March 01, 2010
Raising the Reputation of Medical Device Contract Manufacturing
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.”
Read the complete article at MiBiz