Corporate

Why use a domestic outsourcing partner?

Some would say that it perhaps isn’t as much about how you handle the good times, but how you respond to challenges that make the difference. We believe it isn’t an exaggeration to say that the current economic environment around the world has proven to be challenging to the medical device community. No industry has been spared including medical devices. In fact, at American Biosurgical we feel that we present and excellent opportunity to help our customers navigate this challenging environment.

Terry Comer, Vice President of Operations was recently part of a Q&A session where he was asked about the challenges and opportunities that American Biosurgical is seeing right now. In this session, he says that medical device companies now, more than ever, should be leveraging their relationships with domestic partners that have low cost country manufacturing platforms.

How has American Biosurgical set itself apart from the rest of the industry? At the same time, how have you drawn on your company’s strengths by having its own low-cost country manufacturing plant coupled with US based management and engineering support?

Terry Comer: By partnering with American Biosurgical, our customers have access to:

• Diverse Low-Cost Country manufacturing capabilities
• Raw material acquisition experience
• VMI (vendor managed inventory)
• Utilization of new product introduction processes to lean manufacturing.
• enured Six Sigma Black Belt employees with hands-on experience, as well as biocompatibility testing capabilities.

So in addition to our customers using us as a low-cost country (LCC) resource for their interconnect assemblies, our customers can also leverage our relationship for many of the technical resources required to support the introduction of new interconnect assemblies at every stage from development to delivery.

But, not only is American Biosurgical able to provide a low-cost alternative, we also give our customers the comfort factor of having US-based engineering and support. There is never a shortage of challenges when trying to take costs out of the business for our customers, but here, we are able to help them address and deal with those challenges and this is how we implement our value proposition.

With the economy being in the state it is in, how do you think the medical device industry is positioned? What about outsourced interconnect manufacturing? What has American Biosurgical done to address this?

Terry Comer: We believe the growth trend in offshore manufacturing will continue to increase. With credit markets contracting, the medical industry has to undertake a detailed analysis before spending money on capital equipment. If you’re a medical device and you are looking for ways to take costs out of interconnect sector of your business without sacrificing quality, but cannot justify the ROI to invest in cost reduction initiatives, there is a need to look towards outsourcing.

Also, companies are starting to become much more comfortable toward low-cost country (LCC) outsourcing strategies. However, they are also finding that it is no longer good enough to simply take the price of these outsourced interconnect products. Companies have found that they must also consider what resources and capital will be required throughout the value stream.

What do you see as the biggest opportunities for American Biosurgical?

Terry Comer: So many of our customers are under pressure to analyze their entire operations to find areas where they can remove costs from their medical device products. That, coupled with the added cost of having and supporting their own R&D resources, companies are discovering that they can outsource those services to us here at American Biosurgical and it will help keep costs down while still receiving the high-quality products and services that they need to maintain.

What do you feel are the biggest challenges in the custom medical interconnect manufacturing?

Terry Comer: I feel the biggest challenge a medical device company may feel is the loss of control when they hand over a medical cable project. Loss of control of the design processes, control of intellectual property and control of communication. We are able to provide more than what has been traditionally expected from an offshore interconnect manufacturing resource and we are able to reduce their risk through our US-based management and engineering resources. Having assets in the US gives our customers access and interaction with every facet of our company and not feel like they are sending their ideas or cable designs into a “black hole”.

What is American Biosurgical most optimistic about when it comes to the medical device companies looking to you for help?

Terry Comer: As our customers and other firms look for and analyze outsourcing choices, they start to see that there is a real benefit to having the ability to leverage the strengths of a company like American Biosurgical to improve not just their bottom line, but also their quality and delivery.