INDUSTRIAL INFO-TAINMENT Wiring Harness News NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 1 s • Finishing Well i : e Th su res • The Real Cost of Insufficient Testing Is tu • How Reshoring Drives Profitability a • Wire Wisdom - Low Voltage Cable Sheilding e F • Time Management and Delegation: Science or Art? • Optimizing the High Mix/Low Volume Manufacturing Environment JULY AUGUST 2015 Winchester Electronics By Fred Noer _________________________________ f San Allen of Winchester Elec- tronics were to give advice to company leaders in the wiring harness industry, he would have a sim- ple, straightforward statement: “Find your niche where you can survive, and focus in on it.” I For Winchester, headquartered in Norwalk, Conn., focusing on wiring har- ness and cable assembly production has led to a thriving corporation. It has gone from $87 million in sales in 2009 to $154 million in 2014. The company is projecting growth to $170 million this year and has a goal of $250 million by the end of 2017. Allen, 58, is the general manager of the Engineered Cables Division of Win- chester. The division has wiring harness and cable assembly plants in Spartan- burg, S.C. (operating as Electrical Spe- cialty Products); Nogales, Mexico; Penang, Malaysia; and Suzhou, China. He is based at the Nogales facility. Focus of a different kind was needed when Allen joined Winchester in August 2009 as vice president of operations in North America. As were numerous busi- nesses during the Great Recession, the company, which did much of its busi- ness in telecommunications, was strug- gling to adapt to the economic down- turn. At that point Winchester was a rela- tively “new” company. That is, in 2006 it Thru-hole secondary assembly station. was bought from Northrop Grumman Corp. in Falls Church, Va., by a group of Winchester managers and Audax Group, an investment company with offices in Boston, New York City and Menlo Park, Calif. Since the managers could not raise adequate funding on their own, they were joined in the purchase by Audax, which was founded in 1999 and has more than $6 billion invested in lower- market and middle-market companies. Audax is led by cofounders and co-CEOs Geoff Rehnert and Marc Wolpow, and the staff includes 14 managing directors, two principals, five senior VPs and nine VPs. Northrop Grumman owned Winches- ter five years. It was included in the acquisition of Litton Industries in Wood- land Hills, Calif., by Northrop Grumman. In 1963 Litton bought Winchester, ________________Continued on page 48 The 2015 Electrical Wire Processing Technology Expo By Joe Tito Wiring Harness News _________________________________ hen you think of Milwau- kee, you think of beer, baseball, Harley Davidson, and that incredibly warm Midwestern charm. But if your in the wire harness industry, you should also think about the Electrical Wire Processing Technology Expo. Whether your an industry suppli- er, a large tier two manufacturer, or a small harness shop, you simply can't miss this event. The 2015 EWPT Expo held this past May 13th and 14th held strong to the heritage this show has developed in its 15 years of existence. I’ll dig into some of the detail that prove this point, but there is a specific metric I W have been tracking the past few years. I’ll save that for last. With over 165 exhibitors, the EWPT Expo is the worlds largest showcase for components, processing equipment, design tools, testing technology, and all the elements that function in wire and cable harness production. The 2015 show boasted a 5% increase in atten- dance over last year’s blockbuster num- bers. The Expo was once again co-locat- ed with The Electrical Manufacturing and Coil Winding Show, exhibiting coil winding and testing products for electri- cal manufacturing. Also co-located for 2015 was Critical Power, an expo devot- ed to equipment and technology for crit- ical power and backup systems for hos- pitals, data centers, military facilities, and other power sensitive applications. Since 2001, the Electrical Wire Processing Technology Expo has grown into a comprehensive resource for the electrical wire harness, wire, and cable processing industries. Together, these related shows brought in an additional 800 visitors. Seminars Cutting edge equipment, tools, and support technology alone are enough to keep folks flocking to the EWPT Expo year after year. But the exchange of ideas at the wide ranging seminars is every bit as valuable. As with previous shows, the 2015 schedule offered critical learning opportunities on industry best prac- tices, trends, and burning issues. Here’s a quick synopsis: IPC/ WHMA A-620-B Update - Pre- sented by: Donnie Hill, President and COO of Precision Manufacturing Co & Rick Bromm, VP Business Development of Altex Inc. Donnie and Rick discussed the Rev. B and reasoning behind the updates. They stressed the importance of our industry in becoming the “pied piper of the A-620” to the OEM’s. They also announced a new website (a- 620.org) dedicated to all aspects of the specification, from purchasing options to training information. Conflict Minerals - Presented by: Michael Wurzman, President/Founder of RSJ Technical Consulting. Michael dis- cussed some of the intricacies for _________________Continued on page 5