Cable Manufacturer Goes From Generally Good to Specifically Great
Guided by a principle from a best-selling book, every Components Express employee focuses on one thing: making the best machine vision cables in the world.
Ray Berst is the founder and president of Components Express Inc. (CEI), a Woodridge, IL-based manufacturer that specializes in custom machine-vision cables. He is also a former commercial pilot and aviation mechanic—and someone who doesn’t back down from a challenge. About 9 years ago, he and his employees faced the biggest challenge in the company’s history.
“We were making telecommunication cables and power-distribution devices, as well as patch panels and associated cabling for Hewlett Packard and Cisco,” recalls Berst. “Then the telecommunications-cable market disintegrated. Fortunately, we got a contract manufacturing job building high-definition satellite dishes. But, when that contract ended, we had to reinvent ourselves.”