Day 5: Quality in Motion

Today we had the chance to visit Qualisys and SKF. We may have only been on 4 company visits so far, but Qualisys definitely has taken the top spot. We met with Magnus Siblin, the current market area director. Magnus gave us an overview of how the company worked as a whole and what they did, and then we were able to see some demonstrations. Qualisys works with “mo-cap”, or motion capture. Mo-co is recording movement of objects and analyzing the results. In some cases the companies providing the mo-cap tests can give recommendations based on algorithms, but most of the time the results are sent to the customer or research center to analyze the results. Qualisys was founded in 1989 and produces nearly 2,000 cameras every year.

In addition to the the performance enhancing solutions such as analyzing a baseball pitch, a golf swing, or running form, this service can also be applicable to drones, cars, model ships, robotic spiders, and wind powers. Some of their biggest customers include the VA Hospital, The Olympic Committee, ABB, BMW, and Harvard. This part of the presentation was very interesting to me because they talked about how they are able to analyze a golf swing using the technology.

Qualisys also uses their cameras and applications for VR and Animation. Virtual Reality focuses on film and games, commercial uses, and visualization. I was wishing we would be here later because they informed us that they are opening a virtual reality arcade in 2 weeks.

Their head marketing girl then came and talked to us, Helen, and she told us that she recently joined Qualisys and had the opportunity to basically to redo their entire marketing department and start from scratch. Qualisys has experienced slow but steady growth and focused on a three step plan to revamp their marketing department. The first step included clean-up and replacement. This consisted of going back to the basics and using a variety of messages to reach their target market. The second step was getting control. During this step Helen informed us that she transformed all of the old content and set up rules and guidelines for their new content. The last and final step involved getting brand conformity.

Our visit to Qualisys was one of my favorite. The entire group of employees was very welcoming and willing to talk to us as long as we wanted. The demonstrations were also all very interesting. The first one was a running demo and Robby took one for the team and went for a short jog. After placing monitors all over his clothes and arms, the computer was able to detect and analyze his running form (surprisingly they told Robby that he had perfect form). The second demonstration had to do with turning 3 of our students into virtual reality characters. Matt, Sam, and Nicole were voted as the participants and the end results were very cool to see!

The second visit of the day was to SKF, a manufacturing company. The tour guide was very funny and kept us on our toes the entire tour. SKF specializes in ball bearings (I’ll be honest, I’m still not 100% positive on what they are). We were able to learn all about how they make them and even got to tour the plant! By the end of the day we were all exhausted and ready to hit our beds.

Instead, we took the tram back to downtown Gothenburg and broke off into small groups for dinner. Before dinner, our group decided to go to the liquor store and check it out. All honest, this may have been the hardest thing we have done since coming to Sweden. First off, if you aren’t from Sweden you have to bring your passport to prove that you are in fact 20, even though you only have to be 18 in bars and restaurants to consume alcohol (we aren’t in WI anymore). Another big difference is that in Sweden you can’t buy 6/12 packs or cases of beer, you have to buy them all separately. We then were trying to figure out how to read the price tags. We’ve been taught that SEK doesn’t use “cents”. However, when we went to look at all of the prices majority of them read 12:90 (and various other prices). After walking around for 10 minutes, we decided to admit to defeat to one of the workers and tell her we were Americans that needed help. After a few laughs we were able to figure it out and it was a success.

All in all, it was a successful day of more company visits. It’s crazy to think that it’s already day 5 of our short 12 day trip. Tomorrow we have a visit to one of our biggest companies, Volvo, and even get to see a demo crash!

Top Takeaways:

1. The Swedes keep apologizing to us about the weather…they clearly have never been to Wisconsin during the winter.
2. Today was the third time a Swedish has told us how nice they think Americans are. It honestly surprises me to hear this because we always think we are the “dumb ugly Americans”.
3. Pear cider is the new win for our group. I think we are cleaning out all of the bars and restaurants.