Smart Made Simple Appoints Steven Blyth Director of Business Development

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With over 20 years of executive experience in electronics, Steven Blyth is ready to transform Smart Made Simple – SMS, into the UK’s leading electronic manufacturing services (EMS) provider, for concept to creation services, adding value along the production lifecycle for all customers.

Appointing a well-known and respected industry figure displays true confidence in the market and the company’s ability to not simply compete, but to outperform the current political and economic climate. Due to strong customer commitments and the increasing volume of new developmental partnerships, Smart Made Simple - SMS is in the ideal position to experience unprecedented growth.

Enter Steven Blyth as director of business development. Steven’s background boasts many of the electronics industry greats: Viasystems, TT Electronics, and latterly Tier I EMS provider Sanmina. He is now ready to transition into SMS and transform the company’s go-to-market approach.

When asked what attracted Steven to the position within SMS, he stated, “Smart Made Simple offers more that contract manufacturing. SMS supports their customers from concept and development, through to volume manufacture, all the way to end of life, and beyond.

With a dedicated development centre that offers quick turn prototyping and low-volume/high-mix (LV/HM) production, whilst monitoring all production quality control, SMS is in a unique position to engage with all market segments and all sizes of customers, at any stage of the production lifecycle.  

There really is no barrier to engagement. For a business development person, that prospect is exciting. Our Development Centre is further supported with an in-house full System Level Assembly for complete build-to-order (BTO), configure-to-order (CTO), and product assembly.  That service offering is exceptional within the UK, and I should know as I’ve ventured the landscape.

Did you know that SMS is one of the top ten EMS companies in the UK?  Or that they hold the 32nd spot out of 616 EMS providers in Europe?  No, neither do too many others for my liking. SMS is the best kept secret in Contract Manufacturing. It’s my plan to change that, to build on awareness as the go-to company in the UK, with experience and expertise built into our DNA due to our 100-year electronics manufacturing heritage.”

Craig Taylor, FD at SMS added, “We knew as soon as we met Steven that he was the right Director for SMS.  Culturally, he fits and is collaborating with the team on his sales strategy to nurture current markets whilst penetrating new ones.  Strategically, he brings with him a wealth of experience at building processes from the bottom up. And operationally, he knows from an engineering perspective the correct technology for SMS to invest in to continuously support our customers’ new innovations. 

We are also delighted to appoint Steven to our Board of Directors, which means this is a long-term commitment for both Steven and the management team within Smart Made Simple. This translates into a commitment to the UK electronics manufacturing industry to support our economy and grow our health and well-being as a region and nation that fosters innovation.”

About SMS – Smart Made Simple

SMS – Smart Made Simple, is the U.K.’s leading manufacturing service provider.

From concept to creation, to commercialization, to customer, for all technology companies. Whether you are a start-up, or an established household brand name, if you have a design, engineering, manufacturing or supply chain problem, thanks to the diversity of our experience and scalable service, SMS has the solution.

Since 1920, SMS has manufactured electronics products from the same home in Nottingham, U.K. For almost 100 years, we have been the company behind the ideas, offering agile and adaptive supply chain solutions, that bring products to market faster, smarter and simpler. 

Leader in the specialist low volume, highly complex manufacturing services market space, SMS has earned critical industry facility certifications, that brings full viability and credibility to the aerospace & defense, communications, industrial and medical markets. SMS brings the right scale, capabilities and competitive solutions to customers needing high-reliability attention, product realization and supply chain optimization.