand into the automotive aftermarket, considered a more stable industry. The company also directed itself toward growth in aerospace, acquiring companies that created flight controls and wheel brake equipment for airplanes. By 1979, Parker Hannifin employed 20,000 people in 100 plants, selling 90,000 items for machinery, airplanes, cars and construction equipment to 60,000 customers.[11] The company made some of the equipment inside the mechanical shark in the 1975 movie Jaws.[7]

In 1982, Paul G. Schloemer replaced Patrick Parker as the company's president (although Patrick Parker remained chairman and CEO).[12] That same year, the firm entered the Mexican market. By 2008, Parker Hannifin Mexico would come to operate 11 plants in the country, seven of which made parts exclusively for the U.S. market. In 1988, the company reached $2 billion in sales.[10]

The firm opened its first retail "ParkerStore" in Cleveland in 1993. Within 10 years, the network of stores expanded to 200 locations in the U.S. and more than 400 worldwide. ParkerStores offer a variety of Parker products, including hydraulics, automation, and hose and fitting components, at locations close to industrial product buyers.[15] Parker Hannifin systems helped control the massive replica of the Titanic in the 1997 film of the same name.[8] In 1997, the firm moved its headquarters from Cleveland to a new building in Mayfield Heights, a suburb of Cleveland.[16][17] In 1999, the company's sales reached approximately $5 billion.[18]

2000s–present[edit]

Parker Hannifin acquired Commercial Intertech Corporation, a maker of hydraulic systems, in 2000.Commercial Intertech had previously acquired Oildyne Inc., a well known hydraulic manufacturer. Parker has an Oildyne division today.[19] With a cost of $366 million, this was at the time Parker Hannifin's biggest acquisition.[18]

In 2001, CEO Don Washkewicz introduced lean startup methods to company operations and has said that over the decade this reduced the time to obtain price quotes by 60% and cut product development lead times by 25%.[20][21]

In 2002 the company appointed Craig Maxwell as head of engineering; Maxwell brought a focus on innovation as well as rigor; he argued for and was given a $20M annual budget to fund blue sky inventions made by engineers and has given engineers time to pursue them; at the same time his team developed software that allows tracking each of the company's 1700 ongoing R&D projects graded by risk and potential reward, and closely managing their progress. In 2011 he hired Ryan Farris out of Vanderbilt University and licensed patents covering a powered exoskeleton that Farris had worked on at Vanderbilt. In 2015 the company opened an internal business incubator that Maxwell had proposed when he was first hired.[7]

The company won $2 billion in contracts to build fuel and hydraulic systems for Airbus A350 airliners in 2008[22] Two years later, its products were used in repairing the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.[6]

Thomas Williams took over the CEO role from Washkewicz in 2015.[23] In 2016, the company completed its largest acquisition to date, buying Clarcor, a filtration systems manufacturer, for $4.3 billion.[24][25] In 2019, Parker bought Lord Corporation for $3.7 billion and Kent, WA based Exotic Metals Forming Company for $1.7 billion.[26][27][28]

In August 2021, the company agreed to buy British aerospace and defense company Meggitt for £6.3 billion.[29] In July 2022, after making commitments to the UK government including increasing research and development spending in Britain, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy approved the takeover without being referred for a full Competition and Markets Authority investigation.[30] The acquisition completed in September 2022.[31]

In May 2022, it was announced Parker Hannifin has sold its aircraft wheel and brake division to the Bloomfield-headquartered aerospace company, Kaman Corporation for US$440 million.[32]

Aerospace[edit]

Parker Hannifin's aerospace division, Parker Stratoflex, designs and manufactures aerospace hydraulic equipment. It is a provider of aircraft parts to aircraft manufacturers, including fuel system components and high-temperature bleed air valves.[33] Based in Irvine, California,[34] Parker Aerospace also operates facilities in Arizona and Mexico.[33] The company has had contracts to contribute parts and maintenance for machinery produced by Airbus,[35] Rolls-Royce, Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China as well as other manufacturers.[36]

In 1993, the Federal Aviation Administration contracted Parker Aerospace to develop a new monitoring device, the Multi-Sensor Enroute Flight Inspection System, for flight inspection aircraft.[37]

