Going Behind the Iron at Caterpillar Decatur

March 29, 2021

More than 52k production employees around the world leave their fingerprint on the products and solutions they work on each day.  When it comes to a career in manufacturing, Caterpillar Decatur Training Specialist Deone Comage says, “It’s viable because of what we help make possible.” The resources mined by Cat Products are used every day by people all over the world – and Deone believes that it is important for employees, especially new hires, to understand the scope and impact of their work. “I always remind my new hires that working here is more than turning bolts or punching a clock. What you’re doing is bettering the world and impacting people’s way of life.”

 The Caterpillar Decatur team produces large wheel loaders, mining trucks, motor graders and more. These products begin as nothing more than a pile of raw materials, waiting to be transformed into machines that will change the world. Deone describes that the resources our mining products pull for our customers go on to form many of the things we use every single day.

There are over 2k employees in the Decatur facility and each need to do their job correctly to serve their “immediate customer,” who Deone identifies as the coworker next to you on the line. “My team is my customer. I have to make sure I do my job right and am safe because we are a team.”

Much like other Caterpillar facilities around the world, Decatur offers a multitude of roles that are all essential to getting the work done each day. For example, assemblers work in tandem at their stations to assemble each piece of the products that go through the facility safely and correctly every time. New hires in this role receive two weeks of training to get them started on the right foot. Forklift operators deliver the right parts to the right places at the right time within the facility. A machinist takes castings and mills them out into parts that can be used throughout the facility. Welders make sure our products are firmly held together. Painter specialists apply the iconic Caterpillar Yellow color onto the products. Quality is critical in this role, as in all positions, because a good paint job protects units from rust, which eventually weakens the durability of the machine. For many of our most entry-level roles, no prior manufacturing experience is needed.

No matter what role you take, your work is critical to delivering the high-quality product that our customers need to do the work. If you’re ready to build a career that matters, search and apply today.