Cat announce new Engineering Design Center

CATERPILLAR Inc. have announced plans to open an engineering design center in Rapid City, South Dakota.

The new facility, known as the Black Hills Engineering Design Center, will provide additional engineering support services for Caterpillar’s US operations and will complement the company’s existing engineering design centers in Chennai, India, and Champaign, Illinois.

‘The Black Hills Engineering Design Center is part of Caterpillar’s Product Development and Global Technology Division’s engineering services strategy to increase velocity and, ultimately, better serve our customers,’ said Caterpillar vice-president and chief technology officer Tana Utley.

The Black Hills Engineering Design Center will initially occupy 3,100 sq ft of office space within the Black Hills Business Development Center in Rapid City and, when staffed at full capacity, will employ up to 100 people.

Construction is expected to be complete by the end of the third quarter of 2010, and hiring is planned to begin at that time and ramp up over a five-year period.