Our TCT Expert Advisory Board series continues with a column from Nora Touré, Director, Sales and Service Factory Operations at Fast Radius and Founder of Women in 3D Printing, on why it’s wise to be prepared for additive manufacturing to take you to unexpected places.
When talking to customers over the phone or in person, I am usually either sitting at my desk, in the comfort of my home, more generally in a meeting room, and sometimes in the customer’s factory. Never, before working with Ivaldi Group, had I had to dress in a blue overall, wear security shoes, a security helmet, and literally climb 30 metres on a rusty non-rigid ladder in the middle of the sea to meet with a customer. Never say never, right?
For some context around the following story: The year is 2018. I had joined Ivaldi Group a few months before and was on a “world tour”, from California to Mexico to Singapore, to meet the local teams as well as a few key customers. Arriving in Singapore, I knew meeting our customers and end-users there would be quite fun.
Ivaldi Group provides distributed manufacturing solutions to heavy industry, with a strong focus on maritime, oil & gas, mining, construction and automotive. Singapore being the largest maritime hub in the world, I’m sure it’s easy to guess what kind of customers I was going to visit there.
So, here comes the day I get to make my first visit. I was excited, like a Christmas morning. Something I should share here is that I have always been fascinated by machines. When I was younger I would watch all the episodes of Mega Machines and Mighty Machines (not kidding, even though I’m not too vocal about this for some reason).
If you’ve already flown into Singapore, you’ve probably noticed the hundreds of vessels lined up in the port, some of them being a few miles away from the actual docks. That’s where I was headed - a few miles away from the actual port. So, it takes a speed boat to get there. As fast as these boats are, it still takes roughly 30-40 minutes to get to the destination-vessel. In the meantime, I was already amazed by riding so close to these impressive beasts.
The closer we got, the more apprehension I felt. I kept looking at my security boots, my helmet and thick security gloves in my hands, starting to sweat from stress, excitement and overheating from being in tropical weather dressed like a winter-Smurf.
Finally, we get there and it’s go- time. We were a team of three from Ivaldi, plus a couple of inspectors who are climbing such vessels almost every day. I was basically the newbie and EVERYONE watched me, from the captain of the speed boat, my team, the inspectors, to the crew on deck, 30 metres or so above. No pressure.
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As I (literally) jumped from the small boat to the ladder of the HUGE vessel (longer than the height of the Eiffel Tower by the way), and started my endless ascension, I kept repeating the last-minute instructions I had just received: “3-point contact, 3-point- contact. What the heck am I doing here? Focus: 3-point-contact, 3-point- contact...,” until I finally got there and fell into the welcoming arms of my team who were already up on the vessel. I was tempted to order a cola and enjoy the view, but of course, we were there for a reason and only had a few hours to test the 3D printed parts we brought with us, gather feedback on already installed parts and meet our customers.
Oh, did I mention I was pregnant back then, too?
Bottom line is: you never know where meeting with customers will get you; always be ready for crazy, sensational adventures!
