Prioritizing Inclusion Drives Safety and Success in India

Caterpillar believes in a culture where our employees’ values, backgrounds and ideas are not only welcomed, but they contribute to what their teams accomplished.

Caterpillar’s state-of-the-art facility in Thiruvallur, India, produces important products used in construction and mining around the world, including off-highway trucks, hydraulic excavators, backhoe loaders and skid steer loaders. The team there takes great pride in the steps they take to drive inclusion, and recently led an effort to examine the ergonomic conditions for women on the factory floor.

Focus group meetings were held to identify the challenges faced by female production employees operating machines by themselves. Tasks that required high levels of force, such as pulling, pushing or lifting, and posed safety risks were eliminated by making a number of simple, gender-inclusive changes to how machines were run.

Through these changes, the team proudly hosted its first all-women machinist cell on the machine shop floor, where they increased safety metrics and produced more defect-free components. The new approach required investment in training, allowing the Thiruvallur factory to continuously bring in new female trainees each year to participate in the program until they graduate into a new role.

We know that by working together, we can produce better results than any of us can achieve alone. Learn more about our diversity and inclusion journey.