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3M is a diversified technology company serving customers and communities with innovative products and services. Each of our seven businesses has earned leading global market positions.

3M is a diversified technology company with a worldwide presence in the following markets: consumer and office; display and graphics; electro and communications; health care; industrial; safety, security and protection services; and transportation. 3M is a global enterprise characterized by substantial intercompany cooperation in research, manufacturing and marketing of products.

Our Values

• Provide investors an attractive return through sustained, quality growth.
• Satisfy customers with superior quality, value and service.
• Respect our social and physical environment.
• Be a company employees are proud to be part of.

3M At a Glance

• Worldwide sales: $20.011 billion.
• International sales: $12.133 billion (61 percent of company's total).
• Companies in more than 60 countries.
• 3M products sold in nearly 200 countries.
• More than 67,000 employees.
• 3M employs mostly local nationals. Fewer than 300 3M employees worldwide are Foreign Service Employees not residing in their home countries.
• Plant locations: 132 worldwide.
• Sales office locations: 189 worldwide.

3M serves customers through seven business segments, which increase speed and efficiency by sharing technological, manufacturing, marketing, and other resources.

• Consumer and Office Business

  Supplying an array of products that keep homes cleaner, offices organized and buildings well-maintained, we're home to some of the world's best-known brands.

• Display and Graphics Business

  We're a world leader in films that brighten the displays on electronic products. We're also a leader in touch screens and touch monitors; optical components used in projection TVs; reflective sheeting for highway safety; and materials and systems for producing high-performance, attention-getting graphic images.

• Electro and Communications Business

  We're a leading supplier of innovative solutions to the electrical, electronics and communications industries.

• Health Care Business

  We help health care professionals improve the quality of health care throughout the world every day.

• Industrial Business

  Our products and services help manufacturers improve their businesses by achieving new levels of quality and operational efficiency.

• Safety, Security and Protection Services Business

  Our products increase the safety, security and productivity of workers, facilities and systems around the world.

• Transportation Business

  We serve the transportation market with products and components for the manufacture, repair, and maintenance of autos, aircraft, boats and other vehicles.

3M technology platforms are core elements of 3M ingenuity and springboards to meeting customer needs. In countless combinations, 3M technologies come together as elements of innovative new products, making them simple to use, yet complex enough to help make the world smarter, healthier, safer and better.

Light Management

Discover what happens when the science of optics meets the nature of light.

Film Solutions

3M's growing innovation in film technology has created films that resist tears, bring clarity and provide stability.

Fuel Cells

Learn about 3M's role in creating clean and efficient electrochemical devices that convert fuel into usable electricity without using combustion.

Lighting Products

3M lighting products provide stylish design flexibility for building interiors and exteriors.

3M Technology Transfer

Enhance the performance of your products and reduce the cost of development by licensing 3M technologies.

Of all the pathways to growth, investing in our people is most important.

The premise is very simple — if your people grow, your company will grow. The key: linking growth in individuals to those things that unlock energy and activities that our customers value.

Clearly, 3M's first chairman of the board, William L. McKnight, was a unique leader ... and 3M has had outstanding leaders at all levels of the company ever since.

Leadership development remains at the top of the company's agenda.

"Six Sigma is not a program. It's our game plan. It will challenge all of us, individually and collectively, to be the very best we can be."

                  W. James McNerney, Jr.
                  Chairman of the board and Chief Executive Officer

During the year we attained our goal set in 2001 of training more than 36,000 salaried employees worldwide in the Six Sigma way of doing business. With this training, our employees closed more than 12,000 Six Sigma projects in 2004 alone.  Through the tremendous momentum these projects are creating, our company and our customers are seeing significant process improvements, cost savings, and increased value.

For more information on Six Sigma, please download the brochure:

Six Sigma Brochure
English  (.pdf 524kb)
French  (.pdf 524kb)

History:

3M was founded in 1902 at the Lake Superior town of Two Harbors, Minn. Five businessmen set out to mine a mineral deposit for grinding-wheel abrasives. But the deposits proved to be of little value, and the new Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co. quickly moved to nearby Duluth to focus on sandpaper products.
Years of struggle ensued until the company could master quality production and a supply chain. New investors were attracted to 3M, such as Lucius Ordway, who moved the company to St. Paul in 1910. Early technical and marketing innovations began to produce successes and, in 1916, the company paid its first dividend of 6 cents a share.

• The world's first waterproof sandpaper, which reduced airborne dusts during automobile manufacturing, was developed in the early 1920s.

• A second major milestone occurred in 1925 when Richard G. Drew, a young lab assistant, invented masking tape – an innovative step toward diversification and the first of many Scotch® Pressure-Sensitive Tapes.

• In the following years, technical progress resulted in Scotch® Cellophane Tape for box sealing and soon hundreds of practical uses were discovered.

• In the early 1940s, 3M was diverted into defense materials for World War II, which was followed by new ventures, such as Scotchlite™ Reflective Sheeting for highway markings, magnetic sound recording tape, filament adhesive tape and the start of 3M's involvement in the graphic arts field with offset printing plates.

• In the 1950s, 3M introduced the Thermo-Fax™ copying process, Scotchgard™ Fabric Protector, videotape, Scotch-Brite™ Cleaning Pads and several new electro-mechanical products.

• Dry-silver microfilm was introduced in the 1960s, along with photographic products, carbonless papers, overhead projection systems, and a rapidly growing health care business of medical and dental products.
  
• Markets further expanded in the 1970s and 1980s into pharmaceuticals, radiology and energy control.

• In 1980, 3M introduced Post-it® Notes, which created a whole new category in the marketplace and changed people's communication and organization behavior forever.

• In the 1990s, sales reached the $15 billion mark. 3M continued to develop an array of innovative products, including immune response modifier pharmaceuticals; brightness enhancement films for electronic displays; and flexible circuits used in inkjet printers, cell phones and other electronic devices.

• In 2004, sales topped $20 billion for the first time, with innovative new products contributing significantly to growth. Recent innovations include Post-it® Super Sticky Notes,  Scotch® Transparent Duct Tape, optical films for LCD televisions and a new family of Scotch-Brite® Cleaning Products that give consumers the right scrubbing power for a host of cleaning jobs.