Restructuring Costs

12 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

RESTRUCTURING COSTS

Each year the Company incurs costs to size its businesses to levels appropriate for current economic conditions and to continually improve its cost structure and operational efficiency, deploy assets globally, and remain competitive on a worldwide basis. Costs result from numerous individual actions implemented across the Company's various operating units on an ongoing basis and can include costs for moving facilities to best-cost locations, restarting plants after relocation or geographic expansion to better serve local markets, reducing forcecount or the number of facilities, exiting certain product lines, and other costs resulting from asset deployment decisions (such as contract termination costs, asset write-downs and vacant facility costs).

Restructuring expenses were $284, $95 and $65 for 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively, and included $7 and $19 related to acquisitions in 2019 and 2018. The Company expects fiscal year 2021 restructuring expense to exceed $200.

Restructuring costs by business segment follows:


	2018		2019	2020
Automation Solutions	$	41	65	232

Climate Technologies	20		20	23
Tools & Home Products	3		7	21
Commercial & Residential Solutions	23		27	44

Corporate	1		3	8

Total	$	65	95	284

Costs incurred in 2020 relate to the Company's initiatives to improve operating margins that began in the third quarter of fiscal 2019 and were expanded in the third quarter of fiscal 2020 in response to the effects of COVID-19 on demand for the Company's products. Actions taken in 2020 included workforce reductions of approximately 5,400 positions and the exit of six production facilities worldwide. Costs incurred in 2019 and 2018 primarily relate to the deployment of resources to better serve local markets and higher growth areas, and the integration of acquisitions. Expenses incurred in 2019 and 2018 included actions to exit two and six facilities, and eliminate approximately 1,100 and 1,200 positions, respectively.

The change in the liability for restructuring costs during the years ended September 30 follows:


	2019		Expense		Utilized/Paid		2020
Severance and benefits	$	62		239		125	176
Other	7			45		47	5
Total	$	69		284		172	181


	2018		Expense		Utilized/Paid		2019
Severance and benefits	$	46		72		56	62
Other	6			23		22	7
Total	$	52		95		78	69

The tables above do not include $20 of costs related to restructuring actions incurred for the year ended September 30, 2020 that are required to be reported in cost of sales.