Prepare for your Caterpillar interview

Heavy equipment manufacturing, dealer network economics, and aftermarket services calibrated to Caterpillar's focus on operational excellence and total cost of ownership.

The Interview

What Caterpillar is looking for

Operations Interview

Manufacturing Operations & Supply Chain

01Lean Production Systems

02Supply Chain Resilience

03OEE & Throughput Optimization

04Cost Management

Behavioral Interview

01Operational Leadership

02Safety & Quality Culture

03Dealer Relationship Management

04Results Under Pressure

World's largest construction and mining equipment manufacturer//Independent dealer network generates 60%+ of aftermarket revenue//Cat Production System (CPS) drives disciplined lean manufacturing

Practice Library

Caterpillar exercises

Ready to ace your Caterpillar interview?

Prepare for your Caterpillar interview

Heavy equipment manufacturing, dealer network economics, and aftermarket services calibrated to Caterpillar's focus on operational excellence and total cost of ownership.

The Interview

What Caterpillar is looking for

Operations Interview

Manufacturing Operations & Supply Chain

01Lean Production Systems

02Supply Chain Resilience

03OEE & Throughput Optimization

04Cost Management

Behavioral Interview

01Operational Leadership

02Safety & Quality Culture

03Dealer Relationship Management

04Results Under Pressure

World's largest construction and mining equipment manufacturer//Independent dealer network generates 60%+ of aftermarket revenue//Cat Production System (CPS) drives disciplined lean manufacturing

How It Works

Master Caterpillar Interviews

Heavy equipment manufacturing, dealer economics, and lean production for the construction and mining equipment leader. · Click to expand

OEE Diagnostics

Practitioner

Lean Production Systems

Practitioner

1Your Manufacturing Goals

2Manufacturing Case Prep

Caterpillar is experiencing 22% increase in warranty claims on hydraulic systems across...

CASE INTERVIEWHard

Manufacturing · Quality DiagnosticsCaterpillar

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

How It Works

Master Caterpillar Interviews

Heavy equipment manufacturing, dealer economics, and lean production for the construction and mining equipment leader. · Click to expand

1Your Manufacturing Goals

OEE Diagnostics

Practitioner

Lean Production Systems

Practitioner

2Manufacturing Case Prep

Caterpillar is experiencing 22% increase in warranty claims on hydraulic systems across...

CASE INTERVIEWHard

Caterpillar