Reflections on 2020 from Justin Pringle

Just like the movies

In 1995, the movie ‘Outbreak’ told the story of a deadly virus brought to America by an African monkey. A zombie virus attacked the world in Shaun of the Dead, in 2004. A plague in I Am Legend, in 2007; another virus in Contagion, in 2011; more zombies in World War Z, in 2013; an unseen presence in Bird Box, in 2018; and a whole host of pandemic movies in between.

Hollywood fiction. Nothing more, nothing less.

And then, this year, 2020, the people of the world starred (and continue to star) in their own real-life, special effects-free, pandemic.

We’re not out of the woods yet but, hopefully, the beginning of the end is in sight as 2021 draws closer. As hard as we may wish for no more pandemic movies, sadly, Covid-19 will most likely prove to tempting an ‘event’ for film-makers to ignore.

A year of celebration

2020 was meant to be a year of celebration for all of us, here at Prototype Projects. This year is our 40th year in business, and we had lots of events, and more, planned.

Alas, that wasn’t to be.

In place of words of celebration, words such as lockdown, self-isolate, social distancing and furlough entered our vernacular.

In place of welcoming our customers inside to take the tour of our facilities, we adapted to Zoom and working from home.

Instead of prototyping what our customers had planned in early 2020, by April we were prototyping parts for life-saving ventilators and PPE equipment.

And, at one point, the roof caved in on us. Literally, not figuratively!

But, what did we learn?

So much.

We learnt that when the roof does come crashing down, as a result of a storm, our teams pull together to clear away the debris, to mop up all the water, to continue building SLS parts.

We learnt that we can adapt to working from home, especially when we, or a loved one, need us to self-isolate (or shield).

We learnt that our teams are nothing short of fantastic, despite everything.

We learnt that we can improve our service offering, regardless of a pandemic, so that our 3D Printing and CNC teams now both deliver fast turnaround on prototype parts.

We think we might have also learnt that Gary can make the tea, but Hannah has no recollection!

New Year Resolutions

Not so much resolutions, more a wish.

We hope the tide will turn in the New Year and life can return to normal. Not the old-normal of 2019, not even the new-normal that we’ve become accustomed to in 2020, but a different-normal for 2021.

This ‘different-normal’ may well be different for everyone and for every business. Indeed, our management team is looking at the long-term direction of our 40-year-old company right now. What will our ‘different-normal’ look like, we wonder.

The future’s bright, the future’s…

Thank you

It would be remiss of me to not finish with a few thank you messages.

Thank you to our suppliers. There were times when the supply-chain struggled, but our network of suppliers ensured that we could continue delivering our services against all the odds.

Thank you to our customers. We are always grateful for the continued business of our customers, but even more so this year. Our Trustpilot reviews show we’ve been doing a good job for them, so we’re even happier.

Thank you to Team PP: Adam, Alex, Aron, Chris, Ed, Emily, Gary, Gemma, Glenn, Greg, Hannah, Ian, Jakub, Jason, Jordan, Marc, Mark, Martyn, Michal, Nick, Roger, Tim, Tony and Vikki. We were a team of teams in 2019, but as we leave 2020, we believe we’re a strong Team PP. Thank you to each and every one of you.

It’s been a heck of a year; let’s hope we can raise our masks and celebrate in 2021!

Best wishes,

Justin

Justin Pringle
Managing Director