Made In Michiana: Poly Electronics

ELKHART, Ind. -- ABC57's Made in Michiana heads to Elkhart to check out Poly Electronics. It's a company breaking into several industries to supply its clients all over the world.

It's formerly known as Polytron. And although new owners took over a couple of years ago and changed its name, this company continues to thrive in a rapidly changing market.

From dairy, to automotives, to commercial kitchen equipment, Poly Electronics touches almost every one of our lives.

"We're really proud of it because if you talk to a lot of companies, to say you touch the dairy industry, that means you touch every body's bowl of cereal, you touch the time they use milk to make pancakes. And that's pretty amazing because you're touching everybody," Poly Electronics Executive Vice President Matt Kain said.

The global electronics supplier custom designs and manufactures products for 20 different industries.

"Our mission here is to create profitability for our customer base. So better designs, better products, managing their inventory, shipping on time, no defects. We believe that will help us win," Kain said.

Kain and his father bought Polytron two years ago, changed its name to Poly Electronics, and worked to take the company into its next chapter.

"Automation in equipment in today's day and age is coming into play. So we feel like Poly Electronics is positioned to be part of that innovation as customers are trying to put new technologies and capabilities into their equipment," Kain said.

"There's a big motivation right now for our customers to get into the wireless range. Everyone is holding their cell phone," Poly Electronics Senior Design and Development Engineer and Engineering Manager Mike Engle said.

Engle has worked for the company for over 20 years and has watched it evolve into what it is today.

"When I started here, we had a couple of products that were a little more advanced, communication through modems, again we're talking about the mid-90s or so, so modem connectivity. But if you look at our product line since then, there's a big emphasis on wireless, on Bluetooth, Ethernet, modern connectivity," Engle said.

But there's one thing he says hasn't changed.

"Quality is very important," Engle said.

In fact, quality is so important, it's engrained in Poly Electronics' culture.

"Our entire team understands how they participate in quality, what their role is in the quality system, what the quality policy is, you see it's hung throughout our plant. And we've had everybody sign it so that they're all in," Kain said.

All in, to help develop, design, and dedicate themselves to more than 200 Poly Electronics customers throughout the country, and the world, who depend on them to produce more than a million electrical boards a year, right here in Michiana.

If you have any ideas for our next Made in Michiana, shoot us an email at [email protected].