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Oporto, July 8th, 2009 – Critical Manufacturing S.A., Portugal, an enterprise for High-Tech Manufacturing software solutions, has announced that it completed the appointment of the company’s Executive Management Board, being constituted by Reiner Missale, Francisco Almada Lobo and Henrique Pereira.
The board gathers a wide experience and know how in industrial manufacturing system solutions, and will have responsibility to develop the latest spin-off from Critical Software, an investment operation valued in 3 million euros, with a business plan predicting the achievement of break-even in a three year’s span.
“In our extremely competitive and globalized manufacturing chain, innovative and agile industrial solutions become a truly distinct success factor, especially for High-Tech Manufacturers”, says Reiner Missale, Chairman and CEO of Critical Manufacturing. “With our strong industry experience, technological skills and international network at Critical Manufacturing, we will make the difference for our customers. Our Next Generation Manufacturing System and Services targets the market for Industrial Software Solutions, and will contribute for the continued growth rates of the Critical Group”.
The company, based in Oporto, develops and services advanced manufacturing systems, with an actual work force of 80 highly specialized resources. Opening new offices in Europe and Asia is on the company’s plans in way to be geographically close to its natural client markets.
“I am extremely pleased with this Management team for the new venture of our group”, says Gonçalo Quadros, President of Critical SGPS “Highly flexible, configurable and integrated factories will lead the market for high tech products – and Critical will provide the prime solutions for them”
Reiner Missale joined the company on May 1st, 2009 as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He came from Qimonda/Infineon, where he was Vice President for Production Automation and Manufacturing IT, for all worldwide production facilities. Reiner Missale brings years of international manufacturing and software business experience to his role at Critical Manufacturing.
He began his career at SIEMENS and has worked in several industries, for production and consulting companies. In semiconductors, he pioneered at a Joint Venture with MOTOROLA and at International SEMATECH in 1998, the 300mm Semiconductor Automation Technology. In total, he led more than 10 set-ups and ramp-ups of production plants with entire factory automation. For INFINEON, he standardized worldwide the company’s manufacturing systems and had set-up off-shore Software Development Centers in Europe and Asia.
Francisco Almada Lobo started his career in a CIM R&D institute, and joined Siemens Semicondutores in 1997. Throughout Siemens, Infineon and Qimonda, he gained experience in several manufacturing areas having, in 2004, led the first migration of an MES system in a running high-volume facility. Between 2005 and 2009, he managed the Porto Development Center for Infineon and Qimonda, with implementation of automation projects in the group plants worldwide.
He holds an MBA from Escola de Gestão do Porto, and is the nominated Chief Operating Officer of Critical Manufacturing, where among other areas, he’s responsible for the Product business unit.
Henrique Pereira has been working within Critical Group for over ten years, with customers worldwide in several domains. With a deep knowledge of the high technology solutions market and the accumulated experience in international and high complexity projects, he has been heading the semiconductor business development area at Critical Group, as well as the semiconductor business unit. Now at Critical Manufacturing he is the Vice-President for the Services Business Unit.
Critical Manufacturing creates leading edge software solutions for the high-tech manufacturing markets of semiconductor, solar and electronics. The company is part of Critical Group, a private group of companies founded in 1998 to provide solutions for mission and business critical information systems. Annual growth has been sustained at 50% per year on average since its foundation, operating a CMMI Level 3 and ISO9001 Quality System. Critical Manufacturing is based on an experienced services team coming from Critical Group, and established a product team of individuals with more than 10 years experience in high-tech manufacturing. The company comprises over 80 people, with its headquarters and main technical centre in Portugal and additional facilities in Germany and China.
