Sechan Electronics, Inc. was founded in 1984 by Richard Holmberg and four forward-thinking individuals, all of whom had learned the defense manufacturing business with much larger Tier 1 employers. The firm established itself as an electronic system prime contractor. In 1985, Sechan won its first contract for $2,700, a humble beginning from which the company continues to grow. All of the early awards were competitive Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) manufacturing contracts and the need to keep the early company profitable fostered a culture for cost-effective policies which survives today.

By 1988, Sechan had occupied its third building, the 99,000-sq. ft. building in Lititz, Pennsylvania, which it currently occupies. While that was too much space for a young company, the founders understood that satisfied customers would bring continued growth. The company did grow steadily throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, always reinvesting in the people and new manufacturing equipment to provide the most cost-effective solutions to our customers. By 1996, the firm had achieved ISO-9000 registration, being among the few small businesses in the defense sector to achieve that goal at the time.

Also in 1996, Sechan began manufacturing sophisticated design projects in addition to the traditional electronics capabilities that had become well established. At present, Sechan claims a long list of product development successes in addition to its manufacturing core. Design projects include:

• Circuit redesign for obsolescence
• Radio and security system components
• Autonomous underwater vehicles
• Sophisticated fire control systems

In 2000, a depot facility was added to serve customers beyond the initial sale. Depot provides repair and quick re-fielding of key products to customers, and also provides a mechanism to install upgrades and design changes on field equipment.

In 2011, the certification of AS9100:2009 Rev. C was incorporated, and Sechan continues to maintain CMMI Level 3 certification.

Throughout its growth, Sechan has treated employees well and that has been rewarded with an unintended turnover rate of less than 2%. Keeping experienced and trained people on the job minimizes training costs and provides product continuity which would be hard to duplicate in any other manner.

Despite its growth and success, Sechan remains an SBA-certified 'small business' for the purposes of DoD procurement and likely will continue in that position for another ten years. Capabilities which differentiate Sechan from competitors include the heavy investment in test equipment (both the custom automated functional testers, as well as the comprehensive environmental and EMI/EMC equipment), which permits qualification and first article testing to be performed in-house. As a technology company, support staff is very heavy in engineering personnel that can provide top quality troubleshooting, thorough circuit analysis, and technical recommendations to the customer just as their own engineering staff would offer.

Customers find Sechan as:

• 'Easy to do business with'
• Responsive to changes
• Relatively independent after the project kickoff
• A cost-effective quality provider

For example, the Customer Portal demonstrates our commitment to ease of doing business as it provides test data, test data analysis, invoices, shipment history with tracking number links, engineering drawing baseline and change history, and more.

As the company continues to grow, both as a prime contractor and also as a subcontractor to the major Tier 1 prime contractors, Sechan has prepared for the next phase of its development by building a 22,000-square foot addition on to its existing facility. Phase II of Sechan's building expansion will be renovating 12,000-square feet of its existing facility.