HIGH PROFILE
Our vision of what needed to happen in the industry
has been proven – that really has been where the industry has moved
Now, that pent up demand for upgrades – people that put off upgrading out of date systems that were more or less obsolete – is starting to show through in sales. Things have now stabilised enough that mills are able to look forward two years and say that they need new technology – technology to make sure they’re still running in two years. The mills that have survived are likely to hang on now and will most likely move onto bigger and better things. I don’t think we’re going to see another string of closures. In North America the housing market has still not recovered, but it will. There are people moving to the US and the US population is growing so there will be an eventual pick up in that market. The last time I was speaking to our clients there were several major economic stammers in the US and in Europe so there was a lot of pessimism but just lately that has started to turn around.
IFI: What would you consider JoeScan’s biggest achievement in its 10 years or so in the industry? JN: Our vision of what needed to happen in the
industry has been proven. That really has been where the industry has moved. All of our competitors have come up with products that look a lot more like ours over the years – things like Ethernet interfaces, a five year warranty, and simple diagnostic tools. I feel really good about having been on the forefront of that transition.
IFI: Can you give me an idea of the technology you’re working on at the moment? JN:We’re definitely working on a new generation of technology that will be higher speed.
One of the other major things we’re working on is scanning solutions that are easier to apply. This relates to the ‘smart sensor’ and ‘smart camera’ developments that we’ve seen lately. I’ve always thought if we can get the cost of scanners down then we could open up new applications but the cost of the scanner doesn’t end up being the limiting cost factor for a lot of systems – it’s often down to software
programming and integration efforts. So that’s where the smart technology comes in. The idea is that for some very simple applications a mill can buy a scanner for $7,000-$8,000 and just install it themselves. So they don’t have to hire a company for another $20,000 to put the thing in and get it working. That’s an area that we’re focusing a lot of our efforts toward and something that we feel we could lead the industry in. This is the result of developments that we’re seeing in other sensing and camera applications that we can apply and it’s also the direct result of feedback that we’re getting from customers. We’re still at least six months from releasing something but that’s an area that will open up a lot of opportunities when it takes off.
IFI: When did you last get a chance to take a holiday? JN:We did get to visit my wife’s family in Thailand back in April. We managed three weeks out there that time. IFI
24 International Forest Industries | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011
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