Products & Services
Tensolite, a Carlisle company, is one of the world's leading designers and manufacturers of high performance wire and cable, RF/microwave connectors and cable assemblies.

Company Overview
Tensolite, a Carlisle company, is one of the world's leading designers and manufacturers of high performance wire and cable, RF/microwave connectors and cable assemblies. The Tensolite family of products is targeted at applications in the aerospace, defense electronics, wireless infrastructure, optical telecommunications, and test and measurement industries. The goal of Tensolite is to stay in the forefront of the development of innovative interconnect solutions. This commitment is seen even in the company name; high tensile strength and compact lightweight performance. Tensile + Lightweight = "Tensolite". Tensolite provides interconnect solutions encompassing every facet of design and production. Customers can solve a variety of product needs including unique cable configurations, custom high frequency connectors, specialized complex harnesses and complete cable assemblies of any complexity. Tensolite is focused on eliminating extra steps while speeding quality products to its customers. "Our mission is to be a world-class manufacturer delivering highly engineered products and technical services to our customers in a positive work environment," says Juan Sifontes, Tensolite Vice President of Operations.

The Situation
With several different plants, Tensolite found that too much time was being wasted throughout the manufacturing process. Each plant was working as "silos" of information. It was taking longer and longer to fulfill orders and customer satisfaction levels were dropping. The company was having trouble generating reports to make informed decisions. Order and BOM data was not being shared and reports were being generated from each plant with different information and different formatting. Then the reports were passed to headquarters to be compiled. "We knew that if we wanted to up our game to be a world-class manufacturer, we had to deliver what our customers wanted, when they
wanted it, 100 percent of the time," states George Kerestes, Tensolite IT Director. "We knew we needed one end-to-end solution to unite all of the plants to form one company. We also knew that it would help with our ISO 9000 efforts." A cross-functional team was then assembled to choose a new business system – one that would work with the diversities of each plant, but only utilizes one comprehensive database. Infor ERP was the obvious winner. "When we acquired the Infor solution, our goal was to operate as one company, while standardizing and streamlining our processes," says Sifontes. "We truly believe in a 'one company' philosophy, and implementing the Infor solution has helped us bring our plants together to act as one seamless company."

The Solution
With one single database in place, Tensolite operates multiple business units and has simplified the process of pulling information to measure results. The company is now able to utilize it’s daily, combined cost reports. Costs are tracked each and every day to make sure that there are no surprises and no prolonged periods of inefficiency. The company can also generate invoices and conduct all accounts payable from one central location. "We now have two concrete ways to track costs daily. Based on our findings, we have implemented new cycle counting and inventory control procedures that have saved us both time and money," says Sifontes.

The most significant impact the company has realized is the increased business performance visibility. "Having the increased level of visibility across our entire enterprise through one solution has afforded us the ability to be more responsive to trends and shifts within our business, resulting in profitability, even as our industry faced a downturn," says Kerestes. "By implementing a scorecard, we also have access to our business performance across a range of key performance indicators, giving us a more defined picture of our operations." Performance and results are now easy to measure and improve upon. "We were able to go from a 70 percent on time rate to currently we deliver product to our customers on time about 95 percent of the time," explains Kathy Batten, Tensolite QMS Administrator. By having a higher on-time delivery rate, the company has been able to reduce it's overtime expenses by over $25,000 over the last year. Tensolite has also benefited from one system with acquisitions. The company acquired another facility and was able to add the new company to the system in less than six months. All of the plants work on one integrated database in order to streamline and standardize processes and more easily consolidate information. "Infor has provided us with the tools we need to meet the needs of our evolving customers. And meeting our customers needs makes us a world-class manufacturer," concludes Sifontes.

Real Results

• Increased visibility throughout the four plants
• Implemented "one company" philosophy and integrated all business units onto one database
• Improved on-time delivery rates from 70 percent to about 95
  percent
• Reduced expenses by $25,000 in one year
• Simplified the process of adding another facility to only six months
• Improved reporting capabilities to measure performance daily
• Streamlined business processes

For more information call: 800-877-9256 or email