SenDEC’s Contract Electronics Manufacturing Group makes up 90 percent of the company’s sales.

A few years ago, SenDEC Corp. CEO and founder Ken Fiske was asked by a potential customer to submit the company’s bid for work via the customer’s Internet bidding process. At first, Fiske refused, saying that SenDEC would probably not be the lowest-cost bidder; he knew SenDEC’s submission would place it above the lowest-price firm. But after the customer asked again, Fiske relented. Like he guessed, SenDEC was not the lowest bidder and the contract went to someone else.    

But not much later, the customer came back to SenDEC, seeking its help. The low-cost bidder was a one-person operation that outsourced the manufacturing to an international firm. The quality of the components was so poor that the customer was unable to use them and lost money. Fiske explains the customer has been working with SenDEC ever since.

“If we lose a customer it’s only because their project ends or a new purchasing manager enters the picture and makes decisions solely based on price,” he says. “In the latter case, a vast majority come back to us after they appreciate our total value proposition. Those that return typically do so due to a deterioration in one or more factors after embarking on the lowest-cost route – quality, service, flexibility and/or delivery – areas in which SenDEC excels.  We bring enough value to the table that they shouldn’t have to question us.

“We have a strong reputation for quality, customer service and engineering in addition to being a positive corporate citizen within our community. The experience and quality of our people just can’t be beat.”

These are the qualities that have enabled SenDEC’s continuous growth since its inception, Fiske says, and that have provided the foundation upon which its products and services are provided. Its dedication to quality and service has also led to extensive recognition, including being ranked as the 23rd fastest-growing manufacturer on the Inc. 5,000 list, being named one of the top-three fastest-growing companies in its region for two consecutive years and receiving its region’s Business Ethics Award.

Based in Rochester, N.Y., SenDEC operates two independent business units: Its Contract Electronics Manufacturing (CEM) Group is a leading provider of comprehensive electronic manufacturing services and comprises 90 percent of the company’s business; and its Products Group makes up the balance with its manufacture of digital instruments and gauges. Both groups were born out of SenDEC’s dedication to design and engineering, as well as maintaining high standards in all it does.

“Our business is based on operating with honesty and integrity,” Fiske says. “Even though our work is high-tech, we still believe people make the difference. I am extremely proud of our company and hope it serves as a wonderful example of the success that can be achieved by focusing on exceeding the needs of customers with guidance by ethical values and principles.”

A Few Tries
The origins of SenDEC date back to 1972, when Ken Fiske, Ed Reehil and Joe Holroyd, co-workers at Xerox, incorporated as KENEDJO – a combination of the founders’ first names – to license their custom digital clock design. The group’s first production run had issues, but by the second run, everything was working properly. However, before they were able to generate much interest in it, another company came out with technology that made KENEDJO’s design obsolete. As a result, the three partners went back to their regular jobs.  

In 1974, one of Fiske’s neighbors built his own home security system and asked Fiske, a design engineer, to help him work out some kinks. Fiske fixed the problems, explained another way to build the system and left it at that. Word of the custom system spread, however, and soon Fiske was installing systems for many homeowners and some businesses.

“I was still working with my two partners from KENEDJO, and our security business was doing very well,” Fiske says. “At one point, we decided that if we got to a certain sales level, we would quit our day jobs to focus on the security business. We got just below our target, but my partners decided it was good enough and we opened our first office in Fairport, N.Y., as SenDEC, which stood for Sensing Digital Electronic Controls.

“Our initial design was the first microprocessor-controlled security panel on the market,” he adds. “We started going to trade shows and got a lot of recognition for the quality of our system. Business was good.”

There were problems, however. The security industry was relatively new and many upstarts failed quickly, so installers were afraid to partner with a firm that might not be around for the long-term. Additionally, even though Fiske and his partners had an innovative product, many people did not believe that guys from Xerox knew enough about security to meet their needs.    

“Eventually, we found we were not getting the ROI we thought we should,” Fiske says. “We were still doing contract manufacturing work on the side for Xerox and a few other firms, so Ed and I decided to focus on contract manufacturing and Joe bought control of the security firm and separated it from SenDEC.”

‘The Right Mix’
In 1987, SenDEC invested in its first surface mount technology line to continue building its quality manufacturing operations. At this time, the company’s capabilities included design and test engineering, manual and automated hole assembly and wire and cable harnessing. In 1988, MDT-Castle recognized SenDEC for saving it $500,000 and reducing development time by six months.

SenDEC’s reputation for quality and engineering strength led Herb Ley to its door in 1988. Ley wanted SenDEC to design, prototype and produce his invention of a digital maintenance meter that records gasoline-engine running time and alerts operators when service was due. SenDEC agreed to work with Ley, but Fiske wasn’t completely sold on the idea initially. “I didn’t see why it was important at all,” he explains.   

