Cairo-based Promech Engineering was founded in 2003. The firm specialises in Industry 4.0, advising businesses on how to employ 3D solutions and selling the accompanying hardware and software.
Karim Mohsen is the Sales Manager for Egypt and the Middle East and is working with a German company, German RepRap GmbH, to realise profitable new projects worth millions of euros. At the heart are German RepRap printers that can transform fluids into three-dimensional products.
Things are really buzzing in the Egyptian Ministry of Industry’s new laboratory in Cairo. A medium-sized enterprise is currently printing out a prototype on a 3D printer from German RepRap GmbH. The Egyptian government has recently begun offering this service to SMEs that cannot afford their own 3D technology, thus supporting the development and competitiveness of the Egyptian middle class, and of the manufacturing industry in particular. Promech set up the lab and Karim Mohsen headed the €400,000 project. “We are very proud of the lab that features the largest 3D printer with a fully closed chamber made in Germany”, Karim Mohsen says. It can create 3D models from different materials and print large or even multiple smaller objects in industrial quality.
“We had been in contact with the Feldkirchen-based company for some time, trying to get a joint project off the ground, initially with no success”, the 34-year-old mechanical engineer reports. The Manager Training Programme (MP) and its good reputation finally helped him organize a meeting in Germany, where he convinced the South German firm of the benefits of cooperation. The lab was his first project with RepRap. Since then, he has sold additional printers to the Middle East for around two million euros, which are being used in architecture, automotive, aviation and other industries. Promech is now a German RepRap value-added reseller (VAR). VAR describes a dealer who adds value to the product through customization and services, for example.
In addition, able to win over the SLM Solutions Group AG, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of 3D metal printers, as a new partner in Germany. Promech expects projects worth four million euros for the Lubeck-based mechanical engineering firm and is now a VAR in the Middle East.
Quality Like in Germany
Promech’s CEO Mohamad Reda regularly sends the firm’s 45 employees to Germany for advanced training, where engineers, support team and sales staff spend up to several weeks learning about a specific firm’s technology. Employees’ knowledge is tested every six months. “We are proud that our employees are as well trained as those of German enterprises. This allows us to guarantee the same quality of service and support”, Mohsen says.
Passing Knowledge On
Mohsen held a one-week training course to share what he learned during the MP with his firm’s employees. He particularly focused on passing on what he learned about intercultural business relationships. “We used to have frequent misunderstandings between our staff and employees in Germany because we lacked intercultural understanding. This is something I was able to address during the training seminar”, Mohsen says with satisfaction.