Founded in 2017 by Renita Fleischer, ExecuKit has come a long way from its humble beginnings. The company started out with one goal in mind which was to provide the finest procurement to the electronic industry, and Renita has pursued this goal with passion and dedication. Read on to gain an insight into what makes Renita tick.
Where it all started
Renita’s first job in the engineering field originally started out when she joined Factum Electronics in 1984, a post organised through her pastor’s wife. At the time electronics was foreign to her but the excitement of that first job has never left her. Little did she know at the time that it was to have such an impact on her that she would dedicate the rest of her working career to the electronics industry.
At Factum she received excellent training in transformer winding, cable assemblies, mechanical assemblies, transformer assemblies and soldering. Five years spent on the production line soldering components and building assemblies allowed a huge amount of knowledge to be gained. Another responsibility at the company was overseeing the library where all data books were kept, and this was to prove to be very beneficial.
In the early 1990s, training as a buyer was offered to Renita. Much time was spent in those early days, before computers became common in the workplace, poring over data books received from suppliers together with sample kits. “I still have some samples where I soldered components and crafted my own cable,” she reminisces, and adds with pride, “To this day I still have a copy of my 1990 ‘Pulse Buyers Guide’.”
As well as getting to know the products well enough to be able to offer clients equivalents, building personal relationships with suppliers was something at which Renita excelled. She remarks that the reason for her success is knowing in which data book to find the required information, something which is vital when procuring electronic components. Nowadays, the online Electronic Buyers Guide is the go-to tool to find relationships between suppliers and agencies in the electronic engineering fields.
Renita was still a part of Factum Electronics when it became Omnigo and moved to new premises. After 23 years with the company, she had worked her way up to materials control manager and was responsible for the buying and stock management for production. By the time Renita was ready to move on from Omnigo, she had experience in prototyping, production sales, invoicing and all procurement procedures.
In 2007 Renita moved to Microtronix where the next ten years were spent honing her skills. However, because of the previous time spent in a company doing military work together with strict protocols that accompany that type of work, the longing to be back in that environment forced her to start thinking about how she could add value to the industry, and this meant starting a company from scratch.
The big leap of faith
During her time spent at Omnigo and Microtronix, Renita identified a lack of service in the electronic industry. Trying to obtain specific information on a particular product was frustrating and usually involved being passed from person to person to get the correct data. This was a major motivating factor when the idea for ExecuKit was born. Renita explains, “When I started ExecuKit, my vision was to offer a different approach to materials procurement, materials control, and kitting; to provide customers with a seamless chain of kit supply, saving them time and money. The focus is on honesty, trust and building relationships, and to that end we have an open book pricing policy which we will not change,” she says.
After a difficult start in 2017 as a new company trying to make a name for itself by competing in a very large industry, Renita is proud to mention that those initial goals were met and that ExecuKit is now growing from strength to strength, thanks to the support from local customers who realise the benefit of the service that is on offer. In 2019 she took on a partner and the company now has a staff complement of 19 permanent members.
During the 38 years working in the electronic industry Renita has realised that to move forward, everyone needs to work together. With that in mind, a company called ExecuWeb was born. In recent times the availability of electronic components has become ever scarcer, especially to the South African market. Local companies just don’t have the buying power of the large international OEMs. This has led to many existing designs having to be re-engineered around components that are still readily available in the open market.
ExecuWeb has long-standing relationships with the largest international distribution network, allowing us to maintain a steady supply chain between designers, manufacturers and OEMs. We encourage young electronic engineers to design their products around our catalogue of passive and active components, in order to be able to secure components for the long-term lifecycle of the design.
“At ExecuWeb, we have also secured ‘redundant’ stock from across the globe to assist manufacturers to continue producing established designs that use hard to find components.” ExecuWeb also enables manufacturers to list their slow-moving stock, and in turn, recoup a portion of their original capital spend.
For parting advice Renita states, “Youngsters need to listen and start at the bottom. Obtain the experience, work yourself up and earn the respect of your colleagues as without them you will not succeed.”
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