INDUSTRIAL INFO-TAINMENT
Wiring Harness News NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 1
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• Becker Electronics
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Th su res • Make Your Picks!
Is tu • 2016 WHMA Conference
a • Wire Wisdom - Insulation Levels
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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