Rolling into day 5 now! Taking a look around Qualisys and SKF. There have been some long days but they are definitely worth it with the companies we are visiting. So let me dive right in to tell you about my day.
We started the day with Qualisys and we did arrive early today unlike yesterday. Just thinking about the location of this building as we walked up this nice large hill to the top, I thought there should be a nice view and I was not wrong because it over looked the river. The presentation was given by Magnus Sjölin, Market Area Director. He presented information on their products and what companies and sections they are in. The sections the are in are life science, engineering, and they just enter the entertainment section in 2019. The Opus 7+ is the fastest camera on the market. They have a lot of support from their customers because they have 96% of their customers willing to recommend their products to others. They did recently make a hybrid camera that can use markers or be markerless. The difference is that a marker is a little ball that is a sensor on someone to get a 3D image of a person and their movements.
Even though Magnus gave a nice presentation, we were also informed on Qualisys’s marketing. This was given by Helen Holmqvist Ryden, Marketing & Communication Manager Glob. She talked about the progression and change that has happened in her 4 years of working at Qualisys. Qualisys now has a condensed social media now as it used to be spread out over multiple accounts. They have added 17 more employees also.
Okay so now on to the fun stuff. Not that I’m saying the other stuff wasn’t fun but the demos were amazing. First we had Robby gear up for some running on a treadmill to analyze his running. It was very cool to see what areas it tracked and looked at to help trainers improve their clients needs. What we learned about Robby is he has good running form and is in some good physical shape. Another demo we had was the animation, which 3 young business professionals participated in.
Matt, Sam, and Nicole got in the suits and got all sensored up. They just danced around and did some cartwheels(well at least attempted one). It was fun to watch and see the animation on the screen. It is cool how the technology is advancing and that we are improving it day after day. If we were 2 weeks later, we could have tested out their new VR system that they have coming soon. The system that is coming out makes it so the system is mobile and you are able to pick things up and use them using VR. I really wish we could have played around with it. If not for Vincent and Katarina we would not have been able to do any of these demos and it was great to get some in person action of the products.
Moving forward to our second company of the day, SKF. As we arrived, we were enlightened about the worlds largest ball bearing that sits in front of SKF headquarters. It was a cool start of the visit and shortly after walking through the front door we were brought into a nice movie theater room. Lars Werner talked about the history of SKF and showed a nice 7 minute video before showing us around a nice exhibit. I liked how energetic and upbeat Lars was when he was talking to us. The exhibit was really interesting with all different types off ball bearings and showing what they are used in and also knowing how much they also have in a normal car. It is really fascinating that SKF did not even see a profit for its first 4 years of operation. We also got a tour of the factory but due to safety we were unable to take pictures. However, I can still tell you what I saw. In the factory, I saw some forklifts driving themselves(talk about innovation). They were given task and they did it as most employees working in the factory mainly fix a problem or give a command to a machine. That makes things easier and a lot more efficient.
Daily Reflection
- Technology is moving in the right place to make peoples health and wellness better.
- Ball Bearings are in everything and is crazy to see how big SKF really is.
- The difference between a small and large company is so much different but you can see the work they put in to get to where they are.
Alex's Sweden Expedition 