With more than 50 years of experience, Electrical Components International (ECI) designs, manufactures and markets wire harnesses, power cords, as well as value-added assembly services to the appliance, HVAC, construction and agriculture, automotive, vending and industrial markets. Their wire harnesses are configurations of wire cut to specific lengths and finished with connectors, plugs or other components. Wire harnesses are used todistribute electricity in finished products such as washers, dryers, cars and air conditioners. Founded in 1953, the Company eventually moved their North American operations to Mexico in the 1990s. Today, they have 11,000 employees working in their facilities in the US, Mexico, Canada, Poland, Italy, Germany and China. The Company supplies products to more than 90 original equipment manufacturers.

UNIQUE SELLING POINTS

ECI is defined by the Company’s experienced and focused management team. “Our company is
totally focused on the wire harness business,” says Gary Gagstetter, Executive Vice President
of Electrical Components International. “We are not distracted with multiple businesses, and
products. All of our manufacturing plants are dedicated to producing harnesses. We really know
our product and we focus on it.”

Gagstetter continues to say that the Company doesn’t just manufacture wire harnesses,
but they are a key service provider to their customers. In support of their customers, ECI
provides design, dedicated new product introduction, as well as cost/takeout services, all
on a global basis. “We have a separate cost take out team within our design services group
made up of experienced engineers who are dedicated to reviewing product designs to suggest
improvements in cost and quality. These cost take out initiatives can take many forms including,
material substitution, combining multiple harnesses into one, reviewing specifications for over
engineered product, etc.,” he continues.

The Company also maintains manufacturing centers of excellence by grouping products with
similar processes and materials together in one manufacturing facility, which allows for a
customer-focused approach to deliver world class quality and delivery at a competitive cost.
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Each manufacturing location’s teams are specialized in each center of excellence and products
offered. For instance, all refrigeration appliance harnesses go to one plant and agricultural and
construction harnesses go to another. Their global scale also gives the Company a competitive
edge to offer competitive pricing due to its level of efficiency.

LEAN SIX SIGMA

The Company’s history of a Lean Six Sigma culture dates back to the 1990s when ECI acquired
General Electric’s captive wire harness business; continuous improvement has been engrained
in the Company’s culture ever since. There is a continuous improvement leader at each plant
with a global manager to monitor the standardization of processes in the plants. ECI has a
full-time engineering and technical support team dedicated to improving quality, driving cost
reduction programs and managing new product implementations. Each facility strives to improve
quality performance throughout their supply chain.

The Company also has a Best Practices Initiative, which is aimed to eliminate variation in a
multitude of processes by creating a standard approach to “Copy Exact” best practices, such as
key manufacturing processes, production planning, distribution, quality, operations and training
processes, throughout all of the ECI facilities. For example, if one plant has the best process
when it comes to new product introductions or an inventory management tool, this best practice
will be spread to the other plants for a more standardized and uniform approach on a global
basis.

SUPPLY CHAIN

Because of ECI’s global presence, the Company also has purchasing power to negotiate
favorable supply agreements with their vendors. They have adopted a local warehouse model,
which locates finished product inventory nearby to customer sites to deliver their products
quickly to their customers. “Ideally, we would prefer our inventory to be within four hours of
our customer sites to improve our response time and offer the best on-time delivery possible,”
Gagstetter says. “We utilize local logistic companies to operate the local warehouses for
us, which has proven to be a great success in offering faster delivery response times to the
customer.”

TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS

ECI is working on the development of web-based systems in quality and new product
introduction initiatives to improve the Company’s processes in terms of speed and
standardization.

Our web based quality and NPI systems allow for more efficient communication with our
customers. “Our customers can access quality data to see how our company is doing. ECI is
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also the global leader in RAST IDC technology which is a fully automated connection system
originally developed in Europe and now deployed in North American designs.

NOTICEABLE MARKET TRENDS

ECI is putting a major emphasis on cost of quality and the quality levels of its supply chain. As
a result of the market recovery, ECI is experiencing Suppliers extending lead times, which is a
challenge to responding to the ever growing demand fluctuations from the customer base.
“We have adjusted our process to make manufacturing and supply chain more flexible in order
to launch new products on time, which is critical in this environment.

LOOKING FORWARD

ECI is looking to expand geographically to capitalize on growing markets. In addition,
over the last year the sales force has been reorganized around several markets, rather
than by geographic regions to improve their customer focus, expertise and diversification.

“Our market based sales approach combined with our centers of excellence has provided
tailored solutions to our customer base and has proven very successful,” he says. “We see
our growth expanding into a broader range of vertical markets, while establishing a larger
geographic footprint and maintaining leadership in our established markets.”