Jos. Schneider Optische Werke with headquarters in Bad Kreuznach is committed to making its research and development team more decentralized and international. Staff in the different locations are coordinated and managed from Bad Kreuznach by Dr. Lingli Wang, Chief Technology Officer (CTO). "We are pooling our expertise in a decentralized structure based on cooperation. With our subsidiaries, we are closer to the market and our customers. As a result, we can act more purposefully and faster," says Dr. Wang, who was also made an authorized signatory of the company at the end of 2009.
Following the takeover of ISCO last year and its integration, the focus in Göttingen is on cinematography and home cinema. The Schneider Group's activities in Los Angeles and New York are centered on digital cinema applications. Pentacon in Dresden specializes in the areas of industrial imaging, automotive, mechanical manufacturing and optoelectronics. Each location generally develops the concepts for their own products.
In Bad Kreuznach, prototypes are built, performance tests carried out and special product developments initiated. Research at the company's headquarters also focuses on photography, filters, industrial lenses, measurement systems, image sensors and image processing, analog and digital projection, illumination and ophthalmic optics.
The company invests around 10% of its revenue on average in developing new products. "The pace of innovation is increasing. Thanks to our new structure, we are now in an excellent position to cope with this," says Dr. Josef Staub, CEO of the Schneider Group. The group expects demand to grow, in particular in the areas of measurement devices and illumination.