Product category:
Stand-Alone Instruments
News Release from: Pico Technology
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 12 September 2003
Sheppard takes charge of operations
Pico Technology has appointed Nigel Sheppard as Operations Manager to respond to increasing demands for the company's popular low-cost test and measurement solutions.
Pico Technology has appointed Nigel Sheppard as Operations Manager to respond to increasing demands for the company's popular low-cost test and measurement solutions Sheppard, 44, worked for 20 years for the UK's Ministry of Defence (telecomms, test equipment repair and calibration) before joining Ericsson Mobile Communications in 1995 - where he was involved in the growth of the company from 10,000 to 420,000 units shipped per month
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 10 Apr 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
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In 2000 Sheppard joined Nortel Networks as Production Manager, where he once again implemented changes to improve productivity (by more than 400%) while reducing unit costs (by more than 25%).
Sheppard comments: "Drawing on my experience of working within blue chip companies, and easing their growing pains during times of maximum demand, my plans for Pico Technology are to position the company so that we can better respond to ever increasing market demands and prepare for the anticipated, and arguably inevitable, switch from traditional to PC-based solutions for all but the very high end (scientific) applications".
Since its launch in 1991 Pico Technology, unlike many other test and measurement companies, has experienced a healthy and uniform growth - even through the prolonged downturn in which the electronics industry is still entrapped.
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Although able to cope with present demands, the shift away from the traditional benchtop instruments is now well established - and Pico reckons that multifunction, low-cost, upgradeable, PC-based solutions are fast becoming the engineer's preferred choice.
Sheppard's strategy for meeting future demands is to benchmark all processes before implementing lean manufacturing drives focused on specific areas of the business, improving efficiency, throughput, and capacity - tricks of the trade learned in his previous roles.
"Working smarter, leaner and more efficiently is the name of the game", continues Sheppard.
"And we'll be looking to develop stronger relationships with assemblers and component suppliers and to draw on their experience and expertise during the next phase of Pico's growth".
Commenting on Sheppard's appointment, Pico Technology founder and Managing Director Mike Green comments: "We welcome Nigel aboard to help Pico prepare for the tomorrow's demands for PC-based solutions - demands which even now are showing signs of escalating as the engineering community tires of bulky benchtop instruments which can't be upgraded and begin to depreciate in value from the minute they are unpacked".
Pico's products - which include eight oscilloscopes, 12 data loggers and 28 test and measurement accessories - are popular in a multitude of general engineering and test and measurement applications, as well as being used for educational purposes and increasingly employed in advanced automotive diagnostics.
Sheppard concludes: "Pico is a very dynamic company and its prediction, made back in the early 1990s, that PC-based instrumentation would replace traditional benchtop scopes and analysers for the majority of test applications is proving all too true.
So, while PC-based solutions currently represent only a small proportion of T and M solutions, free-to-download software instruments, like PicoScope and PicoLog, are transforming the industry.
The demand for our instruments is set to escalate and I'm delighted to be playing a part in facilitating the supply of existing and future products".
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