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The State of Wire Harness Operations

42 wire harness manufacturers participated in an industry survey.  The results show an industry that believes it's further along than it is and is ready to move faster than most people expect. 

State-of-wire-harness-operations-ebook
  • Why 74% of manufacturers describe their process as manual and too slow, despite rating their digital maturity highly
  • The three problems that show up everywhere, and why they connect to a single root cause
  • How often customer design errors are reaching the shop floor, and what the data says about it
  • Which tools the industry is actually using vs the ones it says it needs most
  • What's really holding adoption back, and why management buy-in is not the barrier most people think it is
  • Why 95% of respondents said yes or maybe to participating in a WHMA-backed evaluation program

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57%
say BOM or design completeness as #1 challenge
73%
describe their quoting process as manual and too slow
48%
Still using Excel or Word-based tools to design and document
 WHY THIS GUIDE EXISTS

Most shops think they're more digital than they are.

The survey asked manufacturers to rate their digital maturity across four operational areas. BOM creation scored 4.07 out of 5 (with 5 being highest). Sourcing scored 4.05. Those are solid numbers.

The same group was then asked to describe their quoting process. Three in four said it was manual, time-intensive, and too slow for what customers now expect.

That gap is the most important finding in the report. It is not that manufacturers are in denial. It is that digital maturity is being measured against the old baseline. Using Excel with formulas feels more digital than using paper. Against that reference point, a 4 makes sense.

The question is whether the process is fast enough, accurate enough, and resilient enough to compete today. The data suggests most operations are not there yet, and that most manufacturers already know it.

This guide is for you if:

  • You want to know what your peers are struggling with and whether they share the same pains
  • You're curious whether your operation is ahead of, or behind, the industry curve
  • You want data to back up what you already suspect about your quoting process
  • You need hard numbers to build a business case for change
  • You want to know where the industry is heading — and what the early movers are doing differently
photographic create a photo like image of a man sitting at a desk with his head in his hands looking at a wire harness drawing

About this report

This survey was run by the WHMA Innovation Advisory Team in 2025, with Arik Vrobel, CEO of Cableteque, serving as IAT Co-Chair alongside George Jacob, Director of Etron Systems. IAT members include representatives from ECI, Komax, Lucid, MBDA, Motherson, Protronics, Qualtronics/Corterra, and Rocket Lab.

This report is Cableteque's analysis of the findings and why we believe the industry is at a genuine turning point.

WHAT CHANGED WHEN THEY FIXED IT

Real results, from real wire harness shops

s&YINDUSTRIESLOGO

"Before Cableteque, I spent hours a week just doing quoting. Now I can get through and get the stuff done that I need done with just a little bit each day, and that's enough to keep me caught up. We've almost doubled our wire harness production, and I'm still managing with what I have. "

Benjamin LeClair
Program Manager, S&Y Industries
RESCOLOGO

"Before Cableteque, a normal quote took at least five days, and when things got busy, the queue could mean waiting a month just for a quote. Now, we’ve cut that time in half, and the backlog is gone—even during our busiest months. "

Kelly Grato
VP of Procurement and Estimating, Resco Electronics

kcmLOGO

"From using it for a month, I feel more confident in the pricing because I can see the exact number. Customers have told us our pricing is more competitive. On one quote alone, Quoteque saved me about 18 hours of work.”

Kory Ewell,
President, KCM Cable