Our POV: High Tech Manufacturing by Small Businesses Is Key Driver for Job Creation in NJ and USA

Since the peak of 2.5 million US high tech jobs in 2000, the US has lost 687,000 of those desirable manufacturing jobs. Meanwhile, about 85% of R&D growth in US multinational corporations since 2004 has been based abroad. These trends reflect an emphasis by large US corporations on high growth and low cost labor markets found overseas over the past decade – especially in China*. The good news is that now economists estimate that production cost differentials between US and Chinese markets are rapidly dwindling – with a very narrow gap expected by 2015**. SIGMA believes US small business manufacturers are nimble and competitive enough to grow and lead the turnaround in high-tech production and employment in the USA. Read on to find out “how”.

“In New Jersey the creation of about 40,000 new jobs (only 12% of our current manufacturing base) would restore the manufacturing sector back to its peak level. This is a realistic goal over the coming few years”, proclaimed Lynch of SIGMA. “If we could start more small manufacturing businesses that each create 25 to 50 jobs per company, then we will be well on the road to reestablishing our hi-tech manufacturing might. Each small manufacturing firm needs to buy screws, paint, machining, plastic which all builds momentum”, he added. A recent Business Week article confirms his point – “manufacturing still has the highest leverage factor of any sector. It creates much more value and many more ancillary jobs than any other sector”***  And the National Association of Manufacturing (NAM) indicates that each dollar’s worth of manufactured goods creates another $1.43 of activity in other sectors, twice the $.71 multiplier for services.

For its part, SIGMA will follow its successful B2B technology commercialization model. One example is a diagnostic laboratory apparatus that SIGMA newly designed in 2011 for the US market and which SIGMA has been producing monthly since August 2011 (see our Sept 2011 blog article) . This product is creating steady work for SIGMA employees and for numerous local suppliers. Significantly, about 40% of sales are for export, which is also beneficial for the US trade balance, the US dollar and for US competitiveness. SIGMA is committed to repeating this local B2B commercialization-production model for other highly engineered products at our New Product Manufacturing Center in Middlesex, NJ. Come join us!

Sigma Design Company – Promoting the New American Manufacturing Era

Sources: *Manufacturing.net, **Boston Consulting Group, ***Business Week

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Our POV: A New Manufacturing Era is Critical to Grow America!

Almost every local and global economy is suffering or worrying about a financial meltdown. Leaders and citizens alike are struggling and feel the sting of the dwindling economic pie. While some are complaining, some occupying and others grandstanding, at Sigma Design Company we are taking positive action by working to promote a New Manufacturing Era. We are doing this by investing, creating, producing and employing.

Sigma Design Company is bullish on the inventiveness and ingenuity of the American people. We believe in ourselves, our suppliers, our clients and our collaborators. We have more than doubled down on US manufacturing by expanding eight-fold and by just opening (in October) a Technology Commercialization and New Product Manufacturing Center in Middlesex, New Jersey.

We believe that we, and others like us, can compete right here in the USA and right here in New Jersey! We are doing this by conceiving, designing, and producing state of the art, high-valued, high-engineered systems and solutions for a range of industries. We bring team spirit, professionalism and innovative collaboration for total new product development and manufacturing. We seek to spur on others across this great land to stand up, work smart and be part of the solution to build a New Manufacturing Era. Come join us!

Sigma Design Company – Promoting a New Manufacturing Era in New Jersey and USA

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Sigma Design Co at the 2011 Middlesex County College NJ Job Internship Fair

Sigma Design Company was a proud participant on November 9 at the 2011 Middlesex County Job and Internship Fair.

Kathleen Lynch, Sigma (Center) with Interested Students

Sigma with its new ‘Technology Commercialization and New Product Manufacturing Center’ anticipates the need for engineering and technical professionals for high-wage, high-tech jobs in the coming years.

Sigma decided to jump start its sourcing efforts to identify quality candidates from New Jersey. “The Middlesex County Job Fair allowed us to put our name out in the marketplace and interact firsthand with potential candidates”, explained Kathleen Lynch, Marketing at Sigma.

Sigma Design Company – Promoting a New Manufacturing Era in New Jersey and USA

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People Power: Introducing Nicholas Faust, Sigma’s Newest Team Member

A successful entrepreneur and a Stevens Institute of Technology grad, our newest member, Nicholas Faust, who began as an intern in January 2011, was hired full time in May 2011 and has settled nicely into the Sigma team.

Nicholas Faust of Sigma Design Company

Nick’s success with helping to launch a successful skateboard start-up company that relies on human energy dovetails nicely with one of his first assignments at Sigma – a renewable energy project to prototype a vehicle energy harvesting device.

Nick is excited by such green technology/renewable energy projects and also aspires to be involved with industrial automation technologies.  Nick earned both a Masters of Engineering in Product- Architecture and Engineering (May 2011) and Bachelor’s of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering (2009) from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey.

When asked what he most enjoys about Sigma, Nick shared: “I think the breadth of projects at Sigma Design Company – from consumer products to medical devices to renewable energy projects, keeps it interesting and challenging. I’ve learned a great deal about the challenges of manufacturability. It has been a great transition from the academic to the professional world.”

Welcome aboard Nick!

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