INDUSTRIAL INFO-TAINMENT s • Deal Killers i : e Th su res • Meeting Mr. Williams Is tu • Moving Tests Upstream a • 15th Annual Electrical Wire Processing Expo e F • Wire Wisdom - Thermocouple and RTD Wire Wiring Harness News NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 1 • Cable and Harness Manufacturing: Productivity through Flexibility MARCH APRIL 2015 Segue Manufacturing Services By Fred Noer _________________________________ robably no better name could have been chosen for Segue Manufacturing Services. The contract manufacturer embodies the definition of segue by having the ability to move without pause from one goal, order, project or process to anoth- er. The company has a broad spectrum of abundant resources to facilitate each movement. The word Services in the name could be regarded as equally important, since the focus at Segue is on the services it P offers its customers. By partnering with Segue, they, too, are able to move fluidly toward meeting whatever goals they may have. Segue is headquartered in Lowell, Mass., a city of approximately 109,000 residents 30 miles northwest of Boston. The firm does high-mix, low-volume manufacturing of harnesses, cables, con- trol panels, power-distribution boxes and electromechanical assemblies. Pot- ting, overmolding and CNC machining also are done. The company has a second facility in Xiamen, China, a city of approximately 3.6 million people on the southeastern coast of China. Segue Asia, as the plant is 15th Annual Electrical Wire Processing Technology Expo Save the date for the 15th Annual Electrical Wire Processing Technology Expo, to be held on Wednesday, May 13 and Thursday, May 14, 2015 at the Wis- consin Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This Expo is tailored specifically for those in the electrical wire and cable manufacturing industries, processing industries and especially wire harness services. Expo attendees will see the latest electrical wire processing equipment in operation, as well as various compo- nents and services that are used in the manufacture of wiring harnesses. Atten- dees will have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with industry experts, and can also attend valuable technical semi- nars focusing on emerging trends and the future of the industry. The seminar schedule is as follows: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 8:30am - IPC/WHMA-A-620-B, A Crit- ical Step to Becoming a World Class Supplier Presented by: Donnie Hill, President and COO of Precision Manufacturing Co & Rick Bromm, President of Altex Inc WHMA presents how this globally accepted workmanship standard is a key to becoming a world class wire harness manufacturing company. The presenta- tion will include insights on why it’s important, how to get trained and how to validate your company to the stan- dard. It will also provide information on why your current and future customers should and will require it. ________________Continued on page 54 Segue Manufacturing does high-mix, low-volume manufacturing of harness- es, cables, control panels, power-distribution boxes and electromechanical assemblies. known, specializes in low-cost, high-vol- ume production of similar types of items as Lowell in addition to printed circuit board assemblies and plastic injection- molded pieces. Low-cost components are sourced for customers, too. Segue serves customers in the follow- ing markets: medical, 38 percent; robot- ics, automation and industrial capital equipment, 20; military and defense, 15; clean energy, 12; homeland security, 11; and miscellaneous such as test and measurement equipment, 4. Segue has reached its current annual sales of $50 million based on the vision of company president Bill Roderick, 52, who emphasizes the importance of being progressive. “If you stay stagnant and do not grow, your customers will lose you,” he said. “They’ll outgrow you. You need to create excitement for them. You also have to stay committed and have good people behind you, people who believe in you in the good times and bad.” Roderick knows well the ups and downs. He used $3,000 in savings to start a company called Cable Designs and Manufacturing (CDM), the predeces- sor to Segue. The start-up occurred in July 1991 in Billerica, eight miles south of Lowell. He and another person worked in a 100-square-foot space pro- ducing wiring harnesses and cable assemblies. Revenue after one year totaled $12,000, Roderick stated. Although the amount fell short of his annual income previously in his career, “I had put things in my own hands,” he said. “There were a lot of long nights and hours on the road trying to develop the company. I built it ________________Continued on page 42 Why Manufacturers are Over Paying for Electromechanical Assemblies When in-house work is outside an OEM’s core com- petency, too costly or cum- bersome, strategic domestic outsourcing can cut cost, improve quality, and even speed delivery or OEMs making and inventory- ing electromechanical assem- blies, wire harnesses, cable assemblies, or even box-builds in-house, holding too tightly to every aspect of production can be a costly mistake. The intended benefits of doing all the work in-house must be measured against its costs: higher facility overhead, includ- ing additional required inventory, manu- facturing space, equipment, trained labor, as well as engineering and pur- chasing resources. F Too often, such in-house work is not actually the OEM’s area of expertise, but instead a low margin activity that can consume precious corporate resources to little effect. When the in-house work performed is outside an OEM’s core competency, too costly or cumbersome, strategic domestic outsourcing can cut cost, improve quality, and even speed delivery. For instance, to focus on its core com- petency of system design, Evoqua Water Technologies domestically outsourced a junction box electromechanical assem- bly and wire harness to power its line of industrial water purification modules, according to Rahoul Bhagat, Engineering and Quality Assurance Manager at its Lowell , Mass. facility. The company is a wastewater treatment products, systems _________________Continued on page 7