Self-managed medical molding

A growing contract manufacturer’s new cleanroom expansion is but the shape of things to come.

After waiting in their conference room, munching snacks and exchanging small talk with Joseph Raffa, VP and GM, and with Stuart Smurthwaite and Barry Carson, production managers, Roland Beck, the president and CEO of $135 million Tessy Plastics, finally arrives with a worried look on his face.

“What’s wrong?” we ask.

“I’ve been fired,” Beck says.

“What!?!”

“Yeah,” he continues, “I got caught sitting in my office all day yesterday.”

“We had to let him go,” says Raffa. “We just don’t tolerate that sort of behavior around here.”

The silence is broken by raucous laughter. It’s a joke . . . sort of. Tessy’s managers are rarely office-bound. They take their business seriously in Elbridge, NY, but that’s about it.

The serious business we’re here to see is Tessy’s $5 million, 42,000-ft² expansion to a 140,000-ft² facility at its Elbridge complex. This latest expansion is a Class 100,000 cleanroom for medical product manufacturing.

However, Beck tells us that a brand-new 72,000-ft², $10 million facility exclusively dedicated to medical contract manufacturing should be up and running in Elbridge by year’s end. The TMF (Tessy Medical Facility), as it will be called, will be expandable by another 96,000 ft² or so, and will consolidate all of its medical molding operations under one roof, complete with its own toolroom.

“About 50% of our business is medical today,” says Raffa. “It’s our fastest-growing business segment.” That’s no joke. Neither is Tessy’s owing its successes to its self-managed workgroups.

Resourceful humans

As previously reported (immnet.com/articles/2004/December/2525), Tessy has turned the management pyramid upside-down. The cross-trained workgroups on the floor manning its manufacturing cells are directly involved with machinery selection, production and quality monitoring, and deliveries. And each is dedicated to the customer its customer-dedicated cell serves.

“We work for guys who work for us. About eight self-managed workgroups run our whole manufacturing business, even though we’re becoming much more involved in automation,” says Smurthwaite, as we head for the new cleanroom.

Beck says Tessy will soon be adding a new 30,000-ft2 department dedicated to building and running automated assembly equipment.

“We can’t just shoot and ship anymore,” adds Raffa. “To be a successful contract manufacturer, we need high-speed automated assembly, especially in markets like medical and consumer products. We have to add value and do whatever’s needed.”

We can’t help but notice that Tessy’s workgroups have been busy selecting presses for the main floor since our last visit.

“We’re almost all all-electric now—Niigatas and Sumitomos. We’ve added about 20 Niigatas up to 500 tons,” Smurthwaite says.

All all-electric

In Tessy’s new cleanroom we see a 5-ton crane spanning a room with more than 30 small and midsize all-electrics—all Sumitomos—running in automated manufacturing cells. Parts removal robots from Star Automation obviously are still a Tessy standard, as are Gammaflux hot runner controls, Husky hot runners, Sterlco closed-loop water treatment systems, and Novatec material handlers and dryers.

“We’re moving to quicker, compressed-air, membrane drying,” Carson says. “It’s more consistent, and it’s also lower maintenance.

“We also do moisture analysis. We’re a beta site for Arizona Instrument’s next-generation Computrac Vapor Pro moisture analyzer. It checks the materials before, during, and after molding to ensure good processibility.”

Tessy’s regionally sourced molds here are tooled up to 16 cavities. Part tolerances typically are ±.001 inch. “The TMF will have its own self-sustaining toolroom. This one is full,” says Beck.

“We try to make it so that our customers never have to worry about Tessy Plastics,” Raffa concludes. “We’re a low-maintenance supplier.”