Sealevel Announces In-House Circuit Assembly and Facility Expansion

Today we unveiled our new circuit assembly line and expanded manufacturing facility as part of an economic development announcement with the Pickens County Council and Alliance Pickens.

Local business and government leaders were on hand as we discussed Sealevel’s growth and expanded capabilities in a global market. In addition to speakers from County Council and Alliance Pickens, we welcomed our friend and former U.S. Representative, Gresham Barrett.

Sealevel has been headquartered in Pickens County, which has been a wonderful place to grow our business. The culture has been business friendly, the local area has provided a skilled and talented workforce and customers are immediately drawn to the beauty of the surrounding area.

For 25 years, Sealevel has outsourced the manufacturing of our products. Although we have always designed, tested, sold and supported our products, for many years other companies built them for us. The recent recession and the tremendous growth for Sealevel that followed the recession highlighted the need to be in more control of our own destiny.

We have continued to grow during the recent recession. Bringing circuit assembly in-house has been extremely challenging. In addition to 18 new employees in the past 15 months, we have also completed two major facility expansions and added a new circuit assembly line to our manufacturing capabilities. We have renovated 10,000 square feet of warehouse for the manufacturing space. We’ve had to maintain customer quality and delivery expectations while transitioning from outsourcing to building products in-house.

Watch our Circuit Assembly Announcement.

Several corporate partners have been tremendously helpful throughout the transition, and I would like to recognize those partners at this time. Wells Fargo is our commercial banking partner and has been a steadfast supporter during our growth. General Contractor Creative Builders and their subcontractors, including Tuck & Howe, H&W Electrical and Integral Solutions renovated our manufacturing space on a very tight time table. Our accounting partners over at Elliott Davis made sure the numbers made sense and our legal partners at Nelson Mullins made sure the documents and contracts were acceptable. Thank you all for your hard work and dedication to this project and our growth.

See photos of our new circuit assembly and expanded manufacturing space.

With the help of these corporate partners and all of our talented employees, Sealevel is now able to provide a more reliable product by better controlling the manufacturing process. We’re able to deliver on tighter schedules and better manage product costs, all of which improve the customer experience. In fact, improving the customer experience has already given Sealevel a competitive advantage that did not exist only a few years ago. Friday last week, Sealevel finalized a new contract with a new customer for a computing product in the oil & gas industry that we could not otherwise have competed for not too long ago.

From screen-printing to parts placement to conformal coating, the circuit assembly line includes top of the line equipment that is monitored and controlled at the highest quality standards. Visual recognition software and optical inspection technologies provide a higher rate of accuracy for parts placement and testing. Our operations director Randy Barkley estimates that at full capacity, up to 20,000 parts can be placed per hour.

The decision to bring circuit assembly in-house was made with the customer in mind. Sealevel’s goal is to produce the best-quality products possible while maintaining the highest standards of customer service before and after the sale. By bringing circuit assembly in-house, Sealevel can maintain higher standards of quality control and faster turnaround time.

While the challenges remain many, as long as this company continues its commitment to providing well-engineered products to our customers, a competitive work environment for our employees, and a social responsibility to our community, I am confident we will continue our growth and forward progress. I offer my thanks to our customers and partners and wish each of you continued success.

Read Liz Segrist’s full article in GSA Business.