WHMA Wired-In March/April 2019
By Christine Siebert
WHMA has been extremely busy these last six months with adding on many new Manufacturer/ Supplier members, planning and executing WHMA’s 26thAnnual Wire Harness Conference in Dallas, TX and formalizing an already vital partnership with IPC.
As most companies know, great partnerships can be hard to find and when you find the right partner, you want to keep it and formalize it. WHMA and IPC have been working together for over 10 years through the development of the IPC/WHMA-A-620 standard. This standard remains the only industry-consensus standard for the Requirements and Acceptance of Cable and Wire Harness Assemblies. Revision C is the most current version of the standard with the committee working on the next revision scheduled for release in 2020.
WHMA and IPC have decided to take their partnership to the next level and form a Strategic Partnership. On January 1, 2019, WHMA and IPC entered into an affiliation agreement that will allow WHMA and IPC to work closer together and grow the involvement of the cable assembly and wire harness industry globally. WHMA’s Board of Directors and membership determined that WHMA’s mission would more effectively be served by an affiliation with IPC which serves the global electronics industry supply chain, including the wire and cable industry vertical. The IPC Board of Directors also supported the alliance.
As an added benefit to all WHMA members, they will receive their current WHMA member benefits but also become IPC members receiving IPC member benefits including educational, standards development, leadership, advocacy and solutions to industry challenges opportunities.
WHMA will have one voting representative on IPC’s Board of Directors with the WHMA Board of Directors structure remaining. In alignment with IPC’s structures, this group will be known as the WHMA Board. David Bergman, IPC vice president of standards and training, will support the WHMA Board as WHMA’s executive director.
“WHMA is thrilled to have signed the affiliation agreement with IPC,” adds Rick Bromm, president of Altex and chairman of the WHMA board. “Our organizations have been working together for years. With [this] agreement in place, WHMA will be able to access the resources of IPC to help WHMA meet our goals to lead, educate and connect with companies in the cable and wire harness industry.”
“As a global industry-driven organization, IPC exists to help its member-companies innovate, compete and succeed and we are honored to extend our organization to the members of WHMA,” says David Bergman, IPC vice president of standards and technology and newly appointed Executive Director, WHMA. “I am eager to support the WHMA Board as WHMA’s Executive Director and use my background in international standardization to assist in the globalization of WHMA.”
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About IPC
IPC (www.IPC.org) is a global industry association based in Bannockburn, Ill., dedicated to the competitive excellence and financial success of its 4,900 member-company sites which represent all facets of the electronics industry, including design, printed board manufacturing, electronics assembly and test. As a member-driven organization and leading source for industry standards, training, market research and public policy advocacy, IPC supports programs to meet the needs of an estimated $2 trillion global electronics industry. IPC maintains additional offices in Taos, N.M.; Washington, D.C.; Atlanta, Ga.; Brussels, Belgium; Stockholm, Sweden; Moscow, Russia; Bangalore and New Delhi, India; Bangkok, Thailand; and Qingdao, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Suzhou and Beijing, China.
About WHMA
The Wiring Harness Manufacturer’s Association® (WHMA) (www.whma.org) was established in 1993 to serve and dedicate their resources to the global cable and wire harness industry. WHMA is the ONLY trade association exclusively representing the cable and wire harness manufacturing industry including manufacturers, their suppliers and customers.
March/April
