OnCore Manufacturing Expands in Tijuana

OnCore Manufacturing Services LLC has opened a brand new facility in Tijuana, Mexico. Located in the Otay-Caliente Industrial Park with capacity for expansion, the 88,000-square-foot facility is scheduled for volume production this month.

“We are increasing our existing Tijuana capacity in response to customer demand for a robust, low-cost supply-base that has a short and flexible supply-chain able to service the U.S. market,” said Sajjad Malik, president and CEO of OnCore. “By leveraging the proximity of OnCore’s San Diego (Calif.) facility, the new Tijuana facility provides our customers with a range of highly flexible manufacturing and near-shore fulfillment options. The new site is capable of fulfilling customers’ product manufacturing requirements from board assembly to finished product and includes Lean, ‘focused factory’ production cells for assembly of finished medical devices and industrial instruments.”

The increasing desire for near-shoring production is elevating the desire for manufacturing facilities in locations such as Mexico, Dave Busch, OnCore’s vice president of Business Development and Marketing told Medical Product Outsourcing.

“A lot of customers are looking for a low-cost country solution close to the United States,” Busch said. “The total end cost of products—especially larger products like medical devices and instruments—are more expensive now to make in Eastern China and ship than they are to make in Mexico and bring across the border.”

In fact, Busch noted, some industry analysts are saying Tijuana is on its way to becoming the largest medical manufacturing center in the world.

OnCore does have a manufacturing facility in Suzhou, China, and though it is still buzzing with activity, there has been a shift to manufacturing products in China for China as opposed to products for export.

The new Tijuana facility adds “incrementally more capability” to OnCore’s existing facility in the region. Built with the capacity to expand to 175,000 square feet, further expansion could be seen within the next year, Busch said.

OnCore is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., and has manufacturing facilities in Springfield and Wilmington, Mass.; Longmont, Colo.; San Marcos, Fremont and San Jose, Calif.; Suzhou, China; and Tijuana, Mexico.

Photo: Ribbon cutting opening ceremony at OnCore Tijuana. Photo courtesy of Business Wire.