“An ANSI-accredited standards developing organization,” NEMA gives its members a voice and supports them by “expanding market opportunities, acquiring exclusive business intelligence, removing market barriers, building supply chain connections, and harnessing innovation,” the association’s website describes.

Founded in 1926, the association’s role has proven critical. “It was important in standardization of technologies and safety,” says NEMA President Debra Phillips. “Safety was a huge part of the birth of widespread electricity. A main portion of its mission at that time was to develop industry standards that would be widely adopted to keep this technology safe so that consumers could use it [and be] safe from health hazards, safe from fires, safe from explosions. That major role of standardization and safety has been core and central since the association was formed and that continues today.”

Now, after decades of growth, “We have a library of over 700 standards for all kinds of electrical technologies that keep those devices safe and standardize our national electrical system,” Phillips says. “Many of our standards have been adopted into the National Electrical Code and are referenced in regulations at the state and federal levels. So that part of the association, that value that we bring to the industry, has been part of our legacy from the beginning.”

NEMA works closely with the government to represent and support the industry, “and that could be at state and local level for those that are looking at electrical code adoption or at the federal level around regulations that are affecting the industry,” says Phillips. “We play that role as the voice of the industry to bring the perspective of electrical manufacturers.”

Providing market intelligence is another critical part of NEMA’s mission. “We collect data from our members, help them understand market dynamics so that they can make informed decisions regarding their businesses and their technology,” Phillips says.

Currently, NEMA is zeroed in on three major areas of activity. These are related to macro trends that affect the full gamut of electrical manufacturers, who can be involved with anything from lighting and HVAC systems to motors and wires. “It’s a pretty diverse mixture,” Phillips says, “but there are some things that are going on across society that have a general impact across all of those technologies and companies, and that’s where we’ve been focused.”

The first area of NEMA activity is infrastructure investment. “In late 2021, Congress passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which is spending $1.2 trillion to modernize our nation’s infrastructure,” Phillips explains, “and of that $1.2 trillion, about a third of it is being invested in some type of electrical infrastructure.” This includes the electrification of ports and transportation systems, electric vehicles, and automation technologies.

“So we’ve really been focused on understanding what’s in that package, how those dollars are being rolled out, how they’re going to be spent,” she says. “There are about four major federal agencies that are directing that funding, but a lot of it is flowing through state and local agencies, and so we’ve been spending time trying to educate on what’s the best, highest-value use of those dollars on those technologies so that they can be future-proofed and we’re not spending money on technologies that are going to be obsolete in ten years.”

As part of this activity, NEMA has “ramped up a portal that allows members to track those dollars as they’re being released so that they can have a line of sight into which agencies and individuals are controlling the spend. It gives them the ability to bring their products and technologies forward for investment.”

NEMA’s focus on infrastructure extends to multiple other laws and acts, including the CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as private investment. “A lot of federal money is being channeled toward electrification and electrical infrastructure modernization, which is great,” says Phillips, “and accompanying that public spend are private sector dollars. We have an environment where this country is, at a federal level, investing in infrastructure, and we’re also seeing a huge amount of interest from the private sector pouring in as companies start to invest in manufacturing facilities in this country, given this enabling environment that’s been created through legislation.”

Around $6 billion in private sector investments have been announced over the last year or so, in addition to the public sector dollar. “There’s just been a huge amount of funding that’s been coming in to modernize infrastructure and bring some critical manufacturing within this industry back to this country,” Phillips shares. “So that focus on infrastructure has been a big, big part of what we’re focused on and watching and supporting.”

NEMA’s second area of activity centers on the supply chain. “Our industry, like many others across the economy, experienced quite a crunch in raw materials during COVID,” Phillips explains. “Much of that has alleviated; however, there are still a few critical supply chain areas that we’re concerned about.” Electrical steel, critical minerals, and chips are all at risk for shortages.

NEMA recently led a coalition to ask the White House to host a summit on electrical steel and address the limited number of producers in the United States. “We see the demand for electrical steel increasing dramatically,” Phillips shares. “The production is already in short supply here and we think that that’s going to be exacerbated over time.”

Critical minerals are “a really important part of the new electrical economy,” she explains. “They’re critically important for battery storage in particular. It’s important that this country has access to those critical minerals here, where they can be produced safely under a very modern and robust regulatory regime so that we’re not reliant on other countries.”

Ensuring that electrical manufacturers have an adequate supply of chips is also critically important. “Many of our products are becoming smart; they have chips embedded in them [but] they’re not the high-tech chips that are being used today in automobiles. They are legacy chips that are not as advanced, and we want to make sure that we have adequate domestic supply of those types of chips. In fact, there’s a portion of funding in the CHIPS Act specifically for those types of chips that are intensely used by this industry and allow our buildings and our infrastructure to continue to operate. So we’ve been very active in that part of the infrastructure equation.”

