IES has record business in 2009 and opens expanded facility this month

Industrial Electronic Services (IES) is a company that has been growning faster in the last 5 years than it has throughout its 20 year history. “In 1989 I was Director of Industrial Training at Northeast State when management at the Texas Instruments plant in Johnson City asked me if I had trained students who could assemble a small number of instrument boxes….in a week I had two workers trained to do the assembly and began production. I had started my own business,” said IES owner Larry Mullins.

“There were many peaks and valleys in the business and until 1995 we did mostly rework and repair of instrument boxes. Once we purchased equipment for surface mount placement machines we began to produce circuit boards for Siemens…that began our original equipment manufacturing. Today we have three of these lines. Even so it takes a long time to build customer confidence in this business. When a customer gives you $1 million in materials to work with you better know what you are doing and meet advanced manufacturing standards like ISO 900-2008 and military specifications,” said Mullins.

Through the years IES has produced electronics for Siemens automated industrial equipment, medical equipment such as PET Scans, MRIs and others. IES builds sensors used in transportation applications such as rail and metro subways.

Major increase in demand
“A major explosion of business occurred for us in 2004 and has been steady since with major business coming from the military, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, medical equipment manufacturers and others,” said Mullins. We produce devices that have very critical applications such as:

• Sensors and control devices used on Humvees in Iraq that sense pressure changes due to presence of bombs on roadsides. Since the military began using these devices 18 months ago, there has only been one death due to bombings on roadways. IES has other military projects as well.
• Devices that improve your golf game. IES sensors tell you what you are doing wrong in golf swing etc.
• In September 2009 Oak Ridge National Laboratory announced that its neutron facility has achieved 1-megawatt power—the strongest neutron research facility in the world. It is comparable to a giant microscope that uses light to study materials and human cells in search of new medicines, better batteries. more efficient power lines and stronger aircraft wings. IES will manufacture sensors that are used in energy-reduction consumption devices made possible by research at the Oak Ridge Neutron facility. This work is expected to continue for 12 years or more.
• Electronics for medical and industrial automation applications.”

“We had to expand to accommodate this growth and broke ground on a 40,000 s.f. addition last fall. At the time we planned to move all operations into the new facility, but are so busy now that we will utilize the old plant and office space and the new facility which will be move-in ready this month.”

Mullins says that IES is its employees, not Larry Mullins. “Many of the projects that we have won are because we can do the work faster, better and are more cost-effective than competitors in other states or other countries like Canada. I strongly believe Washington County companies should do everything possible to grow the economy here by bringing new jobs to the area. We could have expanded in another county, but are committed to our home here.”