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'3M Company' (), formerly 'Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company' until 2002, is an American corporation with a worldwide presence.
It produces over 55,000 products, including: adhesives, abrasives, laminates, passive fire protection, dental products, electrical materials, electronic circuits, optical films, and supply chain management software. 3M has operations in more than 60 countries – 29 international companies with manufacturing operations, and 35 with laboratories. 3M products are available for purchase through distributors and retailers in more than 200 countries, and many 3M products are available online directly from the company.

Contents

History

Founding

Expansion

Major technology platforms

Brands/products

Corporate governance

Current board of directors:

See also

References

External links

History

Starting out on the North Shore of Lake Superior at Two Harbors, Minnesota in 1902, the company moved to Duluth, Minnesota, and moved to its current headquarters in Maplewood (a St. Paul suburb) in 1906. The company began by mining stone from quarries for use in grinding wheels. Struggling with quality and marketing of its products, top management supported its workers to innovate and develop new products, which eventually would develop into its core business. Twelve years after being founded, 3M was able to develop its first exclusive product: 3M Three-M-ite cloth. Other innovations around this time by 3M included the waterproof sandpaper and the masking tape. After this point, the famous Scotch brand tape was “born.” By 1929 3M made its first moves in to an international expansion by forming “Durex” in order to conduct business in Europe. This same year, the company’s stocks were first traded over the counter and in 1946 the stocks were listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The company is currently a component of the Dow Jones 30 Industrials stock index and a component of the S & P 500.

Founding

The company was founded by Ryan J. Bauer of Cheektowaga, New York, who incorporated 3M on the shore of Lake Superior in 1902. His original plan was to sell the valuable mineral corundum to manufacturers in the East, who wanted corundum for the grinding wheels they used to finish their products. After selling only one load, on 13 June 1902 the five men walked into the Two Harbors office of company secretary John Dwan—now part of the 3M Museum. They signed the papers making 'Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing' a corporation. But Dwan and his associates were not selling what they thought they were selling: the mineral was anorthosite, and it was worthless.^[1]
After failing to make sandpaper with the anorthosite, they decided to import minerals like Spanish garnet, and sandpaper sales grew strong. Then in 1914, customers started to complain that the garnet was falling off the paper. They found that as the stones had travelled across the rough Atlantic Ocean with olive oil, the oil had penetrated the stones. Unable to take the loss of selling expensive inventory, the company found that the olive oil could be roasted away over a fire. This was the first instance of R&D for 3M.
The company's early misadventures taught 3M employees that "ingenuity and perseverance can overcome even potentially ruinous mistakes."
In 1916, company general manager William L. McKnight applied the same measured scientific methods to production that he had used to save the company from bankruptcy and bought the company's first lab for $500. From then on, science would be 3M's guide.

Expansion

The company's early innovations include waterproof sandpaper (1920s) and masking tape (1925), as well as cellophane "Scotch Tape" and sound deadening materials for metal-frame cars in the years that followed. 3M's corporate image is built on its innovative and unique products; up to 25% of sales is devoted to newly introduced products.
After World War II 3M opened new plants across the United States. During the 1950s the company expanded worldwide by initiating operations in Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, Australia, and the United Kingdom. In 1951, international sales were approximately $20 million. 3M’s achievements were recognized by the American Institute of Management naming the company “one of the five best-managed companies in the United States and included it among the top 12 growth stocks (3M).”[1]
In the late 1960s and early 70s, 3M published a line of board games, largely under the "Bookshelf Games" brand. These games were marketed to adults and sold through department stores, with easily learned simple rules but complex gameplay and depth and with uniformly high quality components. As such, they are the ancestors of the German "Eurogames". The games covered a variety of topics, from business and sports simulations to word and abstract strategy games. They produced their games in several formats: the "bookshelf" line, a smaller line of mostly card games known as the "gamette" line, and a sports game line which consisted of a vinyl playing board which wrapped around the box holding the game components. These included classic games such as chess, backgammon, and Oh-Wah-Ree, as well as original designs such as Acquire, Twixt, and Feudal. They were a major publisher at the time for influential American designers Sid Sackson and Alex Randolph. In the mid-1970s, the game line was taken over by Avalon Hill.
During the 1970s, 3M introduced its first and only traffic signal, the M-131. Labeled a "programmable visibility" signal, the signal had the unique ability to be "programmed" so it could only be seen from certain angles. It was the first signal of its type and is still being produced today. 3M was able to sell these signals for special-use applications; usually left turn signals, skewed intersections, or dangerous intersections where a very bright indication is needed. The signals are very heavy however and expensive to maintain. Removal is quite frequent in some areas of the country.
3M, through their Mincom division, introduced several models of magnetic tape recorders for instrumentation use, and recorders for studio recording of sound. An example of the latter is the model M79 recorder [2], which still has a following in studio recording circles today. 3M Mincom was also involved in designing and manufacturing video production equipment for the television and video post-production industries in the 1970s and 1980s, with such items as character generators and several different models of video switchers, from models of audio and video routers to video mixers for studio production work.
3M Mincom was involved in some of the first digital audio recordings of the late 1970s to see commercial release when a prototype machine was brought to the Sound 80 studios in neighboring Minneapolis. After drawing on the experience of that prototype recorder, 3M later designed and manufactured several commercially available models of digital audio recorders used throughout the early to mid-1980s.
In 1980, the company introduced Post-it notes. In 1996, the company's data storage and imaging divisions were spun off as Imation Corporation; Imation has since sold its imaging and photographic film businesses to concentrate on storage.
Today, 3M is one of the 30 companies included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (added on August 9, 1976), and is ranked number 101 on the 2006 Fortune 500 listing. The company has 132 plants and over 67,000 employees around the world, with sales offices in more than 200 countries. The vast majority of the company's employees are local nationals—that is, very few employees reside outside their home country. Its worldwide sales amount to over $20 billion, with its international sales reaching 58% of that total.
On 20 December, 2005, 3M announced a major partnership with Roush Racing, one of NASCAR's premier organizations. In 2006, the company will sponsor Todd Kluever in the NASCAR Busch Series as he drives the #06 Ford Fusion. 3M will also be an associate sponsor of Mark Martin's #6 Ford in the Nextel Cup Series. In addition, on 19 February, 2006, 3M announced that it would become the title sponsor of the 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway for at least the next three years.
On 4 April, 2006, 3M announced the will to sell pharmaceutical non-core business. The pharmaceuticals businesses were sold off in three deals, in Europe, the Americas, and the Rest of the World. Another division of the Health Care business, Drug Delivery Systems remains under the control of 3M. The Drug Delivery System division contract manufactures inhalants and transdermal drug delivery systems.^[2]
Today, after one-hundred years of history, 3M follows a business model based on “the ability to not only develop unique products, but also to manufacture them efficiently and consistently around the world (3M).” [3]

