Case Study: Tornik Finds Success Adding MES
An Interview with Tornik, LLC President, Ray Swanson
Tornik LLC, a Contract Manufacturer of cable, harness and electromechanical assemblies based out of Rocky Hill, Connecticut, is thriving. When faced with the same hurdles as their competition, the Tornik team was able to find success across a wide range of markets without sacrificing what they stood for as a company: reliable service, quality production and great people.
Tornik started out as a value-add to a large wire distributor before branching out into one of the North East’s largest Contract Manufacturers. Now, after nearly 30 years of experience in custom assembly and complex production, they have found more success than ever. This radical growth is in large part due to a new secret weapon Tornik has implemented across their plants: the Quantum Manufacturing Execution System (MES).
“Quantum is a real “WOW” factor for us. Everybody that comes to our plant sees our system running at our benches and says, ‘I really wish we had that,’” mentioned Ray Swanson, President at Tornik.
Since selecting Quantum, Tornik has experienced consistent growth (15-20%) for five consecutive years. The time savings, production control and asset management made possible by connecting each stage of production has impressed both new and existing customers. Tornik used this momentum to get on multiple preferred supplier lists and attract a steady stream of new contract work.
“We had an ERP/MRP that handled our material flow,” remembered Swanson, “but we didn’t have anything to handle our manufacturing flow on the floor. It was all paper records and different types of digital files spread across various systems…”
After replacing these labor-intensive processes with Quantum, Tornik experienced a cultural shift across their plants.
“The system became part of the business. After getting accustomed to Quantum, we’ve really taken it to the next level. We’re nearly 95% paperless now. That’s everything from ISO records to revision control on new-to-market product work. It has paid off ten-fold.”
Beyond winning more bids, completing work faster and delivering at increased levels of quality, Tornik has found their time invested in auditing has been reduced by 50% due to Quantum’s ability to capture build data.
When asked about tips for making more preferred vendor lists, Swanson spoke to the power of compliance and reliability:
“We’ve already had eight separate audits in 2018 and every one has been completed in half the time. An audit that should take a full day only takes half a day. From an ISO standpoint it’s been great. Every document we make becomes a permanent record and every revision is automatically stored in one system… If I want to go to ‘Rev 1’, I just jump to ‘Rev 1’. If I need to see ‘Rev 2’, I just click. Quantum eliminated a lot of the manual document control we had performed in the past and the results have been amazing.”
Advice for Wire Harness Plants
When asked what advice Swanson may have for other Wire/Cable Harness Assemblers looking to grow, he kept it simple, saying, “Time is money and it’s all about the ROI.”
By modernizing their plants, the time spent on every task, from planning to execution improved. This increased the profitability of every order that hit the shop floor allowing every member of the Tornik team to make more with less.
“We’ve been able to launch two new product lines without adding additional team members or resources and we’re getting more and more jobs with larger Contract Manufacturers doing subassembly work. We’re on the cusp of moving to the next level and we’re not looking back.”
Next Steps
Tornik LLC is a one-stop shop for wire and cable assembly serving Aerospace & Defense, Medical Device, Electromechanical, Life Science, Industrial Production and more. Offering new product introduction, generic services and both US and Mexico as a low-cost region options, Tornik is the go-to shop for your OEM and Contract Manufacturing needs. ISO 9001:2015 and ISO13485:2016 certified and located on both the East and West coasts, Tornik is experienced in a variety of techniques and prototyping processes.
You can learn more about Tornik’s offerings at www.Tornik.com or by connecting with the Tornik sales team at [email protected].
If you would like more information on Manufacturing Execution Systems for the Wire Harness industry, visit www.CIMx.com and schedule a live demo of the Quantum MES with a CIMx Application Expert.
