MedPlast Helps Healthcare Product Makers Squeeze Supply Chain Costs

MedPlast Inc. continues to help healthcare product makers drive costs out of their supply chain, through the addition of services such as extrusion blow molding, according to David Mulera, the company's director of corporate engineering and VP/GM of its Tempe, AZ, headquarters.

"Unlike other suppliers, we can take on mid-volume blow molding assignments, in addition to the customer's high-volume molded work," Mulera says. "This enhanced range of services ensures cost and time efficiencies and customers are confident that the lower volume work will not get 'lost' in the process as it might with the typical blow molders attuned to high-volume runs."

"Supplier consolidation - with the right partner - can go a long way towards increasing supply chain efficiency," Mulera states.  

In addition, Mulera notes that MedPlast offers 100% leak checking - and vision inspection - of every blow molded part. "As a result of being able to 'do it all' under one roof, we see brisk growth of our extrusion blow molding business," he says. "Prototype work has led to full production assignments and bigger and bigger programs. As a result, we will be adding equipment and expanding the facility."

Another trend Mulera sees is the diminished cost differential versus offshore competitors. "We offer a better product, made locally, at a highly competitive price, when all costs are factored in," Mulera says. "And you rarely see the 100% product testing we offer, with mid-volume programs. Our customers benefit from consolidating their extrusion blow molding assignments with their other work, under our roof."    

Extrusion blow molding is a manufacturing process used to create hollow parts, such as collection bottles and vessels, from a plastic material. The blow molding capability MedPlast added to its fast-growing Tempe facility, which also includes clean room injection molding and assembly, is scaled to meet the needs of medical component manufacturers with production runs that might otherwise fall below the requirements of the general blow molding community.

"The old model, of the single capability supplier, is going by the wayside," Mulera explains. "Our multi-component and multi-material technology, as well as the ability to formulate materials for complex elastomer and silicone applications, helps drive our customers' costs down, which is critical in today's healthcare market environment."