Engaging During the Design Process Pays Big Dividends

RESCO Electronics and a leading manufacturer of diagnostic and treatment equipment for women have a relationship dating back 25 years. For any relationship to last that long, it requires a great deal of work and trust on both sides. Recently when this customer was developing a new platform, RESCO collaborated during the design phase to make sure the new instrument contained the most reliable and cost-effective cables assemblies. 

At the beginning of this process, representatives from the RESCO account management and production engineering teams made multiple trips to the customer site. During these onsite meetings, we reviewed breadboard prototypes and mock-ups of various assemblies that were slated for RESCO to manufacture. The RESCO teams were mainly looking for design changes that would allow the use of RESCO’s automated manufacturing equipment. Individually, these changes were not hugely impactful; however, because of the size of the harnesses the cumulative production labor time saved was significant. 

Meanwhile back at RESCO, the estimating and procurement teams were reviewing the bills of material (BOMs). This review was both technical and financial. 

The technical review focused on verifying that the connectors and contacts on the BOM were compatible with the wire selected. This is one of the most common errors that we find with new cable assembly designs. The technical review also determined tooling and fixtures that would be required during the manufacturing process and that labeling call-outs were compatible with our equipment. 

In the financial review, the BOMs were evaluated for economies of scale with existing raw material, supply chain issues such as long lead times and high minimum purchase requirements. While RESCO will not deviate from the BOM when building assemblies, we have a successful track record of offering and implementing cost-saving and lead-time reducing alternatives. 

With all our customers, we are always looking for product improvements from quality, manufacturability and cost perspectives. Inevitably, those improvements are more difficult (and costly) to implement after a product has been launched. By working with this customer early in the design process, we were able to implement improvements more completely.  The result were better designed cable assemblies that can be produced consistently, with shorter lead-times and at a lower total cost.