Go-go Gadgets
WEST MICHIGAN — A contingent of executives from medical device manufacturers and economic development officials weren’t just “California Dreaming” about the prospects that West Michigan medical device companies could compete on a national level when they attended the Medical Design and Manufacturing (MD&M) trade show in Anaheim in mid-February.
In fact, the industry insiders say West Michigan already has a critical mass of capability in medical devices — ranging the pipeline from design, engineering and manufacturing to assembly, packaging and sterilization. According to the West Michigan Medical Device Consortium, more than 70 companies are involved in the industry from the state border to Traverse City and from Lansing to the lakeshore.
However, the region’s abilities just aren’t well known outside of the area. But a host of companies and support organizations are out to change that image — or lack thereof.
“What our goal was with this show was to show the critical mass of companies in the region and to show them working together,” said George Bosnjak, business development manager at The Right Place Inc., which brought seven companies with them and shared booth space MD&M.
Particularly in West Michigan, Bosnjak said companies know the other players in the region and can help steer clients to whichever supplier has the right capabilities for a given job. That helps ensure local companies get business when they might not be on the radar for OEMs, and it helps the regional industry stick together.
“It’s a powerful statement,” Bosnjak told MiBiz. “The investment in the infrastructure is unparalleled for a region of our size, and our capabilities and production are second-to-none in this region. Our supply chain can take a product from a design concept all the way to the end. It’s A-to-Z.”
Tim Walker, VP of sales and marketing at DornerWorks Ltd., an embedded systems engineering company that designs the electronic components and circuit boards of various medical devices, as well as parts for the aerospace and automotive industry, said his company is a critical part of the regional medical device ecosystem.
“I can come in with an idea and walk out with my part — and not just one piece. I can walk out with my product,” Walker told MiBiz of the region’s capabilities. “One of the bigger problems we have is getting the word out. When people think of Michigan, they think automotive, and even then, they think of Detroit. But we have the skills and the people to do it…it’s just getting them to come in. Getting things kicked off is the big challenge, (but) we can do it all from concept to delivery.”
Whereas most of the West Michigan companies involved in medical devices are on the manufacturing end, DornerWorks is involved in the front-end design and engineering, forming that critical link between OEMs and product development.
Walker said the company has focused on safety critical markets, meaning that a device’s operation is critical to life and death. Because those critical devices are highly regulated with stringent FDA requirements, DornerWorks can charge customers a premium and earn a higher margin per contract, he added.
Raising the reputation
One perception the region has to overcome, according to John Woodhouse, sales and marketing manager at Medbio Inc., a contract manufacturer specializing in injection molding, is that all the manufacturers in medical device manufacturing are spun off a company in the automotive supply chain.
Large medical companies approach those companies with caution because medical devices and their useful lifespan differ considerably from that of an automobile, Woodhouse said.
While the medical industry has been a target for diversification in recent years, Woodhouse said medical device manufacturing has a long history in West Michigan. Like the other large-scale centers of manufacturing, the industry here spun off from some big companies.
“We have all the capabilities of a Boston or Minneapolis, just on a smaller scale,” Woodhouse told MiBiz. “The message we all delivered was that West Michigan is a medical device mini-Mecca. We just don’t have that reputation yet. People think of Michigan as automotive, and … what I needed to do is separate Medbio from auto molders that try to get into medical. Medbio was never an auto molder, but we’re overcoming the stigma that we’re auto people.”
Support key to industry’s development
Key to overcoming that lack of reputation is a continual presence at the trade shows and showing a strong track record of stability, innovation and engineering prowess, he added.
In addition, organizations like the WMMDC, a program of the West Michigan Science and Technology Initiative, and The Right Place have also made it a strategic priority to help sell the region to a national and international audience.
“The vision of WMMDC is to be recognized at a national and international level as a cluster of medical device expertise,” Linda Chamberlain, executive director of WMSTI, told MiBiz. “We need to continue to market the ‘virtual company’ capabilities of the consortium as this is a differentiator from other regions. It is a means to accelerate — due to capabilities and flexibilities — the development and launch of new products, those innovated by members, or those of other inventors.”
WMMDC, for its part, has been taking local companies to the MD&M trade show in Minneapolis for the past couple of years. Chamberlain said WMMDC is working on expanding its messaging by working closely with “our best advocates,” the consortium members. The organization is also hoping to grow its ranks. Three new requests to join were filed in one week in mid-February.
The consortium, through its Idea Cycle program and other efforts, also hopes to help companies develop their own technologies versus just being contract manufacturers. However, companies need to be ready for that step, Woodhouse said, noting that’s some years away for his company. If Medbio were to manufacture its own products and maintain its own IP, it would lose some clients and potential clients.
Medbio’s efforts, on the other hand, have been to diversify within the types of medical device fields — cardiovascular, surgical instruments, eye surgery equipment, biotech testing devices and orthopedics — to best capitalize on market cycles within the medical field.