NEMA’s third area of activity involves the energy transition. This effort considers the “move away from more carbon-intensive sources of our energy in this country to more electrified sources and what role we, as a trade association, and our companies as technology providers, play to accelerate that transition,” says Phillips. “As we’re going through that transition, we’re making sure that our grid stays resilient, that we’ve got the appropriate energy efficiency technologies to take pressure off the grid, and that we invest in renewables, energy storage, and other technologies that are going to promote this transition.”

“We’ve been doing a good bit of mapping in this area,” she adds. “We launched an interactive map that shows the policy enablers as well as key barriers for us making this journey through the energy transition and also advancing legislation that really hits on the energy efficiency pieces that we think are going to be critical to getting through this transition and taking pressure off the grid.”

After leading the industry for nearly a century, NEMA is more than ready to support the industry as it moves into the future. From promoting infrastructure investment to ensuring the availability of raw materials and shepherding manufacturers through the energy transition, the association remains confidently at the helm, steering the industry forward.

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The company is known for having one of the largest, most varied magnet and specialty wire inventories available, and, if MWS does not have exactly what a customer needs, the team will find it or make it.

Established in 1968, the Oxnard, California-based business has been sourcing specially tailored wire solutions for over half a century. Industries served include medical, aerospace, automotive, computers, electronics, music, sensors, and telecommunications.

A new state-of-the-art production facility enables the team to meet customers’ unique needs, from product development through the qualification phases. The facility totals 75,000 square feet including offices, with 25,000 square feet dedicated to manufacturing space and 40,000 square feet to warehouse space. Most of the production equipment was made exclusively for the facility, and the facility was specially designed to accommodate tight deadlines. In fact, the team specializes in short production runs and quick turnarounds, so customers can get what they need when they need it.

Service first
MWS adopted its niche approach as a natural response to customer demand. “When we first began selling wire, we were just known as a magnet wire supplier,” Yelich says. “That’s all that we were doing; we were just a distributor. Now we’re a custom manufacturer and distributor because we tried never to say no to customers who were buying wire products.”

At the time, “You could call all these wire companies in the world, and everybody would have the standard commodity, off-the-shelf products,” he remembers. However, customers needed wire that was not a standard, off-the-shelf product, and they reached out to MWS with their requests.

“‘I called all the other suppliers and they can’t do it,’” Yelich remembers customers saying, “and we thought, well, let’s try not to say ‘no.’ Let’s try to say ‘yes.’ So we started building equipment and manufacturing. We started making products that you couldn’t buy anywhere in the world.”

As the demand for niche products continued to grow, the team intensified its focus on meeting specialty wire needs. “We just started to build upon that in our manufacturing department,” he explains. “We started adding equipment—drawing equipment, enameling equipment—just based on these special needs the customers had… We basically turned from just a normal distributor supplying products that everybody could get, into a very unique, custom, niche-oriented company.”

MWS customers often need smaller amounts of wire than standard manufacturers and suppliers can offer. “When someone can’t buy the minimum, they come to MWS, and we supply them with smaller lengths,” says Manufacturing Manager Mark Rodda. For instance, a customer may only need a thousand feet of wire for a research and development project, too small an order for most larger manufacturers to accommodate. MWS, on the other hand, specializes in these types of orders because the company can custom-make them in-house.

Supplying critical industries
Though given little attention, magnet and specialty wire are critical products that surround us wherever we go. “It’s one of those things that makes life a lot easier and is in everyday life products,” Rodda says. “You just don’t know about it because it’s behind the scenes.” For example, MWS’ unique wire products enhance the performance of a wide range of computer-related components and peripherals.

The company’s specialty wires are also incorporated into a variety of medical equipment including intracardiac mapping catheters, intravascular ultrasound imaging systems, intracardiac ablation catheters and systems, spinal cord stimulators, cardiac rhythm products, treatment devices for cerebral vascular disease, and endoscopic therapeutic devices.

The aerospace and defense industries use MWS’ fine and ultra-fine precision wire for deep space exploration, electronics, flight controls, avionics, GPS, navigation systems, sensors, probes, and weather systems. The electronics industry is another major customer, particularly since the demand for sophisticated wire has increased as lower voltage applications replace outdated high voltage combinations, and with the increased emphasis on miniaturization.

Guitar manufacturers also use MWS’ specialty wire, which is created with the understanding that the insulation type, thickness, and purity of the copper all influence the tone of the musical instrument.

MWS supports research and development in the automotive industry when unique wire solutions are required. The company’s state-of-the-art product facility is ideal for drawing, shaping, serving, twisting, and insulating custom automotive wire. MWS wire is also used in sensors, a technology that picks up input from the physical environment and then transmits this data in the form of electrical signals to gauges or other electronics.