In 1989, however, Ley displayed the maintenance meter prototype at the International Lawn, Garden and Power Equipment EXPO and took orders for 1,000 units on the show floor. As a result, SenDEC agreed to build the PCB assemblies and then sent them to Ley and his wife so they could finish the production in their home.

“By 1993, Herb began to be overwhelmed by the demand and asked me to invest in his operation,” Fiske says. “That didn’t really interest me, but I offered to buy it from him. He agreed and I said I would pay Herb a royalty for up to 1 million units. However, now we have produced more than 3 million units. I had no idea this product would have such a demand, but it has been private-labeled all over the world. This was the beginning of our Products Group.”

SenDEC invested in dedicated engineering talent for the development of the meter, which soon resolved many of the original product’s durability issues. By 2000, the company realized this group needed to be on its own to grow, and moved the Products Group to a new facility. From 2001 to 2004, the new group grew from 30 to 40 percent a year.   

“We had the right mix of products, features and price for this product to enable its growth,” says Dave Sestito, vice president and general manager of SenDEC’s Products Group. “We also had a good understanding of the market. We continue to expand by using our engineering talent to develop new products, introduce new functions that the industry needs into existing products, and continuously seek ways to remove cost from our portfolio without jeopardizing our quality. In parallel, we continue to develop channels for our portfolio into new totally new markets. Additionally, we maintain price points that allow for greater market share and worldwide competition.”

SenDEC leads the industry in this market, Sestito says, because it was “the first on the scene” and has “the greatest capabilities.” It has some of its own patents and is more competitive than other firms because of the engineering talent that backs up SenDEC’s product. The company’s delivery is also “very nimble,” he says, which has contributed to the fact that 80 percent of its products are private-labeled for OEMs.    

“We started with one to two products and now we are up to 20 different offerings,” Sestito says. “We pride ourselves in coming out with new products before anyone else does. We learned what features are required by customers and continue to improve on that. We tend to be visionaries and are always looking ahead; we are focused on a combination of what our customers want and how we can add value and therefore increase our market share. We have become very good at custom product delivery in a globally competitive market.”

Remaining Competitive
SenDEC realized that to ensure continued growth for its CEM Group and remain competitive, it needed to make some changes. In 2004, the company saw much of the industry’s high-volume production going to China, so it developed a strategy to keep its production in the United States: it went after the military market.

Fiske explains the company’s success with military customers is the result of its prototype group, which is comprised of 24 of the company’s 170 employees and is autonomous within SenDEC’s culture. When a military customer asked the company to quote and provide initial prototyping for a new product, the prototype group was able to turn it around in one week, which the customer said was “phenomenal.” The program quickly ramped into full-scale production at SenDEC within weeks.    

“Our production staff went above and beyond the call of duty to meet our customer’s demanding delivery schedule,” Fiske says. “We all knew what we were working on would be saving our soldiers lives.”

SenDEC’s capabilities have caught the attention of other customers who also serve the military, which has allowed the CEM Group continued growth.   

“We have never missed a delivery and our quality is great,” Fiske says. “We ramped up quickly to meet the needs of our military customers and they were impressed by that.   

“We are unique in our business because our capabilities are so great. Also, we are diligent in who we partner with – we don’t simply quote every job. Each opportunity has to fit our company profile – which both SenDEC and our customers inevitably benefit from.”

To further enhance its operation – and while SenDEC was ramping up for the military – it also realized many of the products it was producing for its customers would need to comply with the industry’s RoHS regulations, which aim to keep lead out of manufactured goods. To this end, SenDEC learned from its suppliers how it would need to change for RoHS, improved its operations and then worked with its customers to ensure they were also RoHS-compliant.

“We took a proactive approach to RoHS as we understood that our customers would value an experienced partner over a reactionary one,” Fiske says.

In adapting for the needs of the military and the RoHS standards, SenDEC’s CEM Group is positioned strongly within its industry, Fiske notes. The electronics manufacturing market is growing quickly, he says; the amount of work outsourced to companies like SenDEC has doubled in the last five years. Large corporations will continue to outsource their production, Fiske says, and SenDEC only stands to benefit in this environment.

“We will continue to keep growing,” he explains. “SenDEC is definitely in a good place right now because our business is booming. Our turnover is almost nothing because we support our people, so we will be able to keep our quality capabilities with us. To remain strong, we have to continue to provide quality products and deliver them when we say we will with the high level of service our customers have come to expect. This will not be hard for us to achieve.”