Supply Chain Companies Honored

Electronics industry companies announced a slate of new awards recently. Distributors Future Electronics and Rutronik were among those recognized for strong performance, and Texas-based TTI bestowed its Supplier Excellence Awards. Also, contract manufacturer Epec Engineered Technologies received a 2015 Manufacturing Leadership Award for its lean manufacturing initiatives.

Early this month, Future Electronics announced it was named 2014 Distribution Partner for the Americas by ON Semiconductor. This is the second consecutive year Future has received the award, which recognizes growth in product sales, generation of new business, and the distributor’s ability to support customers’ needs and ON Semiconductor’s initiatives for operational excellence.

Future also was named Distributor of the Year 2014 in Asia by TE Connectivity. The award recognizes sales growth, inventory investment, design expertise, and the distributor’s overall engagement with TE Connectivity.

In Europe, Germany-based distributor Rutronik was named Volume Distributor of the Year by Littlefuse. The award honors the distributor for achieving the highest increase in revenue within its distribution network covering the entire product range. Rutronik has been a distribution partner to Littlefuse across Europe since 2005. The two expanded their partnership last year to include Asia.

In Texas, top distributor TTI, Inc. announced the winners of its 2014 Supplier Excellence Awards this month. Outstanding performance awards went to: AVX, Bourns, FCI, KEMET Electronics, KOA Speer Electronics, Littlefuse, Molex, Murata, Nichicon, Phoenix Contact, TDK, and Vishay.

Finally, Epec Engineered Technologies, which designs and manufactures custom build-to-print electronic products, received a 2015 Manufacturing Leadership Award for Innovative Process Leadership. The award is given by Frost & Sullivan’s Manufacturing Leadership Council and it honors companies and individuals that have “undertaken breakthrough projects in manufacturing as determined by an expert panel of judges,” according to the council.

The Innovation Process Leadership award recognizes Epec’s business modernization initiative using cloud-based ERP technology to create lean, agile manufacturing and supply chain execution, while improving business efficiency and scalability for global growth.

According to the company, Epec’s transformation got under way in 2007 when the company replaced an outdated, inflexible on-premise ERP application with NetSuite, a cloud-based business management suite. With NetSuite, Epec gained an end-to-end design, manufacturing, and business platform for production of custom battery packs, flex and rigid-flex circuits, user interface products, electronic fans and motors, cable assemblies, and printed circuit boards. As a cloud application, NetSuite gives Epec personnel at headquarters in Massachusetts and facilities in the UK, China, Colorado, and Florida 24/7 access to design and production workflows. Epec has augmented its NetSuite-based manufacturing environment with Autodesk PLM 360, a cloud product lifecycle management (PLM) solution from NetSuite partner Autodesk to streamline and control complex build-to-order work.

“We’re incredibly honored to be recognized with a prestigious Manufacturing Leadership Award," said Epec CEO Ed McMahon. “Our success illustrates what manufacturers can accomplish by embedding lean and innovative practices across the organization. NetSuite has been a huge part of that for us—NetSuite gives us an advantage over our competitors who still do things the old way with spreadsheets and disparate applications.”