Discover Innovation Beyond Borders With Sofia

During this fall, Sofia Nilsson, Strategic Product Manager for 3D Vision at SICK Linköping, spent time across Asia visiting colleagues, customers, and production teams. We sat down with Sofia to talk about the purpose of the trip, her learnings, and the perspectives she’s bringing back to Linköping in product and business decisions.

Hi Sofia! What was the purpose of your trip?

S: It was to meet with existing customers who use SICK’s products (in this case, Ruler3000 and Ranger3) and gather their feedback and suggestions on how our products can be improved. Another goal was to meet potential customers to promote our products. In addition, I also conducted a few training sessions for SICK employees at our subsidiaries about the latest product updates. I also visited our production site for Ruler3000 cameras located in Shanghai.

Can you tell us about the people and partners you met with during your stay?

S: I met colleagues at four of our subsidiaries in Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, and China. Meeting them is important to gain insights into the Asian market and understand the challenges and opportunities they see for selling our products.

I also met colleagues working at our production site outside Shanghai, where some of our products are assembled. This is crucial to understand the challenges they face. Additionally, I met about ten existing customers, which was extremely valuable for understanding their pain points and what matters most to them. These insights help us make the right decisions when developing products back home in Sweden.

What was the most rewarding moment, would you say?

S: The most exciting part was seeing our products “in action” and understanding how they are used in real industrial environments.

What key insights did you bring back, and is there any trends you noticed?

S: What seems obvious to us as product developers is not always obvious to the end users. We can never be too clear in our product documentation. Furthermore, we continuously gain new customers who have never used our products before, which makes user‑friendliness extremely important!

In Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, there is a trend of moving from silicon to glass for certain products. This affects quality inspection, where our cameras are used, because glass is a challenging material to inspect using laser triangulation technology.

To sum this up, do you have any last fun moments to share with us?

S: In Taiwan, bubble tea is a huge trend; you can find small kiosks selling it everywhere. My colleagues always bought bubble tea after lunch, whether we were at the office or visiting customers. I really grew fond of it and even brought some home!

I also noticed that people in Asia are incredibly friendly and helpful. For example, when I went hiking in Taiwan over the weekend, a woman walked with me for a long stretch to show me the best viewpoints. She even offered to join me the following weekend to explore another mountain.

Thank you Sofia for letting us in on your business trip!