I. LET'S HAVE A LOOK ON FACT INDUSTRIES
Thirteenth interview for ODD&THEKEDGERS, a virtual appointment at FACT INDUSTRIES with Marina Aghayan, CEO and Co-founder of the company. Created in 2017, the start-up really started working in April 2018 from Tallinn and since 2020 from Armenia too, under the company’s name AIP TECH. Thanks to a team of 5 employees in Estonia, 6 employees in Armenia and 4 board members, FACT INDUSTRIES provides innovative solutions for production in industry utilizing additive manufacturing of 3D printing.
→ FACT INDUSTRIES has scientific solutions for smart production
FACT INDUSTRIES provides customized solutions to solve industrial production problems by focusing on the choice of materials, products and technologies. Among the different R&D assignments for industry, FACT INDUSTRIES has divided its offer in three activity areas.
First, the start-up offers prototyping, focusing on 3D printing, especially for industrial companies that need to prototype pieces. Then, FACT INDUSTRIES helps them to find the good material, produces the pieces and tests their abilities in order to allow its clients to start mass production.
Second, FACT INDUSTRIES develops materials for biomedical. The company started to develop 3D printing material for bone resurrection with the goal to put it in human bodies in order to replace the broken bone part. Many side effects, especially at medical levels, needed to be taken into account but last year the company put its material for bone resurrection in a human being !
Third, the company provides electronic components. This the last activity area but not the least because the electronic market share is growing very fast. While electronic products use more and more energy, there is more heat to eliminate. However, every electronic component is becoming smaller and smaller. This situation led to an issue for the electronic industry : smaller electronic components were not suitable to eliminate the heat faster. Then, the company designed, created and tested small and efficient 3D printing pieces that take away the heat. An innovative solution permitting FACT INDUSTRIES to develop its client portfolio by working with the EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY, HUAWEI and many others.
Three activity areas where the expert team of FACT INDUSTRIES can bring the 3D printing smart production necessary to solve industries’ problems. However, as explained by Mrs Aghayan during our interview :
“People used to think that 3D printing can solve all the problems that are encountered in industries. But before any production idea, they have to think about sustainability. Not just how good this production idea is compared to traditional methods. In fact, for some applications, traditional methods are irreplaceable because innovative solutions are impossible, overpriced and sometimes even unsustainable at all for the environment.” - M. Aghayan
Therefore, FACT INDUSTRIES seeks to take into account the economic, social and environmental impacts of its solutions considered before any production idea. We will make this approach more concrete under the sustainability framework provided by the SDG matrix in our second part!
II. FACT INDUSTRIES COMMITMENTS FOR SUSTAINABILITY
→ General commitments for sustainability
Through the three activity areas (Prototyping, Materials for biomedical and Electronic components), FACT INDUSTRIES is well placed to contribute to reach a part of the Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs). Let’s discover those that resonate particularly for the company in the SDGs matrix, according to Mrs Aghayan during our interview:
SDG 3 - Good health and well-being, SDG 9 - Industry, innovation and infrastructure, SDG 10 - Reduced inequalities, SDG 11 - Sustainable cities & communities, SDG 12 - Responsible consumption and production, SDG 17 - Partnerships for the goals
→ Focus on a specific project commitments for sustainability
AMTEC Project is a big FACT INDUSTRIES’ electronic project that is leading since 2 years with the EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY. To get straight to the point, this project consists in helping the EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY to have a better thermal management system in some of its programmes. Consistent with all the company’s offers, it is by focusing on the choice of materials, products and technologies that FACT INDUSTRIES offers suitable solutions to overcome this Space Agency difficulties.
Then, we easily understand that working for the EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY seems to be efficient to develop economically FACT INDUSTRIES by increasing its market share and its network in the electronic market. As mentioned by Mrs Aghayan during our interview :
“In all projects, there are collaborations. Working with big clients like the European Space Agency is crucial to have new contacts and run effectively its business in the future: this is networking !” - M. Aghayan
To what extent this project could seem to be also efficient for the social and environmental pillars of sustainable development ? (Click here to discover our heading #ODDLearning in our Instagram page @oddthekedgers with our post dedicated to the Sustainability pillars). To grasp this question, the SDG matrix is an useful tool that we have used with Mrs Aghayan in order to highlight qualitatively which SDGs the AMTEC Project contributes to. Let’s discover the GOOD PRACTICE SHEET we have done, supported by 3 TOOLS!
III. FACT INDUSTRIES AND THE KEDGERS
→ Could FACT INDUSTRIES be your next experience?
Beside the purpose to make Kedgers (Kedge Business School’s students) aware of the Sustainable Development Goals, ODD&THEKEDGERS aims to inform the managers of tomorrow of responsible opportunities abroad in the associative, private and public sectors. That’s why at the end of our interview with Mrs Aghayan we have not hesitated to ask some questions for you in order to know to whom this organization could turn for a professional experience abroad.
FACT INDUSTRIES could agree in one year to host someone from abroad in Estonia. In order to have some multidisciplinary people in the team, the company could look for INTERNS or STUDENTS IN ERASMUS PROGRAMS in Marketing. The mission could be to understand what they are doing in order to explain their activities in a “normal language” to the FACT INDUSTRIES’ audience. You have the profile, you can understand 3D printing solutions in the activity areas of prototyping, biomedical and electronic components, then be ready for 2022 it could be a great opportunity abroad!
→ Precious words of Marina Aghayan for the students that we are at Kedge
Before leaving, let’s soak up our interviewee's advice!
“For students, you should already start (if haven't done yet) by working hard for your career if you want to give you all the chance to have an interesting life. At least 30% of your life is spent at work. So be sure to create a career in which you will be happy. It’s time to create happiness !” - M. Aghayan
“We need to be prepared to work double more, because after the sanitary crisis, we will need to overcome the economical difficulties. Now we know the big economical problems are coming, all of us should work harder in order to pass this situation when it will come.” - M. Aghayan
“2020 has been difficult ? Of course yes, but we should keep on going, it’s nice to have challenges and find solutions to solve them !” - M. Aghayan
References
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