Medtronic has about 90,000 square feet of manufacturing on the island, from where they make medical devices for the world.
Accuracy, sophisticated technology, right -handed eyes and hands, maximum security, and a huge zeal for quality are some of the attributes that excel in the modern plant that the medical device company Medtronic operates in reeds.
The same, recently visited for the new day, is one of the four that this company manages on the island, and that manufacture about 20% of the company's global sales.
These global sales total about $ 30,000 million last year, which offers an idea of the importance of local operation.
The other three plants are in Humacao, Villaba and Ponce.
“Among all Puerto Rico plants are over 90,000 square feet of manufacturing.We are a highly technical company.Many of the products are implantable and [this makes] technical capacity very important for us.Likewise, the compliance part, product quality and continuous improvement are strengths of the organization, ”said Félix Negrón, Vice President of Operations for Puerto Rico.
This explained that each of the plants specializes in certain products.
The Juncos plant prepares all cardiovascular therapy devices, including the so -called pacemaker, as well as modern pumps that supply insulin for diabetes patients.
More than 90% of the products in the diabetes market are manufactured here at the Juncos plant, said Negrón.
He said that pacemakers are manufactured in Puerto Rico, Switzerland and Singapore, but in the case of diabetes medication pumps, they are done alone in Puerto Rico.
These bombs are external devices, are not implantable, and according to the Executive, “the doctor prescribes the insulin that touches the patient, and that insulin is placed in a bottle, which we also manufacture also, and that you put it in the bomb;The pump is programmed and it is dispensed to the body. ”
He added that “we also have some products that we call sensors, and that sensor, which we also do here in large quantities, monitors the blood sugar level.He is constantly taking reading ”and the patient applies the insulin he needs when he needs, he added.
That sophisticated device is what manufactured Puerto Rican hands in Juncos.
the work in the plant
The route through the plant, began in the pump production line for diabetes control.
This process requires the interaction of technology and human knowledge.All tasks performed by modern equipment are subsequently verified by the eye or the human touch, which constitutes the final guarantee that the process was completed satisfactorily.
There are thousands of devices that leave this plant every month and are separated towards its final destination.
The importance of this market for Medtronic at a global level, explained Negrón, is that the sales of the devices to address diabetes amount to about $ 2,000 million annually.
“Everything that is diabetes is a market that is growing rapidly.We right now, of the $ 30,000 million in global sales, we represent $ 2,000 million (of this market), but it is expected that by the year 2020 be doubled and rise to $ 4,000 million, ”he said.
The pacemakers
The second part of the visit was to the line where the pacemakers are prepared, another important line in the Global Medtronic market.This is a device that is implantable, so the protection measures in the production line are extreme.There are about 11,000 monthly pacemakers.The process here requires greater precision to insert and set the componentsand eventually seal the device, work in charge of modern computers combined with labor for supervision.
Puerto Rico as Pilar
The expansion of this company on the island has its reason and is the product of the work of its management and employees.
“We identify technical skills where we have to be leaders.We want that in these competitions the entire corporation recognizes us as the leaders and in that way, every time there is a product that is manufactured or will go on the market and be aligned with these competitions, I want them to look at Puerto Rico as the placeTo manufacture that product, ”said Negrón by explaining the strategy.
Talent is another advantage, because, according to Negrón, 60% of the personnel working in their manufacturing plants have some preparation in science and technology.
"In the engineering area we have a wide range within the technical field," he added.And it is not for less, because being devices on which human lives depend, the work is sensitive and requires greater skills and expertise."The first is the patient's safety, and the quality of our products is given to the patient," he said.
