Interview
Title
Interview—
Jeff Timms, Microscan
Jeff Timms, president of Microscan
since 2007, has been focusing
these past two years on using his
25 years of business leadership in
global technology and automation
to bring the company to the fore-
front of the precision data acquisi-
tion and control solutions industry.
Prior to Microscan, Jeff held senior
management positions with both
Siemens and Universal Instru-
ments. Global SMT & Packaging’s
editor-in-chief Trevor Galbraith
caught up with Jeff recently.
Q1. Can you give us a brief background
description of Microscan?
Microscan is a global leader in technology
for precision data acquisition and control
solutions, serving a wide range of automa-
tion and OEM applications. Founded in
1982, Microscan has a strong history of
technology innovation that includes the
invention of the first laser diode barcode
scanner and the 2D symbology, Data Ma-
trix. Today, Microscan remains a technol-
Q2.What has your goal been as president needed to fill in some gaps in Microscan’s
ogy leader in automatic identification and
of Microscan? product portfolio. The way I saw it, we had
machine vision with extensive solutions for
three choices: we could design and build
ID tracking, traceability and inspection.
When I came to Microscan, my goal was to
the new products we needed, we could
Microscan focuses on technologies
find a way to keep the company’s profitable
partner with another vendor or we could
of auto ID, machine vision and illumina-
growth path going strong. What I learned
buy a company. We ended up doing all
tion, with application solutions ranging
was that the technology that got Microscan
three! We stepped up our design efforts, we
from basic barcode reading up to complex
to where it was wouldn’t—by itself—be able
partnered with a number of players and we
machine vision inspection, gauging and
to keep the company moving forward. Our
completed an acquisition.
measurement. Our solutions help manu-
strengths were that we had a very high-end
facturers around the world drive down cost
fixed scanning line and great customer Q3. Which company did Microscan
and waste, automate critical manufacturing
relations. We needed to change our go to decide to acquire? What benefit did this
processes and increase yields.
market strategy. Knowing we couldn’t be provide?
We are a member of Spectris plc, a
all things to all people, we decided to focus
We acquired the machine vision business
specialist technology-based instrumentation
on three markets—automotive, electronics
from Siemens Energy and Automation,
and electronics controls company.
manufacturing, and medical/pharmaceuti-
Inc., which consisted of a combination
cals. To address these markets properly, we
of technology from Computer Identics
30 – Global SMT & Packaging – May 2009 www.globalsmt.net
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