Plex Systems adds 10 jobs in Auburn Hills

Mark Symonds thinks manufacturing in Metro Detroit gets a bum rap. To him there is more to it than a dying industry laying off under-educated workers. It’s why his firm, Plex Systems, is bucking that trend by hiring and sponsoring some cutting-edge education.The Auburn Hills-based firm creates the software that helps maximize manufacturing efficiency. It’s a business plan that has allowed the firm to grow 14 percent and hire 10 people into its growing staff of 140 employees and a handful of co-op students. The company is aiming for 30 percent growth next year and even more staff expansion.Plex Systems streamlined its software product so it is delivered through the Internet on a subscription basis. The idea is to make it cost-effective for its customers to adopt to Plex Systems’ latest offerings.”You don’t have to lay out a bunch of cash up front to have a world-class system,” says Symonds, the CEO of Plex Systems.Plex Systems also took the step of sponsoring the Rochester Adams/Stoney Creek High School Robotics Team’s participation in the 2010 season FIRST robotics competitions. Symonds says the sponsorship is about supporting the pipeline of talent that supplies Plex Systems with so many of its employees.”Many of our employees are engineers and geeks,” Symonds says. “Now their children are in these programs. We want to encourage that.”Source: Mark Symonds, the CEO of Plex SystemsWriter: Jon Zemke