Chatsworth-based JMR Electronics Inc. a leader in the data storage sector of the tech industry since 1982, has drastically reduced its workforce from a companywide tally of 150 employees last year to the current 52 due to the outsourcing of its manufacturing operations. Citing the increased “flexibility” offered by sending manufacturing needs elsewhere, JMR company founder and acting CEO Josef Rabinovitz appears to be guiding JMR in a new direction, adapting to the shifting industry climate. While other storage sector industry heavyweights have already made the shift to outsourcing manufacturing, JMR initially resisted. In fact it’s practically the last firm within the storage sector to do so, according to industry experts. While JMR has not entirely abandoned its domestic manufacturing, it has scaled back its Chatsworth based operations, relocating to smaller facilities to help stay competitive within the ever-changing marketplace and “move to the next level,” said Rabinovitz. According to Westlake Village-based tech industry watcher Benjamin Kuo, founder of the SoCalTECH.com Web site, it is usually more efficient for companies in that industry sector to move away from so-called vertical integration concepts where both product development and manufacturing is done by the same company. Holding twenty some patents on both technology and product design; JMR is evolving to stay competitive in a drastically changing industry landscape. In addition to more streamlined business practices, including the careful shift from that of a manufacturing-based company, to a technology based one; JMR also has hired industry veteran Stu Fisher as Senior Director of Business Development and Sales. Fisher brings experience from such companies as Intel and Wasabi Systems, and is expected to help JMR maintain and refine its long-standing competitive edge, “I am very pleased to have Stu join us at JMR,” said Rabinovitz. “We have spent the past five years developing new technology that is expected to have a dramatic impact on the way people think about and use data storage.” Sending work outside of his firm was a tough call for JMR’s leadership, in particular for Rabinovitz, but it will allow the company to focus on product development and innovation, which is considered one of its strengths. JMR was one of the first manufacturers to deliver a full family of Fibre Channel and SATA storage solutions and other industry firsts and has introduced new technology called “direct attached storage’ which is expected to become the standard for medium and even large-scale data storage.
