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Issue 8 July/August 2016
e-Newswire
SIGMA Rolls Out QR Codes
 
SIGMA OEM is trialing QR codes as part of the its Voice of the Customer program, a company-wide initiative designed to put the customer at the front and center of SIGMA's service experience.
 
Starting from August 1, expect to see this and other similar QR codes (abbreviated from Quick Response Code), cropping up onscreen in SIGMA communications and on SIGMA literature. First designed in Japan, for use by the automotive industry, the QR code is a 2D barcode that most usually redirects users to a website or to an interactive experience.
 
To have a go yourself, visit the app store for your iPhone or Android and download the free QR scanner and reader software. Once downloaded to your smartphone, hold your phone up against the screen of the computer displaying the QR code, press on the scanning icon and square the frame now being displayed on your phone up against the square QR code. You'll hear a click and if everything has gone to plan, you will be redirected to OEM Insights. 
 
For further information, about SIGMA's new QR initiative, contact Donna Jones in Marketing djones@sigmaco.com.
 
3D Printing All the Rage at the 2016 Design & Manufacturing Show by SIGMA's Sandesh Gowda
      
I've just returned from this year's bustling 2016 Design and Manufacturing Show in New York City. SIGMA OEM was one of about 900 suppliers who exhibited here, and this year's show was particularly lively, with some 20,000 visitors in attendance. As is typical of the Northeast Industrial profile, visitors to the show were drawn from the Biotech, Pharma, Automation, Lab & Testing, and High Tech sectors.

For the first time, 3D Printing companies had a major presence at the show. As advances are made in new materials and technology, 3D printing is poised to revolutionize small batch production of small to medium sized precision parts. This technology will influence the entire manufacturing landscape. It has the potential to affect everything from the design/development process to the competitiveness of the international manufacturing sector, to the manufacturing supply chain. As an OEM supplier, SIGMA and our partners are closely monitoring the likely impact of 3D printing as it moves into the mainstream.
 
The 2016 Design and Manufacturing Show brought together a wide variety of US industrial customers and as a result, offered great insight into the market's varied needs. In terms of trends at the show, most of the customers are seeking finished parts, that is, a fully machined casting rather than a raw casting. In fact, one potential customer wants SIGMA OEM to produce a part, assemble it with associated components and then supply them with a subassembly -- all of which we can do.  In fact, we are increasingly seeing requests for "value-added" services such as this. This turnkey approach is a strong trend in the OEM industry, and SIGMA OEM is in a position to offer all the services our customers require.
  
It is interesting to see how American manufacturing has evolved over the past two decades moving away from low-tech, high volume 'commodity' manufacturing toward a more comprehensive, high tech approach. To be a successful manufacturer or an OEM Service provider in the US today a company needs to be able to produce complex and innovative products that require cutting edge process technologies, such as 3D Printing, and incorporate new materials. Pharmaceutical hardware, aerospace and high tech equipment are just three examples of where the US continues to maintain the manufacturing advantage. SIGMA OEM will continue to enhance our offerings to support and provide OEM services to these and other industries. For further information, contact  sgowda@sigmaco.com.

Employee Spotlight: In Conversation with SIGMA's George Liu 
 
It's a long trip from Beijing, China to North Brunswick, USA. And it's not just the planes, trains and automobiles involved in the journey, it's the cultural distance between suburban New Jersey and the heart of mainland China.
 
George Liu is one man who has made this trip repeatedly, in his role as China Country Manager for SIGMA. George is a key partner for SIGMA Corporation and is responsible for the smooth running of SIGMA's supply chain in China. He has been a trusted advisor to SIGMA since the mid 1980s. 
 
George has a fascinating life history, and is completely self-taught, having left school at age 13 during Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution. As a teen, he went to work on the railroad, routing rail traffic, but then following President Nixon's visit to China in 1972, George was inspired to teach himself English. As a fluent English speaker, George was quick to find his niche at China Minmetal Corporation (a Fortune 500 company), where he dealt with all import/export issues.
 
He met the original founders of SIGMA in the mid 1980s, when quality was still an issue in Chinese foundries due to the misinterpretation of engineering drawings, and a large number of independent foundries with wildly different quality processes.
 
George saw an opportunity and invested in quality control. He proudly declares that in August 1985, his foundry was the first foundry in the whole of the People's Republic of China to achieve an international quality certification and gain the top award from the Chinese Commodity Inspection Bureau.
 
Today, George resides with his wife and family in New Jersey, but as SIGMA's Country Manager in China, he still travels to China 4-5 times a year visiting foundries, suppliers, manufacturers and engineers to ensure that the unparalleled quality standards set by SIGMA are met each day.  Contact George at liuguang@vip.sina.com.
 
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