Micro Industries was a

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manufacturer from 1978 to 2015.

History

Michael A. Curran founded Micro Industries, a privately held company, in 1978, to provide engineering services to

original equipment manufacturer An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...

s (OEMs). Electronic contract manufacturing services soon followed. In 1982, Micro Industries entered the

single board computer A single-board computer (SBC) is a complete computer built on a single circuit board, with microprocessor(s), memory, input/output (I/O) and other features required of a functional computer. Single-board computers are commonly made as demonstrat ...

market through a

second-source In the electronics industry, a second source is a company that is licensed to manufacture and sell components originally designed by another company (the first source). It is common for engineers and purchasers to avoid components that are only av ...

agreement with

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, followed by similar agreements with

National Semiconductor National Semiconductor was an American semiconductor manufacturer which specialized in analog devices and subsystems, formerly with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The company produced power management integrated circuits, display drive ...

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, and

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. The following year, the company began a comprehensive engineering and manufacturing

automation Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...

program to accelerate product development and reduce overall product costs. In 1984 and 1985, Micro was named to the

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list. This helped make Micro Industries one of the first complete turnkey

surface mount technology Surface-mount technology (SMT), originally called planar mounting, is a method in which the electrical components are mounted directly onto the surface of a printed circuit board (PCB). An electrical component mounted in this manner is referre ...

assembly facilities in the U.S. and one of the founding members of the Surface Mount Technology Association. In November 2015, Curran sought to retire and could not find a suitable replacement, so he closed the company to new business.

Products

The Touch&Go and Touch&Care all-in-one quiet PC computer lines were deployed in 2002 for retail and healthcare markets. By 2004, Micro Industries invented first-of-their kind interactive client systems: a silent, shelf-mountable, 17-inch unit and a 30-inch, portrait-style unit. That same year, Micro Industries founded mCosm, a subsidiary service company. mCosm provided retailers with content development, network infrastructure, remote-system management, and hosted services. Micro Industries built the Center for Interactive Retailing, a unique demonstration environment, in 2004 at the corporate headquarters located in Westerville, Ohio. In 2008, Micro was awarded an Energy Star rating on its Paige17 computer. Micro Industries designed, engineered and manufactured its products in Ohio and partnered with content and software developers to provide premium interactive kiosk and digital signage systems to retailers. Micro Industries was also an affiliate member of the Intel Embedded & Communications Alliance.

Hardware

* Broad level computers * PCs (Touch&Go Paige, Paigezilla and Messenger, Touch&Care) * Self-service hardware and kiosks * Custom single board computers * Customer computers

Software

* Digital signage software * Kiosk management software

Services

* Contract manufacturing services * Hardware design engineering services * Retail Solutions * Managed services * Digital signage solutions * Self-service kiosk solutions * Rapid application development * Interactive content development * Program management * Training

Touch&Go Series computers

Micro Industries introduced the Touch&Go series of unusually styled and retail-hardened computers in 2002. The initial models were Touch&Go Paige and Paigezilla small format fanless computers with configurable ears and peripherals in 10 and 17”, followed by the Touch&Go Messenger large format series in the 32 and 46-inch sizes. In 2009, the Messenger 65-inch landscape and portrait computer was introduced. In 2010, the Multi-touch Messenger 82-inch landscape and portrait computers were launched.

Touch&Go software

In 2003, mCosm began deploying and monitoring

digital signage Digital signage is a segment of electronic signage. Digital displays use technologies such as LCD, LED, projection and e-paper to display digital images, video, web pages, weather data, restaurant menus, or text. They can be found in public ...

and kiosk solutions to major retailers using its Touch&Go Enterprise software. In 2005, mCosm developed and launched the mCast digital signage templating system.

Manufacturing process

Micro Industries monitored and controlled its manufacturing process since it began manufacturing in 1978. All of its products were manufactured in the United States.

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

certified it in 1984 for its SPEAR program, which allowed shipment of products to GM facilities for on-vehicle applications without incoming test and inspection. Micro Industries registered its quality program to the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 9000 standards in 1993, and registered in each subsequent year to meet the diverse elements of the ISO 9001 Quality Management Standard. In 1989, Micro Industries developed a unique process to comply with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements for a zero-discharge manufacturing facility, which became operational in 1991. These processes were later registered to

ISO 14001 ISO 14000 is a family of standards related to environmental management that exists to help organizations (a) minimize how their operations (processes, etc.) negatively affect the environment (i.e. cause adverse changes to air, water, or land); (b ...

Environmental Management standards.

References

{{Reflist

External links

*
Micro Industries website
Electronics companies of the United States Manufacturing companies based in Ohio Computer companies established in 1978 Electronics companies established in 1978 Manufacturing companies established in 1978 Software companies established in 2003 Computer companies disestablished in 2015 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 2015 Software companies disestablished in 2015 Electronics companies disestablished in 2015