Experience Matters with Thermocouple

I recently had the privilege of chatting with our very own VP of Manufacturing, Pat Arnone. Pat has a vast knowledge of our product and the industries that use it. As of this year, his experience in the business spans 40 years. He eats, sleeps, and breathes wire and he’s proud of it!

Pat told his family that he was going to go out and look for a job. After a little searching, he landed here, at the formerly named Thermo Electric. After about a year or so, Pat considered leaving the company to go back to school full time. The management at the time successfully convinced him to stay and offered to pay for his education. “And that’s what I did. I went at night. I never completed the full four years but I got most of two years done and I started a family.”

However, his on the job education in thermocouple wire and cable technologies has been non-stop for four decades. During that time, Pat has been involved with numerous manufacturing-related jobs and countless customer projects – an integral part of the TE Wire team.

He started in the stocking area and was quickly moved to final re-spooling supervision. He was in the warehouse for a while and then went on to work in the bare wire stock room. Within Pat’s first five years he went on to become the General Foreman, which essentially ran manufacturing throughout the plant.   “At that point I was about 24 or 25 years old,” he remembers “They were concerned about my age, but they gave me the opportunity.”

Since then, Pat’s role and responsibilities have expanded and he’s also much more involved with the day-to-day business aspect of the company.

 “We have built the business on customer service. Our customer service team has very strong relationships with our manufacturing managers and supervisors and they get good feedback from those people.”

Pat continues, “I think as far as who we are, TE Wire is known throughout the industry for solving problems. We’re known for great communications with our customer service team. We hear it all the time. We hear it from customer service as well as from customers, or sales hears it when they go and travel and talk to customers that that’s the one thing that separates us from our competitors.”

This year is Pat’s 40^th year with us and he’s still just as passionate about the business now as he was when he started—perhaps even moreso. Pat’s most proud of TE Wire’s agility in the marketplace and ability to bounce back when times are hard. 

When asked what the secret is to TE Wire’s continued success and longevity, Pat was pretty clear. “It’s our attention to detail in customer service and focus on continuous improvement, not just in manufacturing but in all aspects of the business.”

TE Wire would like to give a special nod to all those in the 40 Year Club:

Frank Soltys – Accuclave Cell Manager, ‘72

Jean Wolak – Taping Operator, ‘74

Don Deyoung – Extrusion Operator, ‘76

Pat Arnone – VP of Manufacturing, ‘77

Learn More:

Expanding our thermocouple team at TE Wire & Cable

Applying 6S Continuous Improvement to Shipping

Collaboration Leads to Innovation in Wire and Cable Design