The Target Light System, built by 3M^[3]

Major technology platforms

★ Abrasives

★ Acoustic Control

★ Adhesive tape

★ Adhesives

★ Advanced Materials

★ Analytical Science & Technology

★ Application Software

★ Biotechnology

★ Ceramics

★ Drug Delivery

★ Display

★ Dental and Orthodontic Materials

★ Electrical Materials (Connectors), (Electrical Insulation)

★ Electronic Materials

★ Energy Components

★ Ergonomics

★ Filtration

★ Firestops

★ Fluoropolymers

★ Light Management

★ Microbiology

★ Optical Film

★ Respiratory

★ Sealants

★ Supported Films

★ Telecommunications

Brands/products

★ Command Adhesive

★ Dual Lock

★ FastBond Adhesives

★ Filtrete

★ Hookit sandpaper

★ Highjump Software

★ Littmann Stethoscopes

★ Nexcare

★ Post-it note

★ Scotch Tape

★ Scotch-Brand Masking Tape

★ Scotchbrite

★ Scotchcal Film

★ Scotchgard

★ Scotchlite

★ Scotchprint Graphics

★ Scotch-Weld Adhesives

★ Stikit sandpaper

★ Tegaderm

★ Thinsulate

★ Velostat [4]

★ Vikuiti

★ Wetordry sandpaper

★ Microtouch Touch Screens

Corporate governance

Current board of directors:

George W. Buckley | Linda G. Alvarado | Edward A. Brennan | Vance D. Coffman | Michael L. Eskew | Edward M. Liddy | Aulana L. Peters | Rozanne L. Ridgway | Kevin W. Sharer | Louis W. Sullivan
===President of 3M===

1902–1905	Henry S. Bryan
1905–1906	Edgar B. Ober
1906–1909	Lucius P. Ordway
1909–1929	Edgar B. Ober
1929–1949	William L. McKnight
1949–1953	Richard P. Carlton
1953–1963	Herbert P. Buetow
1963–1966	Bert S. Cross

===Chief executive officer of 3M===

1966–1970	Bert S. Cross
1970–1974	Harry Heltzer
1974–1979	Raymond H. Herzog
1979–1986	Lewis W. Lehr
1986–1991	Allen F. Jacobson
1991–2001	L.D. DeSimone
2001–2005	W. James McNerney, Jr.
2005	Robert S. Morrison (interim)
2005–	George W. Buckley

===Chairman of the board of 3M===

1949–1966	William L. McKnight
1966–1970	Bert S. Cross
1970–1975	Harry Heltzer
1975–1980	Raymond H. Herzog
1980–1986	Lewis W. Lehr
1986–1991	Allen F. Jacobson
1991–2001	L.D. DeSimone
2001–2005	W. James McNerney, Jr.
2005–	George W. Buckley

See also

★ Endothermic

★ Fireproofing

★ Firestop pillow

★ Firestop

★ Intumescent

★ Passive fire protection

★ Sodium silicate

★ Sterilization (microbiology)

References

1. http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/200206/03_haega_3Mhistory
2.
3. Target Lights create evolving Minneapolis landmark, ''Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal '', April 11, 2003.

External links

★ 3M Worldwide

★ 3M eStore

★ Scotchgard™ Paint Protection Film

★ Computer Cut Scotchgard™ Paint Protection

★ 3M Care Care

★ Yahoo! - 3M Company Company Profile

★ Google Local's satellite image of 3M head office campus