Getting wired

Sometimes the smallest details take the longest to get right.

Recently, when we started bringing more of our manufacturing in-house, our goal was simple: reduce costs without cutting quality.

One thing I never expected to become such a challenge was finding the right wire.

It sounds simple. It’s just blue wire with an orange stripe.

The reality was anything but simple.

We could have switched to a different color, used a stripe that was close enough, or made any number of compromises. Honestly, almost nobody would have noticed.

But we would have known.

Wiring colors are part of our assembly process. They make installation, troubleshooting, and future service easier for both us and our customers. Consistency matters.

It took more time than I ever expected to find exactly what I wanted, but sometimes those are the decisions that separate building a product from simply assembling one.

People often ask why we continue bringing more processes in-house.

This is one of the reasons.

We get to decide where to save money, and where not to.

I’ll happily work hard to lower our costs. I just won’t do it by lowering our standards.

It’s funny how something as ordinary as a piece of wire can become one of the biggest headaches in manufacturing. Then again, manufacturing has a way of turning the simplest parts into the hardest ones to find.