INDUSTRIAL INFO-TAINMENT Wiring Harness News NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 1 s • Becker Electronics i : e Th su res • Make Your Picks! Is tu • 2016 WHMA Conference a • Wire Wisdom - Insulation Levels e F • Is the Wire Harness Business Consolidating? • Plug & Play Industrial Ethernet Connectivity for Oil & Gas NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2015 Becker Electronics By Fred Noer _________________________________ hatever it may be, just one piece of technology can make a tremendous differ- ence in a business. To that the three owners of Becker Electronics Inc. can attest. The firm in Ronkonkoma on Long Island in New York, 45 miles from New York City, grew by 33 percent in 2013 and ’14 after starting to use enterprise resource planning (ERP) software on July 1, 2011. It was purchased from Glob- al Shop Solutions in The Woodlands, Texas. “We made an investment that was for- tuitous and necessary,” said David Sos- now, company president. “We gained full control of our business. It is the largest and most fundamental change we’ve made. The new software gave us the tools that enabled us to define our processes, get goods into production and have real-time communication with our customers.” Becker Electronics Inc. (BEI), which began in December 1996 and has grown W to $10-15 million in annual sales, is a contract manufacturer of wiring har- nesses, cable assemblies and electro- mechanical assemblies for OEMs. According to Sosnow, the company has 125 active customers and has 400-500 items open for production at any given time. “We have to make changes and reshuffle the deck on a daily basis,” Sos- now said, adding that all production is done in house. “This is an extremely com- plex business to manage, and we have to manage it quickly and efficiently.” Sosnow related that business manag- er Frank Spagnuolo spent more than two years studying ERP software on the bases of price, quality and long-term support. “We are fully satisfied with the software,” Sosnow said. “We manage our inventory and have on-time delivery, and our success with customers has gained us more business. Refinement is a prior- ity now.” The need for the software grew from a crisis when the company was over- whelmed with orders. “We had been constantly late, and we were not effi- cient,” Sosnow said. “We were hanging Becker Electronics makes harnesses, cables and electromechanical assem- blies for assorted industries. on by a thread. It has been difficult for us to perfect our processes and operations. “With quality and delivery, there’s no margin of error,” Sosnow said. “We have a lot of competitors, and the competition is brutal. These days Mexico is our biggest one.” To withstand such competition, BEI relies on quickness. “Speed is absolutely critical,” Sosnow said. “I’d say nobody is faster than us in quotes, first articles and production. Our lead times are extreme- ly good, and often we can respond to an emergency situation the same day because we have a lot of people and resources.” The BEI profile today is dramatically different from the start-up 19 years ago. Sosnow, Patrick Spagnuolo and Sharon Becker worked together at another com- pany in the harness and cable distribu- tion industry in the New York City area when they decided to open a compo- nents distributorship in a 2,000 square- foot rented facility in Bayshore, N.Y., southwest of Ronkonkoma. ________________Continued on page 32 WHMA 2016 Conference in Scottsdale By Joe Tito Wiring Harness News _________________________________ tough act to follow. That was the thought I had at the closing of the 2015 WHMA Conference held in Las Vegas last February. If you missed it, you missed a truly inspiring keynote by Allen West. You missed Ted Ergo from Corporate Visions who totally changed the way many attendees are now handling sales presenta-tions.You missed a high octane WHMA Conference, with outstanding presenters and unparalleled networking opportunities. So how do you top that? That was my first question for Jim Manke, Executive Director of WHMA, during a recent conversation. I think I can say with con- fidence that Mark Christie and the other members of the Program Committee have done it. I’m a political junkie. So I knew a great deal about Allen West, and felt like a kid in a candy store meeting him. But I’m also a Pittsburgh guy who grew up in the 70’s. I couldn't possibly be more excited to hear the keynote A The 2016 Wiring Harness Manufacturer’s Association Conference will take place at the Chaparral Suites, Scottsdale, AZ February 23-25. Rocky Bleier speaker at the 2016 event will be Rocky Bleier! Even if your not from Pittsburgh, or a football enthusiast, Rocky Bleier’s story on the football field, along with his story on the battlefield of Vietnam, has kept audiences captivated for years. With the same optimism, humor, and steadfast ________________Continued on page 44