The future is upon us. 3D printing is becoming far more accessible.

I went my local ASDA (Walmart) a few days ago. They were doing a promo for their new 3D printing product. I was intrigued.
I watched the ASDA marketing video. One of the viewers asked what hardware they were using.

Someone said 'Zprinter by Zcorp.'

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I looked it up and came across the following video. Its about an hour. However, it does look like affordable scanning and printing is upon us. This technology is a great addition to design software.

Companies already scan competitors products and add them to their math date, altering them to fit their requirements.

The technology is not new per se... however, it is now reaching a point where good quality equipment is becoming affordable.

I would love to see this in the classroom.

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The sales guy showed a scanner (about $500 USA) which fits and syncs with an ipad. A professional level printer costs between $5000 and $10,000. Not cheap per se, but I'm sure if you have the student numbers I envisage, I feel a good business case could be made.

 

Students can work remotely, and send the data. A model can be made and posted. For students on campus it would be a case of waiting for the model to be completed and just picking it up.

 

Designing something virtually and then being able to have it physically in a short time period is great!

 

In my opinion this the future.

Ten years ahead of my time! DRB Hicom, I am ready and available!

From my last post you can see that the University concept was a bit ahead of its time. Particularly when pitched at the Lotus management of the time.
Now Lotus is owned by DRB Hicom. They look at education as a core business.
Great. They are obviously as a group more open to my proposal.
Now is the time to implement my proposal. With or without me!
In the last year I have lost about 25% of my body weight... 5 stone ( about 32 kilo).
So today, I have ordered a new suit off the peg!
M&S have a sale. So I am buying one.

A year ago this would not have been possible.
Many thanks to Lee and Jade at GYM4ALL. They have led most of the classes that I have participated in.
I highly recommend them!
I am now back to the size I was when I originally made the proposal!
I have enjoyed the last ten years.
I have presented at the Asian Leadership Institue, been an Advisor to the board of a Media company,
written a Childrens Book ... Innocence lost in the Ice cream forest...

volunteered at my local Citizens Advice Centre... and presented my project to, and met various VIP's.

Have I enjoyed it. Most certainly.
Have I worked in the Automotive industry in the last ten years? No.
Have I missed it? No.
However, now is a good time to return to the mainstream.
There are people who have a positive view of me. This balanced out by those who have a negative view of me.
Please take the time to view my blogs and webpage, and make up your own mind!

DRB Hicom to make education a core business

Picture taken from STAR newspaper article:
http://www.thestar.com.my/Business/Business-News/2014/01/15/DRBHicom-to-go-big-in-education-Conglomerate-plans-to-upgrade-college-to-varsity-status/

I nterestingly, the CEO of DRB Hicom, who own Lotus and Proton, with a design/manufacturing agreement with Westfield cars, may be entering education as a "Core" business.
Here is a quote from the article:
Khamil said the education sector is already a huge industry by itself, and this could be the company’s next core business, after it obtained its university status in the next 12 months. The group also received a RM28mil grant from the Public-Private Partnership Unit (UKAS) to set up the college.
This could be a very workable business. DRB Hicom have hardware to make my proposal a reality... It would be very nice if they give me the opportunity to participate in this.

A Picture paints a thousand words

I have just been browsing some of the graphics I have used in my blog. Sadly, I do not have a reference as to where they originated and their validity!
Never mind!!

When I first started on this proposal, I was based in Malaysia, among other things I was tasked with coming up with a training plan. This plan was supposed to be commercially viable.
In practice if we ran a Catia course with 15 students for a week, we broke even.
So running physical classes would be OK. Potentially we could run courses and cover costs.
However, if we were to be unique and run our courses at a working circuit, and combine it with online training we could potentially be profitable... Not a concept that is normally associated with Lotus.
I received no tangible support. It was 2000 I suppose and people were not sure if this would work.
Phoenix University in America now serves about 1/2 million online students in America.
Today mobile online devices are everywhere. People all over the globe have access to what I am now writing...

Universities all over the globe use online learning. Some are government owned, others are private.

Most students can get loans to pay the University fees. Governments encourage their citizens to learn useful skills.

 

So in my opinion combining 'Unique' campuses with top notch hardware and sharing the knowledge online globally could result in one million online students, using Phoenix University as a bench mark.

How many students do you need to break even? Not known.

Phoenix made over ten percent profit on revenue for 1/2 million students.

This is only servicing the USA. My plan would be global. This would not only have the potential to be a viable business, it would also give our partners, backers and hardware suppliers global exposure.

Makes sense to me!

New Year ... New hope

Well, its New Year again.
Professionally, nothing new to report.
I continue to bug people about my pet project.
It would be nice if this VIP were to give the plan a recommendation!

Personally, I am fit and healthy.
I lost about 5 stone this year.
Having lost it in a healthy manner, I am happy with the results.
MANY THANKS TO THE TRAINERS IN GYM4ALL!! Lee and Jade in particular.

 

The charity book is still available on Amazon. Many thanks to Claus and Tilo Werner for their help making this happen.Below, Claus and I visit a town near Lobstadt to promote the book.
Both Tilo and Claus worked for free!

To read the story behind the story, and find a link to Amazon please click here.

Christmas wishes to my Malaysian friends and helpers!

I just got off a skype call with Sofie. (Pictured). She wished me a Merry Christmas.

Sofie is the owner of Red Palm hostel. She and Tilo (also pictured) along with Hanis, Siti and Kamal ran/run the Red Palm hostel in KL. My second home in Asia!

This time last year Tilo got married to Curtney. I attend the wedding in Leipzig.
It went off well.

 

pppTilo and Curtney had a reception in Red Palm also!

Siti and Hanis are in the front, Sofie just behind with Intan a friend, who has just been misdiagnosed with malignant cancer... She is still ill, but hopefully she will get better!



Tilo does graphics, he did the work below for me.

 



 

 

Jimmy from Malaysia popped over to the UK for Christmas last year.

This year he is in Italy!
All the best to all of them!
Happy Christmas



 

First the good news... Ladies first! Holden to close...

Mary Barra, a talented 'car gal' from GM's ranks, steps up to lead giant automaker

Today, I see GM appointed a woman, Mary Barra to the top post.
I don't know Mary. I wish her all the very best.
When I worked in the Opel tech centre, Ruesselsheim, they had one female executive (Rita Forst).
The car park had a ladies only area...
Things are changing. A good thing.

Holden to stop making cars in Australia

Dec 11, 2013 AutoNews360 Car News

 

When I worked in GM Germany, I met a few Holden engineers. We used to meet in Wiesbaden on weekends. They were friendly and welcoming. So I was a little sad to see they may be laid off.

GM ships (Daewoo) Chevrolet vehicles to Australia, and some Opel's. So I expect these two GM subsidiaries will suppy all GM vehicles in the future.

Obviously, this will adversely affect Holden Design as well as manufacturing.

I, in the meantime am keeping fit and waiting patiently for my project to take off...

2014 will be my year!