Robert Claas Email & Phone Number

United States

• Responsible for the overall design of the skid steer loader, compact track loader and vibratory roller product lines in the New Product Development group.• Instrumental in assisting shop and technical personnel with building prototype units and designing/performing validation tests.• Lead and mentor other Engineers in the NPD group.

• Initially employed as Engineering Manager for the Ride-on product line. Duties included mentoring of Engineers and Designers, establishing project schedules, budgets and product specifications.• Transitioned from managerial role to Staff Engineer assigned to lead large, highly technical new product development projects. Also worked extensively on warranty and cost reduction projects.• One main project was to convert the garden tractor line from hydraulic and manual controls to electric controls. This involved implementing the company's first Electric Power Steering (EPS) system and first Electric/Hydraulic attachment lift system. This new product line went into production in Q4 of 2019.• Instrumental in creating new internal design and test standards.

 Initially employed as a Senior Project Engineer assigned to develop a line of track driven compact loaders. Promoted to Engineering Manager in 2009 to directly manage the track loader design team as well as a new product design team for the skid steer loader product line. Managerial duties included hiring/promotional decisions, establishing project schedules, budgets and specs, facilitating departmental and interdepartmental project meetings, approvals of component selection, engineering change orders, production drawings and BOM releases. Was instrumental in creating and maintaining internal design standards used by design and test engineers. Acquired US Patents 7866420, 8016345, 7975793.