Washington County Enterprise-Leader
EMS Carves Out Niche To Serve Customers
COMPANY CELEBRATES 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY
LINCOLN — EMS Inc., located near the Dutch Mills community, has seen non- stop growth since it opened 10 years ago, first in a back bedroom and then in a three-bedroom house on property up a steep hill off Highway 59.
The firm will celebrate its 10-year anniversary with an open house Oct. 7.
EMS offers electronic manufacturing solutions for the commercial and industrial sector and mainly serves customers in Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, Missouri, Kansas and Canada.
The company is a family business. Dennis and Marilyn Miles, their son, Dennis Miles Jr., and oldest nephew own the firm. A brother is a sales manager. One nephew is production manager and the other recently earned an accounting degree and has joined EMS.
“The succession plan is that the relatives will end up with it once we retire,” said Marilyn Miles.
Unexpected Start
Miles and her husband have been married 35 years and for most of that have been in the electronics business. The
opportunity to start their own business 10 years ago “just fell in our laps,” she said.
They moved to Dallas after her husband earned an associate’s degree in engineering, with Dennis Miles working for Southwest Airlines and Marilyn working for Panasonic.
“From there on, we’ve been in electronics. Everything that we’ve both done has been electronics,” she said.
They then moved to Northwest Arkansas where Dennis Miles was working for a company in Rogers. Marilyn worked for the former Bitworks in Prairie Grove. Marilyn Miles said a salesman in Tulsa brought an opportunity to Dennis to build a product for hospital beds. Bitworks at that time only built circuit boards.
“He did that and that was kinda the start. We thought well OK, we can do this.”
The couple completed another job for a company in Tulsa and it was just “crazy” from then on, she said.
Presently, EMS has about 26 key customers and is building about 600 different products. At any given time, the company will have at least 100 products being built on the floor.
“There’s a lot of detail and a lot to keep up with,” she said.
When they first started EMS, they used the back bedroom of their home on Highway 59. A second house nearby was used as rental property. As their customer base began to grow, Miles said, her husband announced he planned to move their company next door.
“We had production and everything in the three-bedroom house. It got to the point we knew it was time to do something.”
They’ve expanded their business three times the past 10 years. The most recent expansion is a new, 13,000-square-foot facility with state-of-the-art equipment. In all, they now have 25,000 square feet and the former three- bedroom house is still used for a conference room and office space.
Carving Out A Niche
Miles said she believes EMS has been successful because it has catered to smaller companies.
“We’ve carved out a niche for ourselves with the small to low volume production and serving small and mid-size companies,” she said.
Generally, EMS is not trying to compete with companies in China, though she boasts they are producing a product right now in which they “beat China for the business.”
“In my mind, what sets us apart is service. There are contract manufacturers all over the country and in this area, quality is a given. The only thing that sets us apart is the service. What I say to people, ‘You will never find a contract manufacturer that will work harder than EMS will,’” she said.
The firm’s staff, which includes an electrical engineer, creates a variety of products, including medical and agricultural applications. One current product is consoles for exercise equipment. Another is electronic boards for parking meters.
They produce cables for a company in Texas that makes computers. Still another is parts for a company that makes competition smokers.
They make the electronic parts for radar guns for a company in Kansas and make boards for trailers that display speed limits along the side of a road.
Other products test power lines and are used for oil exploration.
Some of the work is done by hand. Other is accomplished through automation.
For example, by hand, employees strip off the ends of a wire and then add a crimp to it that will plug into a connector.
One of the automated machines places most pieces on a circuit board, with an employee at the station overseeing the work and moving it to the next stage. Technical wise, the smallest surface mount that has been installed by the plant’s equipment is the size of a speck of pepper, Miles said.
“It’s just barely visible with the naked eye.”
Inspection is one of the last stations for production.
“Everything we build goes across the inspector’s desk,” Miles said. “Everything is visually inspected.”
From inspections, products go to a coating room. Most products are protected with an acrylic coat.
Positive Culture
EMS employs 50 employees, which includes high school and college students as part-time employees.
The firm tries to develop a culture that’s positive for its employees and customers. They have fun with cookouts and potlucks. The break room is a large, open space for employees to enjoy.
Miles said EMS has a great group of employees who have been with the company for years but still, because the plant is located in a remote area in the county, its biggest challenge is finding employees, especially those interested in being trained to be an inspector. To be an inspector takes a really good eye, she said.
Employees can attend classes and earn certifications to help with the work and EMS provides its own training. She said good jobs are available there for students who are not interested in going to college.
Miles said she and her husband have found they enjoy owning their own business.
Just recently, an employee asked her if it was really worth it.
She said she replied, “I don’t have to answer to anyone but me. We get to make our own decisions, good or bad, and we get to deal with the consequences of those decisions.”
She said she ascribes to the saying that running a business is like a threelegged stool: customers, suppliers and employees.
“You can’t survive without any of them.”