Notable acquisitions by the division include the Kalamazoo, Michigan-based Abex/NWL division of Pneumo Abex in 1996,[34][38] and Naples, Florida-based Shaw Aero Devices, in 2007.[33] In 2012, the company partnered with General Electric to form a 50-50 joint venture, Advanced Atomization Technologies, for producing fuel nozzles for commercial aircraft engines.[39]

Boeing 737 accidents and incidents[edit]

Main article: Boeing 737 rudder issues

In 1995, it was discovered that failures in a servo unit supplied by Parker Hannifin to Boeing for use in their 737 aircraft may have contributed to several accidents and incidents, including the crashes of United Airlines Flight 585 and USAir Flight 427.[40][41]

In 2004, a Los Angeles jury ordered Parker Hannifin to pay US$43 million to the plaintiff families of the 1997 SilkAir Flight 185 crash in Indonesia. Parker Hannifin subsequently appealed the verdict, which resulted in an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed amount. The Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) could not determine the cause of the crash due to the near total lack of physical evidence because of the complete destruction;[42] The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), however disagreed, and concluded that the crash was caused, possibly intentionally, by the pilot.[43][44]

The FAA ordered an upgrade of all Boeing 737 rudder control systems by November 12, 2002. The firm argued that the components they supplied were not at fault, citing that the product has one of the safest records in its class, but the FAA directive went through regardless.[45] In 2016, former NTSB investigator John Cox stated that time has proven the NTSB correct in its findings that the valve was faulty, because no additional rudder-reversal incidents have occurred since Boeing's redesign.[46]

F-35 fueldraulic line failure[edit]

