San Marcos Manufacturers Embrace Lean, Face Skills Challenges

The San Marcos, Texas, region has a great deal to offer startup, existing and transplant manufacturers: a good business climate, low taxes, skilled workers, and the educational facilities and programs to train new workers.
I recently took a press trip in the area, touring its manufacturing facilities. In a previous installment of this column, I wrote about startups in the area, some linked to research at Texas State University.
Mensor’s core competency is pressure sensor accuracy, which is a very niche market. The company was started in Houston in 1968. Its founder, Jerry Frank, had an idea for designing and manufacturing precision pressure measuring and pressure calibration instruments and systems, which he developed with a small group of engineers from Texas Instruments. The company shipped their first product, a quartz manometer for the aerospace industry, in 1970. Back then, most of the business-government contracts.