Had another amazing visit that the CAT manufacturing plant.  Visited with engineers from the hydraulic, structural, electrical, quality departments all with similar challenges in refining the end vehicle to meet customer needs.  The assembly and fabrication areas of the plant were also very similar but on a larger scale to our small manufacturing firm.  I was able to get some great ideas on how to manage many different assemblies and organize then into small mobile carts called hogs.  Finally, I was able to see how that manage production goals such as labor hours estimated vs actual.  Keeping note of these type of performance goals give a down and dirty view of how the company is performing in key areas to ensure profitability.  The CAT plant in Tasmania produces about 500 vehicles a year at an average sale of 1.5 million.  Competitive advantage for this plant is mainly due to its central location to mining locations in Tasmania but is facing viability challenges with countries such as Thailand showing potential to produce the vehicles more economically.