Click Here for Printable pdf Version of SEA Wire and Cable Inc. Client Success Story

ATAC-ATN training helps firm build bottom line

Industry                                                                               
Wire & Cable Mfg.

Company City
Madison                

Company State
Alabama                                             

Company Name                                                                     
SEA Wire and Cable, Inc.             

Project/Activity Year
Quality Systems - AS 9100 / 2008

Company Profile
SEA Wire & Cable Inc. is a leading supplier of wire, cable, tubing, termination sleeves, cable ties, EMI/RFI backshells, mil-spec connectors, and other cable assemblies for the aerospace and military markets. The company is headquartered in Madison, Ala. with offices worldwide, and plans to double the size of its Madison facility over the current year.

Situation
As a Boeing supplier, SEA Wire & Cable was rewuired to attain AS 9100 certification. With ATN guidance, the company succeeded in only eight months. The Boeing Company relies on a cadre’ of suppliers to produce and deliver thousands of specialty parts for its aircraft and defense-related products, says Boeing Supplier Manager Brad Bruce. Supply chain management is a critically important and complex process.
Shortly after receiving AS 9100 certification, SEA Wire & Cable attained a quality audit score of 96.5.

Solution
With training assistance from the Alabama Technology Network (ATN), SEA Wire & Cable Inc. has written this success story by attaining AS 9100 certification and building its defense and aerospace business on a commitment to quality.

“This is a success story developed through the joint work of Auburn Technical Assistance Center (ATAC) – one of the ATN’s three four-year university centers – and our sister ATN center based at Northeast Alabama Community College in Rainsville, Alabama,” said ATAC Director Henry Burdg. “We facilitated the project through the Alabama-Boeing Supplier Development and Training program that we have been a part of since its inception several years ago.”

AS 9100 is the quality management system standard for the aerospace industry. Certification builds on the more widely known ISO 9001-2000 quality recognition pursued by manufacturers and other industrial entities.

Over the past year, SEA Wire & Cable has partnered with Auburn University’s ATAC and Rainsville’s ATN to conduct extensive employee training for quality assurance and auditing.

As described by the firm’s quality manager, William Thomas, “We focused on improving all processes for quality and efficiency gains, and the AS 9100 push has been instrumental in making those efforts successful.”

According to Chris Anderson of the Rainsville ATN center, the project portrays a textbook model.

“SEA Wire & Cable already had a good quality system in place,” Anderson said. “The real task was to ensure that it met AS 9100 audit criteria through employee training and development.”

With ATN guidance, the company succeeded in only eight months. Shortly after receiving AS 9100 certification, SEA Wire & Cable attained a quality audit score of 96.5.

“This kind of training project is a testament to the action and cooperation possible when ATN centers and the private sector come together,” Burdg said. “This is an overall validation that we can meet our customers’ needs.”

“It’s a complete success story all the way,” Clark adds.

Results
Increased and retained sales each totaling $5 million annually is the kind of bottom line achievement any company would welcome. When that is compounded by an additional $20 million enabled in plant equipment investment, $10,000 in improved software, between $5,000 - $10,000 in cost savings, the addition of 10 new jobs, and $10,000 invested in employee skills training and development, the story is nothing short of a complete success

Testimonial

“We had to develop some formal structure,” said SEA Wire & Cable General Manager Marty Clark. “Auburn and the ATN had the expertise and resources that enabled us to do this thoroughly and within a desirable scope of time.”