Electronics manufacturer Samtec has announced that it will begin building a new 70,000-square-foot facility in Scottsburg, in southern Indiana. The plan calls to break ground this month or next and finish construction by mid-2015 in an area adjacent to the Mid-America Science Park (MASPark). With the move, 300 new jobs will relocate to the region.

Samtec, founded in 1976 and headquartered in New Albany, makes cables and other connectors and employs 4,000 people worldwide, with manufacturing plants from Costa Rica to Singapore. Of the new factory, the company's global facilities manager said, "The new facility will help us streamline operations in southern Indiana and provide greater efficiencies in distribution and logistics. Scottsburg has numerous economic amenities that align with our global growth initiatives as a service and quality leader."

The city and MASPark also hope that the facility will attract new entrepreneurs in the electronics sector to what is already one of America's premier manufacturing regions. "This is exactly what the community's leadership set out to accomplish when they envisioned, planned and built a world-class science park in Scott County," said MASPark's executive director. The park's construction was the result of a community effort that began in 2004.

Southern Indiana's manufacturing sector has experienced accelerated growth for several months, cementing its place as one of the state's main economic drivers. The recently released Chicago Business Barometer, which showed overwhelmingly positive data, revealed that the one area that has been slow to recover has been employment. A major new facility such as this one is therefore very good news for the region.

The Midwest's manufacturers have locally available business management software solutions at their disposal to help streamline their operations. Inventory, job costing and manufacturing software are all useful tools for a company to thrive in a competitive sector.