Cable Manufacturing

A general statement, how much the cable manufacturing or especially your cable harness costs, is of course difficult to make without further information. For a quick price estimate on your request, do not hesitate to contact us at any time. If necessary, we can provide you with your price within 2 to 3 days.

The costs of an assembled cable are basically composed by the parts of material, production time and set-up costs. The following list shows the fundamental starting factors regarding pricing. These are decisive for all further considerations.

• Number of pieces
• Complexity
• Component selection

By far the most important factor is the number of pieces to be produced. This has an influence on the economically viable procurement and manufacturing process. Whether it is one or a few prototypes, a small series or a large series is therefore of great importance. Often cable manufacturers are specialized in one or the other series area. For this reason, it can make sense, especially in the case of planned large series, to order the prototype phase and small series from a different cable manufacturer than the large series.

In general, the various items in the price calculation are weighted differently depending on the number of units. As the number of units increases, the share of necessary machine and system set-up costs decreases. On the other hand, the savings in production time increase in comparison to manual production. In addition, the material share often decreases exponentially. Due to the potential savings in material costs, it is advisable to establish a standard in the selection of components.

The economically viable level of automation in cable manufacturing currently ends with assembly on lay-up boards. Even today, this work step is still done manually. For this reason, complex cable harnesses are manufactured in very high numbers and volumes in Southern and Eastern Europe, Asia and North Africa. One example of this is the wiring systems installed in passenger cars. Due to the enormously high quantities of integrated procurement, the savings outweigh the use of resources and the logistical effort involved in procurement.

One possibility for further indirect price reduction, for example, is to add value to the service. This solution is already highly valued by many of our partners. In addition, there are other effective options to reduce costs in the case of longer cooperation.

We are specialized in prototypes and small series. Simplified, the cable manufacturing in Germany has proven itself with these quantities:

• Simple cable harnesses: 1 to 1000 pieces/year
• Complex cable harnesses with laying board: 1 to 500 pieces/year

The individual batch sizes requested are agreed on a case-by-case basis. These typically range from 5 to 250 pieces/lot.

In conclusion, the optimal interplay of price, quality and flexibility for the customer must be found in cable manufacturing! A one-sided consideration and weighting of one of the three parameters increases the risk of subsequent disproportionate expenses.

Assembled cables have become a major part of the functionality of many vehicles and systems today. With the increasing trend towards electrification and expansion of electronic options, the complexity must inevitably increase further. Thus, professional design in cable assembly is becoming increasingly relevant, as has already happened with many product groups. In addition to pure clarity, the design view of assembled cables offers great potential. Depending on the industry, these can be

• Reduction of the number of variants – Reduction of production costs
• Reduction of weight
• Increase in assembly capability – Reduction in assembly times / increase in throughput
• Reduction of failure probability – Reduction of costs in after sales / complaints
• Optimization of components – Saving of resources
• Outsourcing
• …

Unfortunately, the potentials, especially for very small and small series (5 to 400 pieces), are still used far too seldom in wire harness production. A construction with the help of CAD-supported programs and the utilization of the data gained from it, is worthwhile in most cases.

However, the acquisition of such a program, the data collection, evaluation and implementation in the own production is connected with high internal expenditure.

For this reason, we support our partners here with our know-how and the structures we have already established.

In the past, we have been able to work together with many of our partners from the automotive, mechanical engineering, vehicle construction and many other industries to develop their optimal concepts for cable manufacturing. The most important thing here is an individual approach.

In detail, there are minor deviations to the following production processes depending on the type of cooperation with the customers. The reasons for this can be found in customer-specific agreements, as already described in the topic of delivery time. In the basic structure, however, cable assembly works in a similar way. The following production steps are not bound to the mentioned sequence. Depending on requirements, the sequence can be changed, supplemented or parallelized.

Organization and work preparation

In the first step, it is necessary to prepare a scheduled work plan. This is based on the specifications agreed in the quotation phase. With the help of our work plan modules, it is possible to create a schedule that is as flexible and standardized as possible. After drawing the wiring harness once in the CAD software EPLAN, all documents necessary for production, such as pinning plan, cutting lists and printing, can be generated automatically.

For the subsequent, smooth and effective production of assembled cables, the work preparation is already indispensable. In the list you will find typical work steps:

• Creation of work plan
• Creation and provision of production-relevant documents
• Ordering material / provisioning
• Pre-assembly of the required material / semi-ducts
• Production of assembly aids and test adapters

Production

Once the production order has been approved, all cables can be cut and printed fully automatically using the automatic cutting machine linked to EPLAN. A relatively high degree of automation offers significantly higher accuracy and reliable repeatability compared to manual cutting. In addition, production times and thus prices per piece can be reduced. Unfortunately, there is no manual alternative for line printing. Especially for pinning and later after sales spare parts assembly, line printing is a great labor saver.

Depending on the number of pieces, the pre-cut wires are crimped with a semi-automatic crimping machine or manually with crimping tools. Only with the use of automatic crimping machines it is possible to guarantee demonstrably higher quality crimp connections. For this purpose, crimp force monitoring is used.

Typical measurements that are performed are pull-off tests as well as micrograph analyses. Economically, semi-automatic or fully automatic crimping becomes interesting when machine costs as well as set-up costs are recovered through savings in production time.

In the next step, the assembled cables are mounted. For more complex cables, assembly aids provided by the work preparation department are used. Typically, these are cable boards and cable screens. Cable plans for placement can also be generated using the CAD software.

After placing and assembling the plugs and connectors, the finished cables are put on the test bench. Here again, the number of pieces and complexity play an important role. Accordingly, the 100% test can be performed manually or fully automatically. With a test adapter and test program, the electrical test is performed and documented easily.

As already discussed in the sections “How does the production of cable assembly production look like at WMH Herion Linner?” and “How much does cable manufacturing cost?“, the decisive factor is economic efficiency.

The core statement there is the higher the number of pieces and thus the potential savings in working time versus setup costs, the more interesting a higher degree of automation becomes.

However, there are also exceptional cases. Especially in prototyping, testing / validation of series and laboratories, only small quantities are required, which must correspond to the series in terms of quality or are generally subject to very high requirements due to the applications. In these cases, a semi / or fully automated solution is still used.

An own setup of the machinery for the automated production of assembled cables is relatively uncommon and of course requires an individual consideration. A later section will discuss when outsourcing is a worthwhile option.

That depends entirely on the type of collaboration you want and your level of cable assembly. But in general, it is not a disadvantage to bring a potential partner on board at an early stage.

Many of our customers already appreciate the offer of a supporting activity during the development and prototype phase. In the case of existing cables and cable harnesses, subsequent optimization is also possible.

The first step is to contact us. Here you can reach us at any time by phone or e-mail.

After initiating contact, an appointment is made with the aim of getting to know each other. The ideas of the future cooperation will be discussed in more detail.

This is followed by an initial sample inquiry. This serves to determine the quality and work processes. Depending on the customer, the auditing and validation of the new supplier can of course vary.

After the validation has been passed, the first regular order is placed.

Experience shows that the successful cooperation will be extended piece by piece.

As a system supplier, we offer several other product groups within and outside of electronics. It is not uncommon for the cooperation to grow beyond cable manufacturing