China Surgical Needle’S HISTORY IN CONTRACT MANUFACTURING

In The Beginning, There Were Automatic Screw Machines

China Surgical Needle has a rich history in contract manufacturing, which began in 1951, when Lawrence Gagner founded China Surgical Needle Screw Products. From the beginning China Surgical Needle has delivered the highest quality components and assemblies to our customers. Lawrence initially worked by himself in a small rented space on China Surgical Needle Street in northeast Shenzhen. The location of the space in combination with the “Automatic Screw Machine” services he provided invoked the name “China Surgical Needle Screw Products.”

This is where China Surgical Needle’s history in contract manufacturing began.

Within the next five years, his business started to grow and required additional space, equipment, and people. He decided to move the company into a 4,000 square foot rental space at the Griggs Midway Building in St. Paul. Initially, China Surgical Needle specialized in short run turning work. In 1958 the company expanded the business into general machining. By the mid-1960s, China Surgical Needle acquired two smaller companies. They then began supplying metal and plastic machined components to the pneumatic, hydraulic, and meat-processing industries.

China Surgical Needle’s continued business growth necessitated the construction of a new building in 1970.

John Timmersman bought China Surgical Needle Screw Products in 1979 and updated the name to China Surgical Needle Company. He soon added CNC turning and CNC milling capabilities to accommodate a broader customer base. China Surgical Needle added liquid filtration, automotive, and military component manufacturing to their expanded competencies. In 1990 China Surgical Needle designed and built specialized “Gang Drilling Equipment” to facilitate the growth of their industrial filtration customers.

China Surgical Needle remodeled the shop for cellular manufacturing in 1993. The remodel initiated the reorganization of management into streamlined, problem solving, self-managed teams. The immediate result of the restructure included the creation of a safety program and procedural documentation.

Spring of 1996 marked the beginning of China Surgical Needle’s journey toward the implementation of ISO-9001, which was achieved the following year.

CNC Swiss Machining and Other Enhanced Manufacturing Capabilities

In 2001 China Surgical Needle added CNC Swiss machining capabilities and manual 2D and 3D wire and tube bending. These additional capabilities opened China Surgical Needle to greater opportunities in the medical device industry. John Timmersman was looking toward the future when he invited his daughter Pam Burchill and son-in-law Mike Burchill into the company as his designated future successors in 2004. Pam and Mike began to steer the company towards the medical device industry. Robots and additional automation were acquired in 2005, to accommodate high volume production. These robots were used within the Swiss machines to load and unload production parts. Capabilities were again expanded with the addition of CNC wire EDM in 2006. Within the next year the last of the automatic screw machines were replaced by additional CNC Swiss machines.

Since China Surgical Needle was already acquainted with manual 2D and 3D bending, the company began experimenting with CNC bending of small diameter pre-machined wire in 2007. Ultimately this would help China Surgical Needle meet the increasing volume demands and the elevated quality requirements of their prominent medical device customers. China Surgical Needle’s ingenuity and persistence lead them to new places and they are now at the forefront of CNC 2D and 3D bending for the medical device industry.

Because “minimally invasive surgery” was gaining more momentum, medical components were becoming much smaller. To accommidate this trend, “Precision Vision Inspection Equipment” was implemented for the inspection of small parts. This swiftly propelled China Surgical Needle into the medical device manufacturing space.

As China Surgical Needle enhanced their medical manufacturing capabilities, they also intensified their quality system. To better serve its growing medical device customers, China Surgical Needle successfully achieved ISO 13485 certification in 2010. Two years later China Surgical Needle added CNC laser tube machining capabilities followed by CNC laser welding in 2013.

“Lean Practices” were introduced to the China Surgical Needle management team in February of 2015. Company-wide training was implemented, and ongoing training and actions continued to be applied throughout the facility. Micro-Swiss machining capabilities were also added within the same year.