Growing in the Face of Industry Challenges—A Medtech Makers Q&A

By Sean Fenske, Editor-in-Chief
 
The medical device industry was facing challenges prior to the pandemic and following the worst of it, new concerns emerged while previous difficulties never faded. In spite of this, it’s important for companies to continually consider the future and identify ways in which they can grow. Ideally, that growth will happen alongside their customers, ensuring a long-term, successful relationship.
 
Growth in the medical device manufacturing environment of today is easier said than done, however. Topping the challenges facing most companies is a labor shortage of skilled employees for specific positions. Attracting and retaining these people is significant to a company’s expansion. Determining how best to appeal to new customers is another task that needs to be accomplished.
 
Sharing his perspectives on these topics is John Walter, Vice President of Custom Product Solutions at Argon Medical Devices. In the following Q&A, he provides insights on how his company is working to grow alongside customers as a true partner and also how the firm is handling the talent shortage.
 
Sean Fenske: The labor shortage is impacting companies throughout the medical device manufacturing industry. How is it impacting Argon Medical specifically and what strategies are you using to alleviate its effect?
 
John Walter: I don’t think this challenge is any greater for Argon Medical as it is for most companies. It’s more of a universal issue and we are all determining ways to best address it with our teams. That said, Argon Medical is attacking this challenge on multiple fronts, addressing both hiring and retention. We offer flex hours to our employees. In addition, we provide a referral bonus that was extended to temp positions. Argon Medical has implemented a retention bonus for specific timelines—these are at 30, 60, and 90 days. We’ve reviewed our interview process and made improvements, as well as including a plant tour. We’ve expanded the benefits package we offer and have also grown recognition programs.
 
Realizing how important training is as part of a retention strategy, we’ve expanded professional and personal development programs for employees such as hands-on training on different machines. We have a CNC-specific training course. Argon Medical also sponsors an English as a second language class for our team members.
 
Fenske: In terms of your customers, how are you growing organically with those companies with which you already work?
 
Walter: Being a partner with our customers is an important element in ensuring their success as well as ours. We seek to grow alongside them by delivering quality products on time and within budget. Also, developing relationships across the engineering and sourcing groups allows us to get more exposure to projects to better understand the needs of the customer and where to increase our capacity and technical expertise.
 
Fenske: What strategies are you using to attract more/new customers? How are you diversifying your offerings to bring new customers in?
 

Walter: Historically, our customers have come to us through referrals almost exclusively. And though referrals continue, we are leveraging an omni-channel marketing approach to ensure our growing manufacturing capabilities and off-the-shelf offerings are known and understood. We continue to assess and ensure that we have a presence where our customers and prospects are going to look for new vendors.

That also means evaluating new markets that align with our capacity and capabilities. For example, every year we send out a customer satisfaction survey. One of the questions we always ask is “What has been the most challenging capability to outsource in the last year?” For the last three years, the most common response we received was extrusion. And while this is a capability we have been offering, it is an area we are continuing to improve on and further invest in.
 
Fenske: With manufacturing facilities at capacity, what are you doing to enable your company to be able to take on additional tasks from established and new customers?
 
Walter: We are streamlining manufacturing processes and focusing on those capabilities in which we are truly the technical expert. In addition, we are investing in new machines and technology that will allow for our throughput to increase. Finally, we are also strategically partnering with other niche contract manufacturers to expand capacity while we invest in our own manufacturing facilities.
 
Fenske: M&A is a part of many companies’ strategies to aid in growth. Is Argon Medical leveraging this to help spur expansion alongside more organic approaches?
 
Walter: We are always adjusting for the needs of our customers, which includes new markets, services offered, and capacity. And while M&A is always a strategic consideration as part of our growth, it’s something we consider very carefully as we evaluate the specific capabilities we want to either expand in for additional capacity and/or for the technical expertise we can offer our customers.
 
Click here to find out more about Argon Medical Devices—Custom Product Solutions >>>>>