INDUSTRIAL INFO-TAINMENT
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• 2013 WHMA Conference
Is tu • Growing your Business: Part 2
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F • Preventive Maintenance Advantage
• Wire Wisdom
Wiring Harness News NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 1
• Why Wire Harness Companies Fail
JANUARY
FEBRUARY
2013
NRI Electronics
By Fred Noer
__________________________________
D
uring his latest visit to NRI
Electronics an ISO auditor
was astounded to find the
company had 30 continuous improve-
ment projects under way. He expected
NRI to have just a few projects in the
works, similar to other companies he
has audited.
The comparatively high number of
projects is typical at NRI and reflective
of its employees’ attention to detail and
their drive to improve all aspects of NRI
operations. Everyone’s effort at NRI
coincides with its quality policy:
“Through company-wide empower-
ment, we are committed to continuous
improvement in order to satisfy the
expectations of our customers.”
NRI has 40 customers, all OEMs that
are supplied with wiring harnesses,
printed circuit boards and electro-
mechanical assemblies. Twelve cus-
tomers provide 80 percent of company
revenue, and the other 28 account for 20
percent of sales. Several customers have
been with NRI for 10, 12 and even 25-
plus years.
Sixty-six percent of the customers are
in the agriculture and industrial markets,
The Preventive
Maintenance Advantage
By Michael Hallman
TE Application Tooling
Field Service Manager
__________________________________
W
hat is preventive mainte-
nance and why is it
important? The basic
description of preventive maintenance
is planned maintenance activity that is
designed to improve the life of
machines or equipment and avoid any
unplanned maintenance activity. In the
wire harness industry, machines and
tooling are the key components that are
vital to an organization’s ability to pro-
duce the final product. From the small-
est hand tool to the largest automatic
wire processing machine, when equip-
ment malfunctions, production is affect-
ed in a negative way. Quality OEM equip-
ment suppliers provide preventive main-
Michael Hallman
TE Application Tooling
Field Service Manager
________________Continued on page 11
The NRI Data Cell assembling the less complex harnesses. All harnesses are
tested using the Cirris Easy Tester on the cart.
with 22 percent in defense and 12 per-
cent in aviation. Most of the customers
are located in Minnesota, Wisconsin,
Iowa, South Dakota and Nebraska, and
some are in the southeastern United
States. One customer in Japan is provid-
ed with harnesses and PCBs.
Company operations are in two Min-
nesota cities – Anoka and Rochester.
Anoka is a far northwestern suburb of
Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Rochester is
approximately 85 miles southeast of the
Twin Cities.
Production at the Rochester facility is
95 percent wiring harnesses and five
percent electromechanical assemblies.
The building covers 30,000 square feet.
Harness orders range from a simple
six-inch jumper wire to a complex har-
ness containing up to 500 circuits. They
may have 512 conductors, BNCs and
biaxial and triaxial Tyco connectors.
Length can be up to 70 feet for applica-
tions in cranes and agricultural sprayers.
Quantities typically are 10-25 but may
be as few as one and as many as 3,000.
Cost is between $2 and $3,200.
Conversely, Anoka, whose building
measures 12,000 square feet, does most-
ly PCBs, both surface mount and
through hole, and electromechanical
assemblies. Manufacturing of harnesses,
simple ones that are short and contain
________________Continued on page 38
2013 Annual WHMA
Conference
T
he 2013 Wiring Harness Manu-
facturers Association (WHMA)
Annual Wire Harness Confer-
ence will be held February 20-22 in Las
Vegas. The Renaissance Hotel will serve a
conference headquarters.
This will be the 20th Annual WHMA
Conference – a fact not overlooked by
WHMA Program chairman Paul Nelson
of Data Cable in Orangeville, Ontario.
“Every WHMA Conference is filled with
good information and networking
opportunities - but this year’s agenda is
really special. We will have a variety of
sessions touching on quality improve-
ment, marketing, re-shoring and strategy
deployment just to name a few,” said Nel-
son.
The keynote presenter will be Greg
Paul Nelson
WHMA Program Chairman
Lane of Low Volume Lean. His two top-
ics are: “Don’t Limit Your Improvement
to Manufacturing” and “Without a
Clearly Deployed Strategy, You Will
Never Reach Breakthrough Objectives”.
_________________Continued on page 3