Good Medicine
AngioDynamics stays healthy in small town with Quick Start training
Inside AngioDynamics’ pristine Georgia facility in Manchester, Ga., gowned assemblers look through magnifying lenses as they expertly insert nearly invisible wires into complex medical devices. Tiny breaths of smoke puff from the miniscule tips of soldering irons.
It’s precisely the kind of environment you’d want to see for the assembly of products that may, one day, find their way into your body. The proficiency and professionalism of the team here makes the words of Director of Operations Bruce Maloy even more impressive:
“Look around these rooms,” he says proudly. “Not one person here had any medical manufacturing experience before coming to work here.”
How did this medical-device facility located in a small Georgia town (pop. 4,000) reach this level of precision and quality?
“I tell everyone I can at any opportunity I get — had it not been for Quick Start, we would never have been able to get our facility off the ground,” says Maloy.
The facility opened as Horizon Medical, a company that manufactured ports and catheters at plants located in Pennsylvania and Texas, and headquartered sales and marketing in Atlanta. In 1996, Horizon consolidated its operations, bringing everything to Manchester.
Ports and catheters are implanted in patients who need to receive intravenous medication or have their blood drawn often. A port is inserted in the upper chest or arm, and a catheter connects it to a vein. The port can then receive a needle for injecting medicine and drawing blood. That way, the patient’s veins don't have to be stuck every time, which can be uncomfortable and cause collapse.
“Quick Start helped us make the change from an operation that was entirely sales and marketing to manufacturing,” says Maloy. “We didn’t have the resources to do the training ourselves.”
Over the years, the company upgraded existing products and added new ones. It was eventually acquired by RITA Medical, and, in 2007, by AngioDynamics. The products attracted the attention of the larger companies, but it was the commitment of the people that helped the Manchester facility grow in its small-town location.
“The people here all know these devices go in our moms, our dads, our sisters and our brothers,” says Maloy. “They’re happy to have the training, and the training helps us make the case to bring more products here. The industry isn’t going to stop for us, so we’ve got to stay ahead.”
Quick Start’s training for AngioDynamics has grown more sophisticated to match the complexity of the company’s evolving products. In 2005 the plant began manufacturing radiofrequency ablation (RFA) devices, which are used to kill cancerous cells (see sidebar, at left). Quick Start’s team created training on the assembly of the new device that has made a big difference in the company’s bottom line.
“When we moved the product here, we were seeing 50 percent yields on lots. Every device we lose can mean hundreds of dollars, which could add up to thousands per lot,” says Maloy. “Now we have 95 to 97 percent yields, and the training is what helped us get over the top. We’re much more mature as a facility as a result of our relationship with Quick Start.”
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