And, even though wireless communication has become standard, the telecommunications industry still uses MWS wire, since new transmission processes and equipment continue to require traditional copper and specialty wire to extend transmission capacity and speed.

With so many industries relying on the company, MWS is a small business that makes a big impact. “We’re a small family-owned company,” Yelich says. “We’re about seventy employees. We’re not this big corporation, but we do a lot of special, unique products to serve the industry.”

This makes MWS a crucial player within its market. “During COVID, there was no way we could close our business because we’re supporting too many important industries out there; aerospace in particular with military and defense,” says Yelich. “We fill such a critical need within the wire industry. These products—that you can’t buy anywhere as you can imagine—are so special that, if we somehow were closed, it would have a bad ripple effect on a lot of businesses within the world. Those customers really rely upon the products that we offer.”

Quality is key
The pressure is high to supply reliable products due to the critical nature of the industries served. “Our challenge is: how do we ensure quality from the very beginning to the very end of the wire?” Rodda says. “So MWS is at the cutting edge of using AI technology and end-line inspection.”

The medical device market in particular requires this top-notch level of quality control due to the high stakes involved. Rodda uses the example of a washing machine, which uses wire to conduct electricity to run the motor.

“If that motor fails because of the wire, well, you’ve got maybe a bad load of laundry, right? If the wire fails in a catheter in a medical device, that’s a serious issue. The risk assessment there is much higher, and so we are under a different sort of environment in the medical wire field than, say, in the industrial.”

A pacemaker is another example of a medical product that requires the highest quality specialty wire. “The pacemaker is sending an impulse to the heart to stimulate it to pump,” Rodda says. “That impulse is generated by a coil of magnet wire. You really want that wire to be good.” The team understands the challenges of manufacturing for the medical industry, and how to meet those challenges. “You have to go into it knowing the risk and you have to mitigate that risk as much as possible.”

MWS has spent decades forging a niche approach that sets the company apart in the marketplace—and the team intends to continue meeting unique customer needs for many more decades to come.

“We’re trying to give them all the things that we have to offer, which are special, unique products, very quick answers, very quick deliveries, the best service, and the highest quality,” Yelich summarizes. “That really encompasses who MWS is.”

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Regarded as the benchmark for traffic control systems and the established market leader across the board, EDI’s forte is dependable high-tech traffic cabinet components, signal monitors, vehicle detectors, power supplies, load switches, flashers, bus and serial interface units, and Advanced Transportation Controller Cabinet (ATCC) components for traffic control.

The benefits of the EDI lineup include more than 43 years of electronic engineering, standards leadership, product innovation, and equipment with pre-installed setup and diagnostic tools that allow accurate installation and troubleshooting, invariably saving time and money overall.

Overcoming the odds
Despite the company’s remarkable success, the past few years threw up several extreme challenges to be met, particularly by way of a pandemic that disrupted supply chains around the globe for almost every industry.

“We couldn’t point to one agent, company, or industry. It was the whole world that fell apart,” says President John Shearer. “But we were all trying to solve the problem together. EDI is critical infrastructure, though, because we make products for signalized intersections, and if we don’t make products, traffic lights go dark and vehicles can’t get around.”

As EDI services approximately 380,000 of the 400,000 intersections in the U.S. and Canada, Shearer’s remark can be taken absolutely literally. So the company’s doors remained open full-time, with its Phoenix, Arizona-based manufacturing plant working 40 hours a week to build those essential products and keep communications open with its vendors.

“We were able to talk to our vendors and say, ‘we need these parts,’” says Shearer. “We realize in the open component market we’re competing against everybody who needs a resistor or a diode with a certain specification, including companies like the Ford Motor Company, but if they don’t sell any cars for six months, it’s not the end of the world; if we don’t sell any components, and traffic signals go dark, it’s critical.”

While EDI isn’t a billion-dollar Fortune 500 company, it was able to negotiate persuasively with its vendors for products that were crucial to the economy of the whole of North America.

“It was about communication and transparency to make sure the supply chain is robust,” says Shearer. “If we needed a million components but they could get us 100,000 for the month, that would keep things going. So there became allocation and prioritization of raw components.”

Building collaboration
The process required collaborative problem-solving and actively engaging with businesses to identify alternative solutions or workarounds. The company employed its expertise and experience to explore options like sourcing materials from different locations, adjusting production schedules, and finding alternative suppliers.

“Luckily, we have an internal purchasing procurement team that’s highly skilled and experienced,” Shearer says. “Our vendors supported us whenever we would reach out to alternative vendors, adjusting lead times and partial shipments.”

“We did a lot of broker buys and a lot of finding components that were in storage somewhere, putting them on a jet plane, and bringing them in at a significant cost increase,” Shearer says. “We had one integrated circuit that went from $1.70 to $70 going into a product that would sell for $100.”

