The ANCA Tool of the Year Awards recently celebrated innovation and technical excellence in cutting tool manufacturing at an awards ceremony on the ANCA stand during EMO Hannover. Nayeli Martinez was named Female Machinist of the Year. How does it feel to win this award?
It actually feels incredible, rewarding, and exciting. This award isn’t just a personal achievement. It also reflects the hard work of my entire team and my mentors who guided me along the way. It’s also a reminder that innovation and persistence truly pay off — especially when you are passionate about what you are doing.
What is it that you do at OSG?
I work as a designer of cutting-edge tools. I am an engineer, and I am the team leader of the design area here in Germany. I was also working in OSG Royco in Mexico. I was in charge of the production drawings and the support to the production area. I also visited some customers for technical support, and I recommended tools. I would check their applications and what they needed done, and I would try to design the tool according to their wishes.
What challenges have you had to overcome as a young woman in a male-dominated field?
In the beginning, it was really challenging to be heard and taken seriously, especially in technical discussions because, as you know, it’s not so common to see women in this field of the industry. But I learned to let my work speak for itself and also to approach every situation with confidence and preparation. This helped me a lot. But over the time, I have seen so many companies that are more interested in diversity of thought, and this has been encouraging. What I am doing now is trying to mentor other young women to join this field and to show them that it’s possible.
What inspired you to become a biotechnology engineer, and how did that prepare you for the position you have now?
I’ve been always interested and fascinated by how science can change and directly improve lives. Biotechnology and engineering gave me a way to combine innovation with real-work problem solving. Those skills gave me some new ideas and also helped me to think analytically to find the best solution for a customer while never settling for good enough. This has been so crucial in my current role, especially in developing and optimizing new cutting-edge tools for the automobile sector.
How do you hope this award will inspire other women to follow in your footsteps?
This award shows that there is no single path to success. There are other ways to achieve what you want or what you are looking for. I want to show that women belong in this field of the industry and to the manufacturing world. I hope if someone sees me now with this achievement, maybe she will think: “She can do it; I can, too.” That will be the real winning for me. I want young women to know they don’t need to change who they are to fit in; they can lead, innovate, and succeed just the way they are.
How will you continue to make your mark on the innovation of cutting tools in the future?
Innovation never stops. I am planning, of course, to keep pushing the boundaries of material science and manufacturing technology. I know many people think, “Oh, why biotechnology?” But working in the manufacturing industry, the science is helping me to combine this knowledge from biotechnology and the knowledge from engineering to a point where someday I can integrate all these topics and design biotechnology-inspired tools that help shape the future of cutting-tool solutions in creating smarter, greener, and more precise tools than ever before.
Is there anything else you’d like to mention that we didn’t talk about?
I really appreciate the time to talk about my background, and I hope this message reaches as many women as possible, but also young people. I hope the new generations can read this, and they get some inspiration to enter this field of the industry in order to work more in the engineering and manufacturing areas. I want to reach out to them and show them that this field is very interesting and they can do a lot of things here.
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