Training on any new piece of equipment requires study … but nothing beats hands-on experience, says John Dice, senior training manager for Topcon Positioning Systems (TPS), Livermore, California.

Topcon conducts a variety of training, product development and product demonstration exercises for customers, vendors and its own sales and marketing forces at the multi-purpose facility.

This is not your typical “testing facility” for sure. “A customer will not purposely ‘beat up’ his machine.  We can … and we have,” Dice admits.  “Trying to break stuff is kind of fun!  And my dad would have told you I’m pretty good at it.”

Topcon has been operating and utilizing the 15-plus acre site for more than 20 years. 

Testing products with customers’ machines at their jobsites “is a critical part of the development process,” Dice explained, but can be limited by job conditions and applications at that work site.  “That’s why having machines and a test site location at our disposal is equally important.  We can test the products in extreme range and conditions.”

Derek Madrid, also a Topcon training manager, added that the facility also offers a number of other, significant benefits for the company and – conversely – for its customers.  The Topcon Training and Text Facility’s set-up is located close to Topcon’s corporate office, and affords relatively moderate, year-round weather conditions.  This allows Topcon to run roughly 15 training classes per year – concentrated during the winter and early spring months that best suit customers’ busy, in-season work schedules.

At its outset, the facility’s primary purpose was product development.  This ability was, and remains, critical for a company like Topcon -- which has been successfully built on introducing paradigm-shifting concepts into a market steeped in traditional approaches.

“Product development is critical to create products and applications that truly meet the customers’ needs,” Dice said.  It is one thing to talk with customers to learn more about their business and gain a better understanding of what types of applications can deliver the strongest results.  But to best build it?  “We found that we learned the most about product function when we actually had to sit in the seat and build the roads, the building pads and the steep banks ourselves.”

The facility’s focus and purposes – just as the markets it serves – has continued to evolve and expand.  What began with one motor grader and a handful of employees has grown to include additional, on-site dozers, graders and related support equipment – as well as storage and classroom facilities.

The primary target audience for training at the facility has been sales and service representatives for Topcon’s distributors – equipping them to better understand the company’s products and how their applications can best benefit customers.  Sessions also are conducted for end-users of the company’s products.

Training sessions are typically concluded in less than a week and involve a combination of conceptual classroom learning and hands-on product demonstrations.  Having the classrooms located at the site itself – rather than at Topcon’s corporate offices – is another big advantage.  “We can break the product training into small, bite-sized pieces.  We can review one subject in the classroom and then go right out to the site and apply the instruction,” Dice said. 

The hands-on portion of the training provides important retention benefits for participants as well, Madrid added.  “Without practice, it is difficult to remember all the ‘how to’ steps.  In class we review the ‘how to’ steps and the field exercises lets them experience and see how they play out and what is possible.”

Most customers that visit the facility “have certain expectations or reservations," Dice said.  “It typically comes down to a lack of understanding.  Even when people have been using the product for many years and ‘know everything’ … they’re not getting its full benefit.  In almost every case, once they see and understand what the product can do, their expectations and reservations are blown away.”

Customers leave the facility, Dice continued, “with a new understanding of how they can better implement our products into their daily business or, in some cases, just become more efficient.”

You may contact John Dice and Derek Madrid at their corporate email addresses:John Dice: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Derek Madrid: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Please visit TopconPositioning.com for more information