What are the tasks of the Vice President of
Sales Healthcare?
By 2028, we want to exceed the sales threshold of EUR 100 million at OECHSLER in the medical devices business. My task is to coordinate this growth offensive and provide our customers with efficient solutions worldwide, especially in the product categories of drug delivery systems and diagnostics. The aim is to make our healthcare business even more global. It’s a fortunate circumstance that I come from a background in implementation and project management and am not an “original salesperson.”
How much expertise do you need for your job?
A great deal. For our customers, we are a technology services manufacturer. Customers place specific demands on their products and expect perfect functionality, which also extends to the well-being of patients. Our job is to translate that into plastic.
What areas does your service cover?
The entire product development process. From concept to lifecycle management, including moldmaking. We are proud to provide our customers with models for functional tests and pilot studies within and concise time with the help of our 3D printers. This capability helps us optimize product cycles in an ever-accelerating world.
Which technologies are part
of your offering?
Polymer injection molding, additive manufacturing, powder injection molding, and assembly. We offer a broad portfolio of technologies and materials. Our products are often a combination of different materials, such as plastic and metal.
You plan to invest a high single-digit million
amount. What specific projects are planned?
The focal points of our investment in infrastructure are Ansbach, here in Germany, and Querétaro, Mexico. At the German site, 900 square meters of cleanroom space will be created, 700 square meters of which will comply with the ISO 7 standard. In Mexico, it is 600 square meters, half complying with ISO 7 and half with ISO 8. We will then be able to manufacture products in cleanroom classes ISO 7 and 8 or cleanroom classes C and D of the EG-GMP guidelines.
What will take place in these areas?
First of all, we will provide the infrastructure. In the next step, we and our customers will together invest in new machinery for the cleanroom areas. With this“well packed technology backpack”, we are then ideally positioned for partnerships and cooperations.
You will have a specific range of products in mind ...
We concentrate our contract manufacture offering on Class II a and II b medical devices. These include, for example, drug delivery systems such as inhalers, diabetes therapy systems, and portable pump systems. We are also strong in the field of diagnostics. Among other things, this involves cuvettes or cassettes with microfluidic structures. Everything you need to run analyses.
Does your investment only include the “empty
cleanroom,” the infrastructure, or is there more to it?
We are investing in four pillars altogether. The first is cleanrooms. The second pillar is personnel. Here, we will also work with universities to attract the right up-and-coming talent. The third pillar involves processes and procedures. And point four is our public image. We want to be perceived even better in the healthcare sector.
Processes and procedures – that sounds more like
internal organization ...
Moldmaking is to be digitized, and computed tomography is also to become our standard measurement method in ongoing serial production. We are supported by a full-time employee as a change manager, who supervises 48 work packages. We are really questioning every process right now.
