1. Introduction and Aim of the Award

The Team Gold Award dates back to 1982, the Golden Jubilee year of Perkins, and has developed to reflect the changes in the company over the years. Eligibility to enter a submission for the award reflects the fact that business in Peterborough is now focussed around the Industrial Engines offering in both Caterpillar and Perkins brands, with production of the engines in several plants worldwide.

Originally judged on purely financial benefits, the award now has a strong emphasis on values in action and includes benefits to people and the community.

The award, judged by the Perkins Long Service Club Executive Committee, is presented by the Club’s Patron, David Goldspink, at the Annual Dinner of the Club held in May each year.

The aim of the Team Gold Award is: “To recognise the achievements made by a team to support and enhance the Industrial Engines business at Peterborough and associated facilities, through growing the people, products and reputation of the business while demonstrating teamwork, personal commitment, excellence and sustainability”. The reputation of the business covers its image or perception in the eyes of customers/market, employees, wider community, suppliers and shareholders.

The Award is open to teams based at facilities worldwide associated with the Industrial Power Systems Division and is open to all Divisions (including Cat Electronics, HR Shared Services, GIS, GED, Finance, Global Purchase etc.) which support the Industrial Engines business. However, at least one member of the core team (or the project sponsor) must be based in Peterborough.

2. Scoring Criteria

The judges will look for projects to have delivered definable benefits which impact the business, people or community in some way. Marks will be awarded for the benefits actually delivered, but over two-thirds of the marks will be awarded for Teamwork, individual Commitment of the team members, focus on Excellence and contribution to Sustainability. The judges will be looking for objective evidence and examples to support claims made in the submissions.

Projects not yet fully implemented cannot be accepted.

3. Project submission categories

Projects shall be submitted and will be judged under one (only) of five specific categories:

1. Category 1. Customers – Projects aimed at improving the customer experience, sales revenue or margin growth, customer acquisition or collaboration, and marketing or brand promotion.

2. Category 2. Employees – Projects delivering people development, employee engagement and satisfaction, a safer working environment etc.

3. Category 3. Community Projects – Projects that enhance or promote the company through delivering real community benefits.

4. Category 4. Products and Facilities – New or improved products or manufacturing facilities. Also projects aimed at quality or on time delivery improvements. NPI projects shall be submitted under this category, not Category 1.

5. Category 5. Processes, Systems and Cost Management – Long term strengthening of the business or financial results through (for example) implementation of new processes or systems, cost or inventory reduction, other financial improvements, supplier collaboration etc

Note that the judges, where not current employees, have signed NDAs drawn up by Cat Legal, and will not divulge any confidential or sensitive information to third parties. Engine volume and financial benefits must be quantified, as the judges use specific value ranges for scoring.

4. Submission timetable and requirements

• Notify Bill Guest by email by 29th February 2024 of your intention to submit a project. This is mainly to give us a heads up as to what project submissions we are likely to receive.

• Full project submissions must be received by Bill Guest by 15th March 2024.

·        The submissions shall follow the structure and maximum word count limits set out in the section “Submission Structure” below. Pay attention to the information that is requested, and especially to provide benchmark comparisons and other examples as evidence where requested. In Section 5 select only two of the three sub-sections.

·        The application shall be submitted electronically as an MS Word document written in plain English not exceeding 1750 words. The pages shall be numbered and shall include all required sections; any surplus sections or text will be ignored. Font size not smaller than 11 point.

• Do not include any graphs, pictures, illustrations, or tables (except for the core team make-up in the Teamwork section). 

• Projects shall typically have been completed in the previous year, although in the case of large projects submission should only be made after the benefits start to be delivered and can be demonstrated – it is difficult to give appropriate credit to a project which, although complete, has yet to deliver results.

• Submitters are asked to present the application so that it can be understood by non-technical, non-subject matter experts. Company “jargon words”, abbreviations and acronyms shall be avoided wherever possible.

5. Award Presentation

The team leader and a team member of each of the (usually 3) shortlisted projects will be invited to attend the Perkins Long Service Club Annual Dinner in Peterborough on Friday 10th May 2024 as guests of the Club and will receive recognition. The winner is announced on the night and presented with the award by the Club’s Patron, David Goldspink. The leader of the winning project will be invited to make a short acceptance speech of no more than 2 or 3 minutes to acknowledge the contribution of the team.

