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Historically, wire harness manufacturing has not been a particularly digital business model, but that is changing. Zuken USA, a stalwart in CAD tools, has recently announced multiple new tools in the wire harness space. In a conversation with Zuken’s Paul Harvell, vice president of engineering, and Geoffrey (Geo) Ng, technical marketing manager, we get details on how Zuken is helping wire harness design and manufacturing catch up and, in some ways, leapfrog the current state of the art in EMS digitization and automation.
Nolan Johnson: It’s a common perspective that wire harness techniques are more comfortable in the 19th century than the 21st century; I still hear of huge sheets of plywood with nail beds that capture the harness structure. However, tell me what has led to digital wire harness design tools?
Paul Harvell: Your perceptions are quite right. The formboards, of course, took up a lot of room, so there were these massive storerooms filled with old boards, with different versions. It was horrible and inefficient.
In the past, we had a tool that could send digital information, but there wasn't the right kind of hardware to move forward until, perhaps, six years ago. Back then, a company called Delta Sigma seemed to lead the U.S. market; their tool is called HarnessWorks, and it projects work instructions, wiring information, and so forth onto a board.
Zuken provides users with this model of digital information, and they can step through it, one wire and one connector at a time. They’re also able to check that they've done it correctly. Of course, there are tracking metrics that accompany it to help determine how long it takes to install the wires and other sorts of productivity data.
That project was ongoing when, approximately two and a half years ago, we were approached by Laselec, now owned by Komax, out of France, which had a slightly different approach. Using a rather large TV-type screen, information on how to assemble the wires, clips, and ties, would project from the bottom instead of from the top. We saw this as an opportunity for some standardization.
With both companies, we produced the Electronic Formboard (EFB) file format, which is currently XML-based. It will detail everything required for that harness, including a step-by-step approach to assembly.
To continue reading this interview, which originally appeared in the January 2026 SMT007 Magazine, click here.
