LEGO Joins Women in 3D Printing to Encourage More Diversity

Spaceships, castles, cars… one thing is sure, LEGO has played a special role the childhood of many children! And while the brand is known for making children’s dreams come true, they also are working to improve the daily life of adults as well. In order to do so, the company has decided to diversify its workforce and joined Women in 3D Printing (Wi3DP), an organization that’s main task is to increase the number of women in additive manufacturing. And not just that: The LEGO Group also wants to start attracting and energizing the talent of today to inspire future generations – especially women, who it says are underrepresented in the 3D printing field.

Ronen Hadar, head of the AD&M team at the LEGO Group, is convinced that the key to working together as a well functioning team is the diversity of experience, background and thinking. According to him, that is the best way to develop innovations and implement them successfully. For almost two decades now, LEGO has been using 3D printing for prototyping purposes and to support the development of new products. By joining Wi3DP, the company also wants to increase its capabilities in additive manufacturing and achieve a more flexible production process.

Ronen Hadar manages the Additive Design & Manufacturing (AD&M) team at LEGO (photo credits: LEGO)

3D printing and professional parity

On the subject of gender parity in the additive manufacturing industry, Hadar further explains that, “It’s no secret that if you look at engineering schools and universities, the number of female students is lower than that of males. That is not an AM specific issue. However, since AM is still a relatively new discipline and industry, the gap is more noticeable. I also see a difference when recruiting for different disciplines – for example, more design-oriented positions attract more women than engineering ones. Our task is to bridge this gender gap and ensure we’re attracting the very best female candidates to the LEGO Group.”

Although LEGO’s main objective is to improve the gender balance in its teams, the company also encourages cultural diversity and tries to recruit profiles from around the world. While LEGO is still waiting to see if the new efforts bear fruit, the company continues to evolve its 3D printing department and tries to develop new and more audacious applications. You can read more about it HERE.

3D printing plays an important role at LEGO (photo credits: LEGO)

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* Cover photo credits: LEGO