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Peter Tronick

Peter Tronick '04

Peter Tronick: A Caterpillar career inspired over two generations

Growing up, Peter Tronick ’04 always knew he wanted to pursue a career in business. His grandfather worked as an International buyer for Caterpillar and his father worked at Caterpillar for over 40 years. Tronick has followed in their footsteps with a successful career at Caterpillar spanning eight years and across the globe.

After graduating from WIU with a bachelor’s degree in business, Tronick moved to Indiana and began working for Cat Logistics as an Operations Supervisor where he managed a team of 30 hourly employees and the daily receiving and packaging operations.

Tronick enjoyed that experience saying, “I worked internally with hourly and management staff to complete numerous process improvements and 6 Sigma projects. It gave me the opportunity to travel to different Caterpillar sites and analyze their current processes and procedures.”

Although each project in Indiana was unique and challenging, Tronick notes, “I really enjoyed the ability to start a project and see it through to completion.”

He soon transitioned into an Operations and Training Analyst role, where he provided facility operations support and training through 6-Sigma Projects. In 2007, he accepted a Planning Analyst position, which moved him back to Peoria (IL) and for the next three years he supported the design and implementation of facilities in Waco (TX) and Clayton (OH).

In 2011, he accepted his current position as Senior Project Engineer. In this role, he is responsible for designing and implementing distribution warehouses for Caterpillar Logistics Services. In April 2011, he and his wife Susan ’04 moved to Melbourne, Australia for his current assignment where he is responsible for the Melbourne Distribution Center.

“The biggest challenge in this position has been trying to create the vision of an expanded facility while the current facility is still in operation,” said Tronick. “My past facility planning experience has helped tremendously because I am able to effectively communicate my upcoming project tasks in order to minimize any disruption to the operation.”

No doubt, he’s got a big job to do. His responsibilities include capacity planning, space utilization, purchasing material handling and equipment, material flow and design implementation. He notes the use of process and layout design review meetings, as well as project plan and brain storming workshops as significant tools in his work. “These change management techniques allow me to effectively communicate and update the team’s progress to all parties involved.”

This position is a perfect fit with his blend of experience. Tronick continued, “I’ve been a part of the facility planning team since 2007 working on various projects as a support role. This position has allowed me to take on more of a ‘lead’ project role, which has allowed me to be more strategic and less transactional.”

And, when asked about the highlights of his career thus far, the answer was obvious.

“Being asked to move to Melbourne, Australia as an International Service Employee has definitely been the highlight of my career. The amount of responsibility and challenges in this new position has allowed me to creatively utilize my planning experience attained over the past 4½ years,” said Tronick.

Looking back on his family’s impact on his career, he said, “My parents taught me values and that a great work ethic should be fundamental to everything you do.”

He added that having a support system that stressed the importance of doing what is right and not what is always ‘popular’ was an important aspect of his life. “My family encouraged me to focus on the things I could control, and not worry about the things I couldn’t.”

Tronick also attributes a great deal of his career success to his involvement in sports. He played baseball throughout his entire life, as well as all four years while attending Western. “Being a part of a sports team taught me the importance of teamwork and to be a good team member.”

His work life today is most definitely a practical reflection of lessons learned in team sports and group coursework at WIU. Working in teams/groups everyday, he notes that the success of those teams are a direct reflection of how well the individual members work together.

Thinking back on his experience at WIU, he shared some encouraging advice for WIU’s young alumni by saying, “Keep working hard, achieve good grades, pay your dues, but have fun while doing it. Don’t be in such a hurry to climb the corporate ladder at such a fast pace; by doing so, you could end up surpassing unique opportunities that could change your entire career.”

He continued, “Throughout your career, you are going to work for many different types of leaders…some will be great and some will not. Adopt the traits and characteristics of the good ones, and take away a lesson learned from the others.”

In closing, Tronick said he enjoyed his professors, the coursework, which was both challenging and interactive, and the small class sizes. Overall, he said, “WIU provided me with a quality and reputable education that has given me the foundation and structure to be where I am today.”