Back to the shop floor
17 April, 2012
Right now Frank and Cathal Wilson will hopefully be assembling all the pieces of the Ceramicx booth in readiness for the Chinaplas show, which opens in Shanghai tomorrow. It hardly seems possible that as soon as one large exhibition is processed by Ceramicx another is opening for business on the other side of the world. Here in Ireland I'm still adjusting back from the change in Florida time and from the ebb of some of the enquiries and order processing received at America's biggest and best plastics exhibition, NPE, April 1-5. 
NPE 2012 was a huge learning curve for me. Not only did I have to leave my production manager role behind for a whole week - trusting that all would be well! - it was then in at the deep end in terms of the dynamism at the show; the large variety of enquiries, interest and visitors of all shapes and sizes. Sure enough, my Spanish and Portuguese language skills came in handy with visitors from Columbia, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, and other parts of South and Central America. There is no doubt that the manufacturing industry is expanding greatly in those parts of the world - and plastics technologies with it. It's a territory that we shall be cultivating and returning to in the coming months and years. Among the things brought back in the suitcase were several months worth of South American leads, opportunities and new relationships to be cultivated over the short and medium term. In truth, the NPE show also taught me that most nearly every customer, large and small, sophisticated and beginner still has a whole new world of knowledge to explore when it comes to the particular language of Infrared Heating (IR); the issues and the benefits to be learned there. In conversations about IR I often found myself spending a good deal of time on the groundwork; general and educative aspects. Once that was done you then move into getting great insight into what customers are actually looking for - it's not always the same as you imagined! And then you start talking to them about solutions to their problems and actual needs. That gets everyone excited. And at the end of the day, we get much closer to our customers, which is the purpose of the show and where we need to be. Job done! Well not quite. There's the small matter of that week taken out from your normal job which now needs making up. New business or not, existing orders still need getting out the door. However, as Frank often says, it's a high-grade problem to have. Ceramicx is looking forward to expansion on all these fronts as we go forward.
17 April, 2012
Right now Frank and Cathal Wilson will hopefully be assembling all the pieces of the Ceramicx booth in readiness for the Chinaplas show, which opens in Shanghai tomorrow. It hardly seems possible that as soon as one large exhibition is processed by Ceramicx another is opening for business on the other side of the world. Here in Ireland I'm still adjusting back from the change in Florida time and from the ebb of some of the enquiries and order processing received at America's biggest and best plastics exhibition, NPE, April 1-5. NPE 2012 was a huge learning curve for me. Not only did I have to leave my production manager role behind for a whole week - trusting that all would be well! - it was then in at the deep end in terms of the dynamism at the show; the large variety of enquiries, interest and visitors of all shapes and sizes. Sure enough, my Spanish and Portuguese language skills came in handy with visitors from Columbia, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, and other parts of South and Central America. There is no doubt that the manufacturing industry is expanding greatly in those parts of the world - and plastics technologies with it. It's a territory that we shall be cultivating and returning to in the coming months and years. Among the things brought back in the suitcase were several months worth of South American leads, opportunities and new relationships to be cultivated over the short and medium term. In truth, the NPE show also taught me that most nearly every customer, large and small, sophisticated and beginner still has a whole new world of knowledge to explore when it comes to the particular language of Infrared Heating (IR); the issues and the benefits to be learned there. In conversations about IR I often found myself spending a good deal of time on the groundwork; general and educative aspects. Once that was done you then move into getting great insight into what customers are actually looking for - it's not always the same as you imagined! And then you start talking to them about solutions to their problems and actual needs. That gets everyone excited. And at the end of the day, we get much closer to our customers, which is the purpose of the show and where we need to be. Job done! Well not quite. There's the small matter of that week taken out from your normal job which now needs making up. New business or not, existing orders still need getting out the door. However, as Frank often says, it's a high-grade problem to have. Ceramicx is looking forward to expansion on all these fronts as we go forward.
