Are new components wreaking havoc on your wire harness quotes? Here's what you need to know.
You’re in the wire harness business, right? Quoting should be routine by now, with your tried-and-true pricing tools, suppliers, and production lines. But then, a new component shows up—something unfamiliar, more complex, or from a new supplier. Suddenly, quoting just got a lot more complicated.
Why does this happen, and how can you navigate it without sinking into frustration? Let’s dive into the challenges new components bring to the quoting process and how to get ahead of them.
Table of contents
What happens when new components throw off your quote?
Here’s a question: Have you ever tried quoting a wire harness, only to find a new component has skewed your entire process? Maybe it’s a new terminal or a covering material, something outside your usual supplier's catalog. What do you do when this happens, and how does it impact your final quote?
New components create ripple effects that reach far beyond just adding one more item to your Bill of Materials (BoM). They affect everything—cost, lead time, production complexity—and can even risk your relationship with clients if the quote ends up way off the mark.
Material costs: why new components inflate prices
New components often carry an added cost. Think about it: components made from specialized materials or manufactured in smaller quantities tend to cost more, right? You’re not benefiting from economies of scale, so prices spike. This isn’t just an annoyance—it’s a significant variable that could make or break the profitability of your project.
For example, one manufacturer discovered that a newly introduced insulated terminal cost 20% more than standard options due to its complex material structure. Without catching this early in the quoting process, they could have underquoted, leading to squeezed margins or difficult conversations with their client.
Pro tip: Use quoting tools such as Cableteque with real-time data to track material costs. These tools help you ensure accurate pricing—even when dealing with new or niche components.
Lead times: the unpredictability problem
New components often come with unpredictable lead times. Suppliers might not yet have the stock or production rhythm for newer parts, which can lead to extended delivery times and potential project delays. If you’re quoting a job and don’t account for longer lead times, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment later when deadlines are missed.
Consider this: A manufacturer in the aerospace industry had a crucial project pushed back by six weeks due to delays in obtaining a newly released backshell component. The impact on their client relationship was significant, and the costs associated with the delay were hard to recover.
Advice: When quoting, overestimate lead times for new components and communicate that possibility to your client. It’s better to manage expectations than to face a fire drill when deadlines slip.
Supplier availability: sourcing issues and what to do
Another problem is supplier availability. New components often come from a limited number of sources, meaning your typical supplier might not carry it, or if they do, availability could be patchy. Worse yet, depending on new suppliers can open you up to reliability risks.
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One electrical manufacturer found themselves scrambling when a new supplier couldn’t deliver critical components on time. They were forced to either find an alternate supplier (adding to their costs) or extend the project timeline—neither option was ideal.
Production complexity: what new parts mean for your line
New components can complicate production. Maybe it’s a material that’s trickier to work with or a design that requires new tooling or assembly methods. For example, new terminals might require different crimping processes or specialized machinery.
If your production line isn’t equipped for these changes, you’re facing significant downtime, retraining, or even investment in new equipment. All of this needs to be factored into your quote to avoid taking a financial hit later.
For example, a contract manufacturer introduced a new wire layout system that was initially supposed to streamline production. However, the added complexity meant retraining workers and adjusting their workflow, which slowed down production for weeks.
Tip: Always evaluate the full production impact of new components before finalizing your quote.
The future of quoting: are you ready for the shift?
New components will always be a challenge, but they’re also a sign of growth and innovation in the wire harness industry. The key is to stay ahead of the game. By understanding how new materials and designs affect your quoting process—and by utilizing digital tools to manage these complexities—you can position yourself as a leader in a competitive market.
But here’s the question you should be asking: Will you adapt your quoting process to stay competitive, or will new components continue throw teams off track?
About Cableteque
Cableteque streamlines the entire wire harness lifecycle for contract manufacturers and OEM's alike. Cableteque’s Predictive Interconnect Analytics (PIA) software is a cloud-based AI solution that helps increase efficiency and reduce mistakes by automating the identification of failures and creating a foolproof digital twin to transfer knowledge during the development process.
Its software also streamlines and automates the quoting, design, and sourcing processes involved in wire harness production. Cableteque focuses on reducing the time it takes for contract manufacturers to generate quotes for new projects, which typically can take days or even over a week, down to just 30 minutes.
The software allows data synchronization with multiple databases and proprietary design rule checks (DRC) to minimize costly mistakes in the early stages of product modeling and design. PIA integrates seamlessly with CAD tools and provides comprehensive feedback to help designers target “design risks” and enhance confidence in the expected outcome. Cableteque’s PIA software is an add-on tool to the designers’ CAD, and it will integrate seamlessly with numerous native CAD tools by leveraging standard outputs of design tools such as the parts list, From-To lists, and other design data and provide comprehensive feedback so that the designer can target “design risks” to minimize mistakes and enhance confidence in the expected outcome.
About Mr Arik Vrobel
For over 30 transformative years, Arik led the evolution of El-Com Systems into a pinnacle of excellence in Electric Wire Harnesses (EWH) for global enterprises. In his final 5 years, he steered El-Com to become the foremost provider of engineered harnesses for the commercial-space sector, supporting groundbreaking projects on space platforms.
Since its acquisition by Winchester Interconnect , driven by his entrepreneurial spirit, Arik founded Cableteque, a beacon of innovation offering AI-based CAD tools to enhance and validate engineering designs of EWH, inspiring the industry with his vision for impactful technological advancement.