Over 15 Years of Lean Integration

Visumatix was founded as a smart vision integrator in 2004. Back then, smart vision cameras were becoming popular. Manufacturers were adding more capabilities into smaller and more affordable packages that included lighting, a lens, processing and I/O. However, the increased feature set left unaddressed fundamental application problems involving lighting, optics and methodology.

With little engineering value-add required for their products, smart camera manufacturers switched sales channels from systems integrators to distributors and direct sales. Direct sales implies the quantities and justification to train in-house installers. Often distributors sold systems but were unable to install and support the technology. So they turned to systems integrators. However, with so much value designed into a product at a lower price, traditional systems integrators with cost structures geared to complete design-and-build were reluctant to perform "installation assistance". Enter the lean integrator-

No surprise, a similar phenomenon is now being observed in the industrial robot industry. Technological advances in software have made industrial robots easier to program. IoT has led to increased interoperability and more standardized communication. Additionally, the development of collaborative robots with yet even simpler operator interfaces has pushed more products into the marketplace, but with a dearth of installation and support resources.