The RESCO Electronics Blog

I am excited to announce that on June 1, 2020 RESCO Electronics completed its acquisition of Madison, Wisconsin based Convenience Electronics, Inc. (“CEI”).  CEI was founded in 1989 by Harry Lum and has grown to be one of the premier cable and electromechanical assembly manufacturers in the Midwest.  CEI’s culture of putting its customers first coupled with a relentless focus on continual improvement fit well with RESCO.  Convenience’s emphasis on customers in the medical equipment and technology industries also matches well with RESCO’s concentration in these same areas.                                                                                                                                                                     CEI Production Floor                   

I am excited to announce that RESCO Electronics has been awarded as a Top Workplaces 2019 by The Baltimore Sun. The Sun made the award based on employee feedback gathered through a third-party survey administered by Energage, LLC, a leading provider of technology-based employee engagement tools. The anonymous survey measured several aspects of workplace culture, including alignment, execution, and connection, just to name a few.  Based on the rankings published by the Sun, RESCO placed 11^th in its small business category out of 91 small companies receiving the award and countless others that were considered.

As you may be aware, RESCO Electronics has been around for quite a long time.  In fact, RESCO was founded way back in 1932 as Radio Electric Service Company.  Over its 87 year history, RESCO has been involved with many customers in many different projects.  Perhaps no single project was of the historic significance as was RESCO’s involvement in the Apollo 11 LM camera system.  As our nation celebrates the 50^th anniversary of mankind’s first trip to the moon, the team at RESCO looks back with pride on this accomplishment and its small, yet important, contribution.

I am excited to share with you that last October RESCO moved into its new home in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico.   You may be thinking why wait six months before writing a blog about this new facility?  Well, the short answer is that we didn’t want to make a big to-do about our new place until the move was complete and most all the transition pains were behind us.  In other words, we didn’t want to be too quick to brag.  Now that the move is behind us and things are running smoothly, brag we will!  So here are some particulars about our new home, our staff and Acuna, Mexico.

Ever come across someone resistant to change?  It happens all the time, right? We all resist change to some degree, and it’s especially common for people to resist changes that suggest an existing method of how they are doing something might be improved. But we live in a marketplace that demands increasing efficiencies, so change we must. Convincing anyone of the imperative that getting better means doing things differently means we must always be ready to refute arguments against maintaining the status quo. You must improve your operations by making them leaner, and that means addressing lean myths and misperceptions.

In today’s challenging manufacturing environment, OEM’s are always looking for opportunities to reduce costs. Recently the RESCO team worked on a new project with a large medical OEM to transition production of a critical high voltage assembly from their plant to RESCO’s facility in Ciudad Acuna Mexico.  As with any outsourcing project, this one came with a unique set of opportunities and challenges.

No doubt most of you are aware that the US placed a 25% tariff on certain electronic components and other products manufactured in China effective July 6, 2018.  These tariffs were announced last month by the US Trade Representative (USTR) and are being imposed pursuant to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 in retaliation for what the US views as the unfair trade practices of China.

One of the hardest things to do is to listen.  Most of us are wired to talk and do it quite well.  We are quick to offer our ideas, our solutions, our way to do this or that.  Although God blessed us with two ears and we hear just fine, most of us really struggle to listen.  And by “listen” I mean to take the time to hear and really understand the ideas and concerns of others. 

There are many benefits to working with a contract manufacturer (CM).  As a result, many companies are finding plenty of reasons to outsource their production to another entity…and with good reason.  Although outsourcing production may have risks, these risks can be minimized by carefully selecting a CM that complements your company’s core competencies.   When deciding on a CM, you should weigh the benefits and associated risks. 

Most of you reading this will have purchased a home at some point in your life. In many respects picking a contract manufacturer for your company to partner with is a similar experience. You are making a major decision that can have a major effect for years to come and you have multiple stakeholders who all have different ideas about what is the best fit.  At the end of the day, you need to differentiate your “must haves” from your “would likes”.  And just as importantly, project what your must haves are going to be in the coming years.