Cat is renowned for tinkering with its organisational structures. At any one time it seems there are a dozen 6 Sigma projects on the go to improve business structures.

The company developed the Caterpillar Production System as a result of one of these 6 Sigma projects.

The CPS is an offshoot of the Toyota Way – the production system that has led Toyota to be one of the most successful car makers of all time.

It also comes at an interesting time for the manufacturing giant.

After enjoying a record year in 2012, the company is girding itself for its second consecutive fall in quarterly profit.

This will be first time that has happened since the global financial crisis bit in 2009.

It has also gone through the throes of bedding down its buy of fellow industry behemoth Bucyrus.

Cat’s management team have had enough time to come to grips with Bucyrus’ operating practices and work out what to keep and what to discard.

Bucyrus, for its part, had some pretty innovative approaches to the business of building large pieces of mining kit.

Caterpillar has also been wielding the axe on its staff numbers, shedding about 800 jobs in the past month.

Caterpillar chief executive officer Doug Oberhelman did not help matters when he told the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition in Chicago that it should be allowed to bring in highly skilled immigrants to fill gaps in its workforce – just days after the company announced it was sacking 300 people in Milwaukee.

No matter.

Caterpillar has decided that it can make the business of building large pieces of mining equipment better and has set about doing that by creating the Caterpillar Enterprise System Group.

It has appointed Caterpillar vice president with responsibility for the integrated manufacturing operations division Dave Bozeman to be vice president responsible for the CESG.

Oberhelman said that in order to get to the next level of performance the company was bringing together the critical processes and support groups to improve its manufacturing and supply chain capabilities globally.

“From the moment a customer signs a dealer purchase order until the product arrives at their door, customers will experience a more responsive Caterpillar, driven by this new organisation,” he said.

Under Bozeman the CESG will combine existing divisions and organisations including global purchasing, manufacturing logistics and transportation, CPS, lean office and process transformation.

Prior to joining Caterpillar, Bozeman held executive leadership positions in manufacturing and quality with Harley Davidson.

Since 2012 Caterpillar group president Gerard Vittecoq has been leading a program to establish an enterprise vision to deliver “world-class lean results” based on process capability.

“The CESG builds upon the strong foundation of our CPS and 6 Sigma,” he said.

“We are aligning all critical elements of our customer order-to-delivery process with a holistic view that will deliver world-class results.”

Vittecoq will retire from Caterpillar on May 31.