On 18 January 2013, the F-35B variant of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II was grounded after the failure of a fueldraulic line in the aircraft's propulsion system that controls the exhaust vectoring system. This followed an incident two days earlier on 16 January, in which the propulsion system experienced a fueldraulic failure prior to a conventional takeoff.[47] The failure was found to be a manufacturing defect by Parker Hannifin's Stratoflex division.[48][49]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Parker Hannifin Corp. 2023 Annual Report (Form 10-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 24 August 2023.
  2. ^ "Leadership". Parker Hannifin. Archived from the original on 17 August 2018. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
  3. ^ "CERTIFICATE OF PROPERTY INSURANCE". Parker Hannifin. March 28, 2012. Retrieved on December 25, 2012. "Parker Hannifin Corporation 6035 Parkland Blvd Cleveland OH 44124-4141 USA".
  4. ^ "2010 CENSUS - CENSUS BLOCK MAP: Mayfield Heights city, OH" (Archived 2013-05-15 at the Wayback Machine) U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved on December 25, 2012.
  5. ^ "Fortune 500". Fortune. Retrieved 2022-07-20.
  6. ^ a b c Zerega, Blaise (10 April 2017). "Meet Parker Hannifin, a 100 year-old company working on AR". VentureBeat. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Alexander, Dan (15 April 2015). "Innovation Factory: How Parker Hannifin Pumps Out Breakthrough Products". Forbes. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  8. ^ a b c Slaton, Hunter, ed. (2006). Vault Guide to the Top Manufacturing Employers. New York, NY: Vault Inc. pp. 337–338. ISBN 1-58131-405-1. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  9. ^ Klebnikov, Paul (8 September 1997). "Lindbergh's lifeline". Forbes. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  10. ^ a b c d Krupa, Peter (2008). "Motion Control". Industry Today. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  11. ^ a b c d Salpukas, Agis (28 December 1979). "Parker-Hannifin Buys Growth". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  12. ^ a b Sloane, Leonard (26 April 1982). "Parker-Hannifin Names Successor to a Parker". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  13. ^ Glenn, Brandon (7 July 2005). "Parker namesake passes away". Crain's Cleveland Business. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  14. ^ "Parker Hannifin Corp". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Case Western Reserve University. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  15. ^ Staff (30 September 2003). "Parker Hannifin opens 200th ParkerStore in U.S." Control Engineering Daily. Retrieved 27 June 2017.[permanent dead link]
  16. ^ Bullard, Stan (23 August 2015). "Former Parker Hannifin home will be transformed". Crain's Cleveland Business. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  17. ^ Gerfen, Katie (7 July 2011). "Parker Hannifin European Headquarters". Architect Magazine. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  18. ^ a b Davis, Patricia (18 January 2000). "Parker Hannifin Agrees to Acquire Commercial Intertech for $366 Million". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  19. ^ The Associated Press (18 January 2000). "Parker Hannifin to Acquire Commercial Intertech". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  20. ^ Selko, Adrienne (21 April 2010). "Parker Hannifin Aims to WIN with Lean". IndustryWeek. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  21. ^ Zacks Equity Research (13 March 2017). "Parker-Hannifin: Acquisitions, Win Strategy to Drive Growth". Nasdaq. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  22. ^ Roguski, Randy (17 January 2008). "Parker wins $2 billion in contracts for Airbus A350". Cleveland.com. Advance Ohio. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  23. ^ Tita, Bob (21 January 2015). "Parker Hannifin CEO Don Washkewicz Stepping Down". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  24. ^ Banerjee, Arunima (1 December 2016). "Parker-Hannifin to buy Clarcor to double filtration systems business". Reuters. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  25. ^ Lachapelle, Tara (1 December 2016). "Parker-Hannifin Is Hot in Cleveland". Bloomberg. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  26. ^ "Parker Hannifin to buy Lord Corp for about $3.68 billion". Reuters. 29 April 2019. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
  27. ^ "Parker Hannifin Completes LORD Acquisition". 29 October 2019. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
  28. ^ "Parker to Acquire Exotic Metals Forming Company in Strategic Transaction that Significantly Expands Aerospace Group Product Portfolio". July 29, 2019.
  29. ^ Smith, Elliot (2 August 2021). "Defense firm Meggitt's shares skyrocket on sale to U.S. giant Parker Hannifin". CNBC.
  30. ^ Wright, Robert (19 July 2022). "Meggitt's US suitor agrees deal with UK ministers to let £6.3bn takeover proceed". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2022-12-10.
  31. ^ Suttell, Scott (13 September 2022). "Parker Hannifin closes acquisition of U.K. aerospace and defense firm Meggitt". Crain Communications. Archived from the original on 14 September 2022.
  32. ^ "Kaman to acquire Parker-Hannifin's aircraft wheel & brake division". Aviation Business News. 2022-05-25. Retrieved 2022-05-25.
  33. ^ a b c "Naples-based Shaw Aero Devices acquired by Cleveland-based Parker Hannifin". Naples Daily News. 2 November 2007. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  34. ^ a b "Parker Hannifin to Add to Irvine Aerospace Unit". Los Angeles Times. 21 January 1996. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  35. ^ Roguski, Randy (17 January 2008). "Parker wins $2 billion in contracts for Airbus A350". Cleveland.com. Advance Ohio. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
  36. ^ Zacks Equity Research (12 July 2016). "Parker-Hannifin Aerospace Unit to Develop Phyre's Technology". Nasdaq. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
  37. ^ "Parker Bertea Gets $5-Million Contract". Los Angeles Times. 16 October 1993. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  38. ^ "Company News; Parker Hannifin to Buy Pneumo Abex Aerospace Unit". The New York Times. Reuters. 16 January 1996. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  39. ^ Newberry, Jon (13 November 2012). "GE and Parker Hannifin team up on jet engine nozzles". Cincinnati Business Courier. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  40. ^ Robert J. Boser. "What is the status of the solution to the B-737 rudder design defect?". airlinesafety.com. Archived from the original on 2012-07-29. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
  41. ^ "Pittsburgh disaster adds to 737 doubts". Seattle Times. 1996. Retrieved 2008-11-17.
  42. ^ Valerie Chew (September 30, 2009). "Crash of SilkAir Flight MI 185". National Library Board. Archived from the original on December 15, 2011. Retrieved May 26, 2012.
  43. ^ SilkAir 185 – Pilot Suicide? (Documentary). National Geographic. 2007.
  44. ^ "Remembering the Musi – SilkAir Flight MI 185 Crash Victim Identification" (PDF). Annals Academy of Medicine. 36 (10): 866. 2007.
  45. ^ "Airworthiness Directives; Boeing Model 737 Series Airplanes" (PDF). FAA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-02-27. Retrieved 2008-11-17.
  46. ^ "Fatal Flaws". Why Planes Crash. Season 2. 2016. MSNBC.
  47. ^ F-35B grounded after fueldraulic line failure – Flightglobal.com, January 18, 2013.
  48. ^ "Engineers discover culprit behind F-35B fueldraulic line failure."
  49. ^ "Stratoflex - Parker."

External links[edit]

  • Official website
  • Business data for Parker Hannifin:
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