Qingsday

The machines have arrived! It took a very special flight (more on that later), but last weekend we finally got our hands on them.
It seems the ‘Mondmaskerfabriek’ has appeal as we look at the attendance of people willing to help us unbox them. As Merthus Bezemer (sales) says: winners have friends. Well, we shouldn’t call out a victory too early. The machines have to work, the certifications have to come in, and the raw materials can’t miss their flight next Tuesday. A lot of ifs, so is it appeal or approval?

We’re joined by Olaf van den Brink, former COO Bol.com, who will help us with the distribution and Menno Bol, former COO of Aviko, will steer the certification process. The addition of more white male strategists on our team did leave me with some unease, but fortunately they’re not just brainpower. On Sunday they were all decked in construction gloves and crowbars to open the chest.
Qing engineering joined us as well. Such a great company and crew. They will assemble, install and even customize the machines should that be necessary.

On Qingsday we plugged them in. First, we translate the buttons and instructions from Mandarin with help from our friend Google. We tinkered with it a little bit until, under the watchful eye of the camera from Omroep Gelderland, we turned them on. That way, in case of an explosion, we’d still have some great footage.

It’s alive! When we turned the machines on, everything started up. It was Qingsday and we felt like real kings. No, there were no bricks in the box, and yes, this was a significant first step towards producing 100,000 masks a day.