Monday, November 12, 2007

#22 Busy Week at Cat

This past week in Suzhou, we hosted a significant event to update our facility project plan. We had over twenty visitors from all over the world come in for an intensive week of planning and workings sessions. Pictured above is part of the team standing in front of the empty field that will soon be our new factory. Pictured are yours truly (Suzhou, China), Marciano and Edson (Brazil), Stanley (Suzhou, China), Cindy (Beijing, China), Baowan (Shanghai), and Kevin (Decatur, Illinois). Other team members (not pictured) were folks who travelled from Xuzhou, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Atlanta.

We held the obligatory Chinese banquet on Tuesday night where vast quantities of Tsingtao Beer and a small amount of Baiju were consumed. Baiju is to China what Grappa is to Italy, Ouzo is to Greece, and Everclear is to the U.S. - a nasty form of grain alcohol where sipping (or even tasting) is not recommended. The team also enjoyed a night out for Italian food on Thursday and a Brazilian barbeque in Shanghai on Saturday.

Eighteen months from now we all expect to stand again in the same spot and take another picture - only with a huge Caterpillar machine plant in the background behind us.

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