INDUSTRIAL INFO-TAINMENT
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• Deal Killers
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Th su res • Meeting Mr. Williams
Is tu • Moving Tests Upstream
a • 15th Annual Electrical Wire Processing Expo
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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