Today is Wednesday 19 september. After getting up early again we took the bus at 7:30. In about an hour we reached the building of HP. Some coffee or other refreshments later the presentation started. First we got a demonstration of one of their new products, a printer that can scan 3D objects.
Interrupting the demo the 'senior manager' came in to give a presentation about the history of HP and the current activities in the company at this site. Justin, the guy who did the demo, then finished his presentation and showed some new things he was working on. These included communicating with his printer through twitter. He was able to get status updates and also scan and print with his phone through twitter.
At about 11:30 we had lunch in a restaurant near the HP building. When everyone had enough we collected at the bus again at 1 to drive to the next company.
The name of that company is mintai hydrolics. We got a warm welcome with a presentation about the company while we could enjoy a drink and 'holland royal flavour cookies'. The presentation showed a global overview of the company which included the products they make, the buildings they have and a list of their customers. The company is very traditional by letting the boss give a presentation first and after that they let our professor in the group have the word. Wouter then gave the presentation that explains who we are and what we do in china.
Following the presentation we took a group picture and got a guided tour through the factory. This showed the cnc milling machines, the production line and some of the finished products. The main focus of their company at the moment is wind energy. Mintai supplies hydrolic parts for the cooling, filtering of oil and large pistons to change the angle of the blades of a windmill. We got some time for a discussion before dinner, but that still took an hour and a half. So to kill the time we took a stroll to a temple that was supposed to be nearby. When we got there however, the temple had vanished. They had broken it down to build it up again anew instead of renovating it. All there was left to see were some statues and altars that were in storage. A bit dissapointed we returned to the company building. There we got a visit from the sales manager, but she was quite busy so could only stay for a few minutes. Next up was the dinner with mintai. We went to a local restaurant and had some great dishes with the people from mintai. In the evening there were no activities planned so everyone could do what they wanted. A group of people went into the city to visit some clubs and another group stayed behind to relax in the hotel. All in all it was quite a busy day...
Mattanja Venema