Prepare for your 3M interview

New product introduction, material science commercialization, and operational efficiency calibrated to 3M's focus on innovation-driven manufacturing and Six Sigma excellence.

The Interview

What 3M is looking for

Innovation Interview

Innovation & Manufacturing Operations

01New Product Introduction (NPI)

02Material Science Commercialization

03Six Sigma Process Control

04Manufacturing Scale-Up

Behavioral Interview

01Innovation Culture

02Scientific Curiosity

03Collaborative Problem Solving

04Customer-Centric Thinking

Innovation-driven manufacturer with 60,000+ products across 4 business segments//Six Sigma birthplace with deep process control and quality culture//Material science platform enables cross-business technology transfer

Practice Library

3M exercises

Ready to ace your 3M interview?

Prepare for your 3M interview

New product introduction, material science commercialization, and operational efficiency calibrated to 3M's focus on innovation-driven manufacturing and Six Sigma excellence.

The Interview

What 3M is looking for

Innovation Interview

Innovation & Manufacturing Operations

01New Product Introduction (NPI)

02Material Science Commercialization

03Six Sigma Process Control

04Manufacturing Scale-Up

Behavioral Interview

01Innovation Culture

02Scientific Curiosity

03Collaborative Problem Solving

04Customer-Centric Thinking

How It Works

Master 3M Interviews

Innovation-driven manufacturing, NPI process, and Six Sigma operations for the diversified industrial leader. · Click to expand

OEE Diagnostics

Practitioner

Lean Production Systems

Practitioner

1Your Manufacturing Goals

2Manufacturing Case Prep

3M is scaling a new adhesive from pilot to production. Pilot yield is 78% vs 92% target...

CASE INTERVIEWHard

Manufacturing · NPI & Scale-Up3M

3Frameworks

Framework

Is declining equipment availability the primary driver of the OEE shortfall?

Has unplanned downtime from equipment failures increased significantly?

Mean time between failures fell from 18 hours to 11 hours (breakdowns up 64% YoY); top 3 equipment families cause 78% of downtime hours

Reactive maintenance: 68% of maintenance hours (industry bench: 25%); PM schedule compliance dropped to 51% after maintenance manager departure 10 months ago

Are extended changeovers and setup times consuming available run time?

Average changeover time: 94 minutes vs 62-minute target; SMED analysis not conducted since 2021 — 8 of 22 tooling transfers involve manual alignment with no standardised procedure

Planned downtime as % of scheduled time: 18% (bench: 8%); changeover frequency increased 22% due to smaller batch sizes from demand mix shift

Is speed performance loss — cycle time degradation and minor stoppages — a material OEE driver?

Are presses running below standard cycle rate?

Average cycle time: 42 seconds vs 32-second standard (31% worse); tool wear not logged on 34% of production runs — no closed-loop cycle time monitoring

8 of 22 presses running at <75% rated speed; operators applying informal "caution speed" practice — no documented engineering justification in 6 cases

Are micro-stoppages and feed-system issues accumulating significant loss?

Minor stoppages (<10 min): 4.2 per shift (bench: 1.5); 73% linked to feed-system jams on granule lines installed in 2019 — no scheduled clearing protocol

Speed loss accounts for 38% of total OEE gap; performance rate: 79% vs 92% target — second-largest OEE loss category after availability

Is elevated defect rate and scrap driving quality losses that reduce effective OEE?

Has first-pass yield declined and is scrap concentrated in specific families?

Overall first-pass yield: 86% (down from 93%); 3 of 18 product families account for 61% of scrap volume — all 3 use same legacy mould design from 2017

Scrap cost: $2.1M YTD vs $0.9M same period prior year (+133%); rework labour adds $0.4M — total quality cost equivalent to 4.8% of revenue

Is the absence of in-process quality control allowing defects to reach finished goods?

SPC control charts active on only 6 of 22 press lines; dimensional inspection: end-of-batch only vs in-process on high-scrap families — defect detection lag: 2.8 hours average

Customer complaint rate: 3.2 per 100 shipments (up from 1.1); ISO 9001 internal audit flagged 4 major NCRs on process control documentation in last cycle

OEE Diagnosis

Distinctive

Root Cause Analysis

Strong

Process Control

Meeting Bar

Continuous Improvement

Strong

4Feedback