While this led to some surcharge pricing on specific components, vendors demonstrated flexibility by being willing to adjust lead times, provide partial shipments, or offer alternative products that met specific requirements, enabling businesses to maintain operations and serve customers to the best of their abilities. “Adjusting our production schedule was critical and we did a lot of that through vendor support, finding alternatives… and then we would adjust to that new supply chain timeline.”

While the situation is better now, it’s not yet perfect, with some components still in short supply that EDI pays a premium on.

Analyzing risk is, of course, imperative along with remaining proactive about it, including implementing robust risk management strategies such as building buffer inventory, diversifying the supplier base, and investing in redundancy to minimize disruptions and ensure a more reliable supply. “We didn’t shut our doors and our customers didn’t have to turn off their signal lights. So it worked out well.”

Navigating the times
While vendor support during these times was essential, it came down to relationships, says Shearer, with both parties working together to find solutions and minimize the impact on business operations. By maintaining strong relationships and effective communication, businesses and vendors navigated challenging times and emerged even more resilient than before.

“We were all in this together,” he says. “If we can’t build products, we can’t buy their raw materials, they don’t sell, so it backs up. You have to work to find solutions and mitigate problems. Having strong relationships with your vendors was really important, and the communication was huge.”

COVID, of course, played havoc not only on the day-to-day business; keeping doors open during the pandemic also meant a major drive to keep employees safe throughout.

“In the early days of COVID, no one really knew how serious and how contagious it was, so there was a lot of fear,” says Shearer. “We immediately started developing health and safety protocols. While salespeople, accountants, and others could work outside the office, we had approximately 100 people in the shop who had to come in every day, because they had to place components on circuit boards, they had to solder. It couldn’t be done at home.”

EDI put up partitions, ensured everybody had plenty of cleaning stations, enforced mask-wearing, and gave liberal time off to anyone who was sick. “We focused every day on safety and health for our employees as well as compliance with government issues,” Shearer says.

Along with physical worries came mental health concerns such as anxiety and stress. EDI took on a much more focused and granular approach toward safety and mental health for its employees to ensure they had the support they needed.

“We asked employees how they were feeling—not just sick but whether they were anxious or scared,” Shearer says. “It was the right thing to do. We value our employees. We wouldn’t be in business if we didn’t have 165 great people coming in every day and giving all their efforts. We wanted to make sure we were giving back to them by giving them a safe work environment above and beyond what we normally do.”

EDI also communicated to its end users, keeping them up to date weekly, sending out letters explaining any supply chain issues and which products would or wouldn’t be available for another six months, along with alternatives.

“We would even help people find other solutions that we didn’t sell ourselves,” says Shearer. “We were profitable, but we also lost revenue and profit with supply chain cost escalation, and we couldn’t always raise prices. But the financial commitment from management at the top never wavered. We were proactive in taking care of our end users and our supply chain and everybody in between.”

Lessons learned
EDI is not only extremely well known in the industry, it plays a vital part in the overall transportation infrastructure. In such a dynamic arena, the company has continuously evolved. The team has made changes including shifting to online platforms and engaging with the digital market; enhancing safety measures to instill confidence among customers; prioritizing customer experience by improving communication channels; addressing customer concerns promptly; and personalizing experiences whenever possible.

Further steps are supporting remote work and virtual collaboration and adopting innovative approaches such as exploring new revenue streams, partnerships, and business models.

“Optimizing our customer communications tempo was the biggest shift in driving value through our system and prioritizing customers’ experience,” Shearer explains. “We learn more about what’s critical to our customers because we talk to them daily. We also drive extra value by communicating proactively with all of our suppliers up and down the chain.”

Emerging into the future
The company has experienced a number of changes in its 43 years. It was founded in 1980 by Terry Eberle, who in 2010 sold it to private equity. From 2010 to 2022, EDI was owned by five different companies, one strategic and the other four private equity.

“None of them, except for the most recent, invested in our future,” says Shearer, singling out current owner Vance Street Capital. “It truly is a partnership. They’re always available. They’re always helping us and we’re very excited about where EDI goes over the next five to 10 years. They’re investing in us through leadership and guidance, and we’re hiring people, growing our capabilities, buying machinery, and doing a lot of things previous owners didn’t see as priorities. Our future is extremely bright,” he says.

As the world was thrown into upheaval in the past few years, businesses had many decisions to make affecting both the present and future, and EDI has made a lot of positive ones.

“When the pandemic kicked off, I think the entire world was in survival mode,” Shearer says. “You do what you can, you control what you can, and you try to adapt to what you can’t control. From that, you learn a tremendous amount about the world, the economy, your customers, supply chains, and your own business. And then you don’t forget what you learned,” he shares.

“We’ve really made the best of it, but at the same time, it’s actually made us a better, stronger company.”

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