Please ensure that two key team members (ideally including the team leader) are available for that date. The sponsor may also attend as a guest if not already attending the dinner in his or her own right.

Good Luck!

Submission Structure. (N.B. Marks are awarded based largely on the specific information requested. Marks cannot be given for the information you do not provide)

Identify the Project Title. Then complete the following six sections for all projects.

Section 1: General information (250 words*) (This section is not used for scoring)

State under which category this project is being submitted (one category only permitted).

Describe the project in summary. Specifically, what were its objectives, what did it deliver, how long did the project take and how has it been implemented. Avoid technical detail unless key to understanding the nature of the project.

Section 2: Definitions (not used for scoring)

Submitters should avoid company “jargon words”, abbreviations and acronyms wherever possible. Where this has been unavoidable, please define them here.

Section 3: Project benefits (450 words*)

·      Please describe, with reference where possible to external benchmarks (competitors, best practice etc.) or to prior performance, how the project has enhanced the image or perception of the business in the eyes of customers/market, suppliers, employees, community or shareholders, increased sales, improved safety or efficiency or reduced cost or waste. Benchmarks or performance comparisons are mandatory for projects in Category 4 - Products and Facilities.

·      Explain why it was necessary to do this project and what the impact of not doing this project would have been.

·      For Category 2 and 3 projects (Employees and Community) please show how many people benefit and the significance of the benefit to them.

·      Explain how long term the project benefit is.

·      Important – To what extent have the original key objectives been delivered? Were any key objectives either exceeded or not delivered in full and explain what the impact of that is to the overall project benefit and the business. Please be honest!

Section 4: Teamwork (350 words* excluding the table of team members)

In this section you must demonstrate how teamwork contributed to the success of the project.

·      Please provide the following information regarding the make-up of the core team starting with the Sponsor and Team Leader. Do not include subject matter experts and extended team members.

·      Please give a brief description of why the team was structured in the way it was, the key roles taken by the core team members, how work was agreed upon and completed by the team, and how the team worked together and supported each other.

·      What were the biggest decisions taken within the project? Describe how those decisions were reached and how the team contributed in that process.

·      Please provide specific examples to demonstrate the extent to which the team members:

1.  All contributed to the project outcome

2.  Cooperated and used teamwork to complete action(s)

3.  Recognised team and project successes

Section 5 (Select any only two of sub-sections 5a, 5b, 5c below, except NPI projects which must submit 5a and 5b. There are no additional marks for submitting all three sub-sections)

Section 5a: Commitment (350 words*)

In this section you need to demonstrate how individual and team Commitment to ensuring the quality and timeliness of the project output contributed to its success.

·      Describe, with examples, the level of commitment team members demonstrated to ensure successful quality and/or timely outcomes. Descriptions should include, for example, crucial roles taken towards a deliverable; the amount of time each team member spent on the project; effort put in beyond their daily position, function, capacity or working hours.

Section 5b: Excellence (350 words*)

In this section you must show how the pursuit of Excellence was displayed in the project.

·      Please demonstrate (where appropriate with reference to previous performance, competitors or world class standards) how excellence contributed to the success of the project. This could include excellence in (for example):

·        Seeking the highest value for customers with a sense of urgency

·        Best in class employees’ skills or work environment

·        Standard of completed community work

·        The quality of engine products and services

·        Quality and/or speed of Company processes

·      Show how the quality of the project output was managed.

·      Demonstrate, with examples, how participating in the project led to the development of any individuals on the team.

Section 5c: Sustainability (350 words*)

In this section you must show how Sustainability (as defined by Caterpillar) was a focus of this project.

·      What were the sustainability objectives and how well were they met?

·      Demonstrate with evidence what the project delivered in terms of sustainability.

Photographs (not to be incorporated into the Word Document)

Please ensure that you provide a .jpg photograph (circa 300kb) of the team and, if possible, several further photographs illustrating the project. Send them with your submission (or very soon after). They are needed for the Dinner in the event that the project is one of the top 3 submissions. Separate .jpg files are preferred rather than a PowerPoint presentation.

* Note – The Section word counts are a guide, but the total word count (excluding titles, Section 2 and the core team table in Section 4) should not exceed 1750 words.