History
Sunburst Electronics was founded in 1976 as an engineering design/consultant organization by Robert Heiges. As a service company, Sunburst looked for ways to continue to improve the value add offering to our customers, and in 1978, Sunburst Electronics expanded our value add to include contract electronics manufacturing.
The 1980's represented a time for measured expansion for Sunburst, including a move into our new building on Pittsburgh Avenue in Erie, PA., and in 1986, Bliley Technologies, Inc., a manufacturer of high reliability crystals and crystal oscillators purchased Sunburst, and brought us into their group as a wholly owned subsidiary.
The 90's offered great growth in the Contract Manufacturing side of the Sunburst business, and with this growth, additional space was required, so in 1994, Sunburst moved into a larger facility in the Grandview Business Park to accommodate this growth.
In 1998, Sunburst and its parent company, Bliley Technologies, were purchased by Roger Richards. Roger saw great potential in both companies, and believed that each could continue to thrive and grow as prominent Erie PA employers, and help bring a higher level of technology and capability to the region. Roger and the management team recognized the need to invest in higher technology capabilities, and an initiative toward equipment and facility upgrades began.
In 2002 Sunburst becomes the first KOZ (Keystone Opportunity Zone) business on the Erie Bayfront by designing and constructing the 31,000 square foot facility that we occupy today. Also in 2002, Sunburst achieved our first ISO 9001:2000 registration. We are proud to have been named the 2003 "Manufacturing Employer of the Year" by the Economic Development Corporation of Erie County, and we have continued to take great pride in service to our city.
In 2006, John Cline joined Sunburst as CEO, and laid out his vision for the future of Sunburst. He instilled in the company a new direction as a data driven organization. His idea that you make good decisions with good data resonated among the organization, and Sunburst launched into the next phase of our growth, one that would include the development of SQM©, a comprehensive quality and organizational management software package that provides our organization with the means to better plot our course toward our continuous improvement objectives.
Today, we refer to Sunburst as "Sunburst Re-invented". We are a much different company than the group on Pittsburgh Ave, however we have remained consistent in the core beliefs that Sunburst was founded by. We offer a higher level of value add, technology, service and professionalism to our customers. We maintain a strong presence in the Erie business community, and help to bring higher levels of technology and prosperity to the region through our continuous growth and improvement efforts.