Gotta have a vision
Yesterday was a day of vision in the Boston area--machine vision, that is. Cognex Corp. held its annual analyst day and invited members of the media to attend as well. The objective of the day for Cognex was to convince stock analysts that the financial health of the company is good, there was little "hard" news for media types. Executives did provide a solid view of the breadth of its product line--Cognex competes in several areas in the vision market--and a convincing argument that the company has solidly recovered from the 2001-2003 downturn and is in good financial health. At least I would say that generally increasing sales, consistent gross margins, almost $400 million in cash with no debt is good financial health.
Another convincing argument was made about how Cognex is a great place to work. From the "bottle wall" in the lobby to CEO "Doctor Bob" Shillman's presentations, the company culture of "work hard, play hard" was inescapable. By the way, the "bottle wall" includes (empty) champagne bottles that had been uncorked during company milestone celebrations over the past 20 years. Each rests on a little outcropping from the 2-storey high wall with a placque detailing the event.
From the point of view of industry segments served, the company has been diversifying from its base in the semiconductor industry (although that area still brings in significant revenues. Factory automation has been a growing strength, but future growth is forecast in the ID products segment and what it calls the Expert Sensor area. This is a new business division for Cognex, but it's forecast looks healthy. The Checker product, a low-cost, easy-to-set up intelligent sensor (actually a vision system scaled to applications) has been out less than a year but is beginning to take off.
One point that was made that I really agree with is that business reasons drive innovation. The company looks for customer problems to solve when developing new products rather than seeing what new "gee whiz" technology is out there. As Senior Fellow and Sr. VP Bill Silver put it, "The question isn't 'can you do it,' but rather 'what is the opportunity and its risk.' "
I finished the day by driving up to Billerica and visiting with Maureen Clancy of ipd, a division of Dalsa Coreco Group. The "intelligent products division" (ipd) was formed to develop and market a new type of vision product called vision appliance. These are typically single purpose products (such as iLabel, that inspects label position and presence) designed to be as easy to set up as a photoelectric sensor. Originally part of Coreco Imaging, the company was recently purchased by Dalsa. The resulting combination should have the critical mass required to provide competition to Cognex.
When you throw in the growing strength of DVT, the vision market is a hotly contested and interesting market. These products are also becoming indispensible as the critical information gathering layer of modern automation.
5:39:29 AM 
|
