A leading manufacturer of specialty trucks and truck bodies for the defense, fire and emergency, concrete placement and refuse hauling markets, Oshkosh Truck is among the 100 fastest growing U.S. companies according to Fortune magazine. 

Because of their long working relationship with Schofield Enterprises, Neil Bjornstad, Electrical Design Engineer, says they are very familiar with their standards and anticipate their needs well.

“For example, if there are problems with a print calling up the wrong parts they’ll let us know up front and discuss it with us before they make a change,” says Bjornstad. 

Bjornstad has found Schofield Enterprises prototyping capabilities to be a time saver and thus a cost-effective service.  “In installations where we have a schematic form but don’t necessarily know how the harness is going to fit on the truck, we give them a list of the connectors and some ballpark ideas of where we think things should be positioned,” says Bjornstad. “Schofield Enterprises loads the connectors with the wiring and then comes here to create and shape the harness right on the truck.”

According to Bjornstad, this allows them to get their first prototype done faster because it eliminates repeated modifications before the wire harness actually hits production.

Bjornstad says it’s nice to work with someone who knows their needs so well. “Because they have been doing this kind of work for us for so long they know what we’re going to expect up front and typically react a little faster than other vendors.”

According to Kevin Foster, Senior Design Engineer, Pierce was getting ready to introduce a new line of fire trucks called the Enforcer TM and needed a prototype developed and the custom wire harnesses produced in just six weeks.

"We found that some of the other manufacturers were giving us lesser quality loom which was abrading our conductors within the harness. We count on Schofield Enterprises to follow our specifications to meet our quality standards and they do," says Foster.

In fact Schofield Enterprises goes beyond quality and quick turnaround, their engineers are knowledgeable and make good suggestions.

"Schofield Enterprises did a good job keeping up with our many changes to the specifications," says Foster. "In fact, they even recommended some improvements which we used to modify our specifications."

Foster says they are very pleased with Schofield Enterprises not only because of their quality harnesses, quick turnaround and prototyping capabilities, but also because of the high quality procedures and documentation that that they follow with every job.

"Our customers expect only the best from Pierce which means we can accept only the best from our vendors. Schofield Enterprises meets our high expectations and I wouldn't hesitate to work with them in the future." says Foster.

Dan Gross, Senior Engineer is so pleased with Schofield Enterprises that he says they hope to use their wire harnesses "across the board" on all their equipment. (Currently they use their wire harnesses for the majority of their needs.)

"When we use other wire harness manufacturers we find ourselves constantly out on the shop floor because of problems," says Gross. "We very, very rarely have any problems with Schofield Enterprise's harnesses and are confident of their consistency from lot to lot."

In addition to the functional quality of their harnesses, Gross says the visual quality is important as well. "They are professionally manufactured and don't look like something that has been thrown together," comments Gross.

According to Gross the troubleshooting that Schofield Enterprises has done have saved them a lot of headaches. "When I send them a diagram I am more comfortable knowing they thoroughly review it and do the wire point to point connection to make sure they are absolutely correct," he says. "When they find errors they always call to tell us."