Automating
Wire Harness Production

Bridging the gap between
OEM designs and ERP systems

 By Jennifer Read

 Wire harness manufacturers face increasing profitability pressures due to the
effects of the evolving global economy. The industry must now accept the reality
of worldwide competition that can match any quality and delivery time standards,
while offering lower prices due to reduced production costs. Harness makers are
looking for the next "edge" to make them more competitive, especially if it can
make production more efficient.

A new software product from Linius Technologies gives harness makers the
ability to automate much of two labor-intensive stages of wire harness production.
Those two stages are the point where a harness design or re-design is completed by
the OEM and when production actually begins. Without automation, much of this work
must be done manually, wasting valuable time in the race to get customer products to
market. The company's product, "HarnessFactory" is designed to streamline information
flow and automate critical functions between those two points in the production process.

 

Between these two stages, the following functions must be performed:

 

• Map customer's harness design data into the manufacturer's known data system.
This data could originate in several formats including paper print, electronic
spreadsheet, CAD files.

• Create customer quote to assess material and labor costs

 

• Integrate design data with inventory and shop flow processes

 

• Handle engineering change orders (ECO)

 

There are several reasons why these functions are typically performed inefficiently.
Usually there is a large queue of customer designs awaiting quotes. The rush to
"put out the fires" often can in itself lead to inefficiency. Further, making even a
simple wire harness is a complex process, involving many different documents from
different media and software programs. Added to that is the inevitable customer
change orders and the usual manual methods companies use to enter much of the
data, and the total package is a very messy thing. Tim Alibozek, president of
Linius Technologies, believes that the present methodology costs extra time and
can be very error-prone. "Skilled workers shouldn't be typing redundant information
for each function in the process. Rather, they could be performing more marketing and sales activity for the company."

 

"HarnessMaker reduces time by automating these functions from a
central knowledge database located at the manufacturer's headquarters.
Here is the process a company must follow to implement the software:

 

1. Create a library of harness materials. These are the physical wire, connectors,
splices, terminators, clips, clamps, loom, and even the shipping boxes used in
building the harness. This library can be loaded by taking electronic information
from a company's database, either in spreadsheet or ASCII format,  and directly
importing it into the software tool. Hundreds of parts can be loaded in minutes
and new data can be inserted on a regular basis.

 

2. Create a library of operations. These are defined as any manufacturing step
that incurs quantifiable labor time. Examples are cutting, stripping, kitting,
formboard assembly, testing and shipping. Again, they can be loaded from
spreadsheets of ASCII text files.

 

3. Enter harness designs. This step basically involves defining the parts in
the harness, usually from a bill of materials and wire list. Harness information
can be imported from electronic spreadsheets or text files, manually entered
or scanned from prints, or read directly from other programs offered by Linius. 

 

4. Button-click for quotes. The  program then takes the information  from
the harness definition and material and operations utilities to create a cost
analysis and quote. Cost sheets and quote formats can be configured to a
company's specific needs. Functions that calculate margins and perform cost
comparisons can also be configured to any corporate standards.

 

5. Interface to inventory system. The software can be configured to send
information to an inventory control system, once the quote is accepted by
the customer. Typically this happens by exporting a bill of materials to the
inventory system.

 

6. Create work orders for shop floor production. This step enables
multiple harnesses to be queued for producing instruction documents.
Complex sorting and facility planning can be performed. Work orders are
created in a matter of seconds.

 

7. Button-click shop floor instructions. These include cut tickets;
wire and splice checklists; protocol data to drive automated machines
from Schleuniger, Komax, AMP, Dynalab, Cirris, etc.; tracking and
scheduling summaries. Special instructions are created and can be printed
to hard copy or used electronically. Bar coding functionality is available.
Specific corporate formats for each of these instructions can be configured
in a short amount of time.

 

The following functions are also available with the software:

 

"DataBook" — a parametric search utility to search for library information
and harness part information such as where specific parts are used.

 

"SmartLinks" — similar to the DataBook function, SmartLinks allows the
user to retrieve honed information based on the specific part of the process
that is being worked on.  For instance, the system knows when the user is
looking for a list of existing terminators used in the design or is looking for a
wire part number based on where the user is in the user interface.

 

DRCs — "Design Rule Checks" can be run to detect potential errors in the
harnesses before production.  Examples of DRCs are wire-terminator-slot
gauge mismatches and multiple electrical terminations.

Return on investment using software automation.

Manufacturers who are interested in understanding how software automation
can help them must first define their goals and objectives.
These might be, for example:

 

• Win 98% of business quoted

• Maintain 35% profitability margin

• Increase business in a given industry

 

Linius' Alibozek suggests merging these objectives with the capabilities of the
HarnessFactory software to analyze the effect of this software implementation
on a typical company's business as shown in the chart below.

 

HarnessFactory pricing is dependent on which functions are used in the
product and how many users or company sites are licensed. The product can be
 purchased as a package with yearly maintenance fees or on a monthly
subscription. HarnessFactory is client-server based so that one server can
run multiple workstations across a company's network.

 

To check out HarnessFactory for free, Linius has the capability to show a
live interactive demonstration of the product over the Internet. For more
information call 508-616-9300 X33 or E-mail: ##talibozek@linius.com

 

For a complete reprint of the above article contact marilyn@wiringharnessnews.com