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Conny Jacobsson Elos MedTech

“Our focus on quality work and continuous improvements has taken the Tianjin production site to where it is today”

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Having worked many years in China, Conny Jakobsson has gained lots of local knowledge to use in his new role as Managing Director at Elos Medtech’s production site in Tianjin. He is passionate about continuous improvements, innovation and creating employee engagement. With these driving forces in mind, he wants to contribute to the development of the factory and meet the medical device market’s growing demands in China and globally.

Hi, Conny! You are the new Managing Director at Elos Medtech Tianjin, but you are not new in China, right?

True, I have been living and working in China for the last 18 years. I first moved here thanks to a position I had at Ericsson, after which I took on new challenges at electronics manufacturer Flextronics. At Flextronics, my role was to manage and develop one of their factories. Later on, I  was also a part of a joint venture between Flextronics, Ericsson and a state-owned enterprise in China. In September 2017, I was contacted about the role of Managing Director at Elos Medtech’s production site in Tianjin.

A lot of valuable experiences gained then, I assume?

For sure! My journey has given me experiences from both the customer’s and supplier’s side of businesses which I think is valuable regardless of the industry, country or position you are operating in. As for my new position at Elos Medtech, I find my previous experiences with medical equipment and their distribution to be an advantage. But also, the local knowledge and contacts I have gained from working with management, manufacturing and distribution of products in China are very helpful!

I bet! So, what were your expectations for the job as Managing Director?

What I was looking forward to the most, was to be a part of Elos Medtech’s continued work towards world-class manufacturing. I am passionate about business development, creating employee engagement, building relationships with customers and making progress every single day at work. This includes improving the business that we already have, as well as expanding our operations.

Elos Medtech’s production site in Tianjin, China opened in 2010. The production has mainly been focused on mechanical components for Novo Nordisk’s nearby located plant. The healthcare company is a world leader in diabetes care, with manufacturing dominated by various types of reusable insulin pens. In order to meet and exceed Novo Nordisk’s requirement of components of the highest possible quality, we have continually advanced our expertise and production processes during these years as well as expanded our customer base. This focus on quality work and continuous improvements has taken the Tianjin factory to where it is today and I am committed to intensifying this even more.

An equally important part of our operations in Tianjin has been to expand Elos Medtech’s presence in Asia. We want to serve more customers and include additional medical device products to our manufacturing in Tianjin.

Exciting! Can you give any examples of how you are working with these areas?

As in all Elos Medtech’s factories, high-quality work is a cornerstone of the Tianjin production site. We produce components using exactly the same material and procedures as in the production sites in Sweden and Denmark. In other words, continuous improvement is nothing new to us, but we are now taking initiatives to work with it in an even more strategic way. One example of this has been to incorporate the Lean concept “Go to GEMBA”. The whole production site is now involved in identifying areas for development, from operator to manager, and improvements are made immediately at the production floor. Failure modes, as well as possibilities, are identified and handled during the actual production process. This way of working saves considerable amounts of time and costs.

Is innovation also a part of this?

Absolutely. My view is that a culture of continuous improvements and business development fosters innovation. We welcome every new idea or solution from our employees, in all parts of the organization. In addition, we have invested in recruiting quality, technical, process and CI engineers to our team to come up with new solutions to improve process quality and minimize waste.

How is this culture affecting the operations at the Tianjin production site?

It keeps us on our toes, and we are well-equipped to provide customers with an optimized production process and high-quality products. Our engineering team can manage our customers’ entire projects all the way from prototyping and sample deliveries to approvals, serial production and final delivery. Also, since we have all the resources available on site, lead times are short and customer support is quick.

What does the future have in store for the medical device market in China?

The market is growing tremendously! There is an increasing need for Chinese customers to work with a local supplier that has a global presence. There is also a growing demand from global customers to have a supplier with local presence and manufacturing in China. At Elos Medtech in Tianjin, we have both!

There is a great commitment and engagement among our employees to continue to develop and expand our business. With this engagement, we are ready to meet more customer’s demands on capacity and innovation in the medtech industry, both locally in China and globally.

If we put work aside, what do you do when you are not on the factory floor?

Since I am working in Tianjin but live and have my family in Beijing, I commute between the two on a weekly basis. After work hours I try to take time to play squash, tennis or golf. The weekends are spent with family and friends, often enjoying dinner out in the city pulse of Beijing before I go back to the production site. It is a nice balance really!

Thank you for a really nice chat, Conny! We are happy to have you onboard and are looking forward to our continued and shared venture!

If you are interested in getting to know more of our employees at Elos Medtech, visit our Knowledge Blog. Also, stay updated on our social media channels!

From small operation to over 900 injection-moulded plastic parts for the medtech industry

The Microplast Story – from a small basement operation to over 900 injection-moulded plastic parts for the medtech industry

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Today, Microplast can be described as the expert of advanced precision moulding tools and injection-moulded plastic parts. But as the saying goes, even an expert has to start at the bottom. And in this case – literally at the bottom – more specifically, in the basement of a house in the Swedish countryside! This is the story of a young entrepreneur who started up his own business, soon to become Microplast.

Let us begin with the beginning – a small basement operation for series processing

Microplast, at the time called Helldin’s Mechanical, was founded in 1971 by 22-year-old Göran Helldin. He started out his business in the basement of his own dwelling house, located in Hangelösa, a small village north of Skara in Sweden. The first customer was a manufacturer of household products, for which the business carried out series processing of small plastic details.

Moving from the basement to a shed – designing the very first injection-moulding tool

In 1975, the business moved into a small shed in the backyard. Aged machinery was bought, but it wasn’t very spacious; the staff had to share the small space in the shed together with a lath, a milling machine, a hacksaw and a drill press. Welding and painting had to be done outdoors – if the weather allowed! The company also manufactured their first own injection-moulding machine during this period.

Despite the small space, the business started to grow and soon they got new customers. The first injection-moulding tool was designed and also a milling machine for processing plastic parts. For one of the new customers, fixtures for joining interior components for cars were designed and manufactured. Also, glue fixtures for joining the walls inside of vacuum cleaners were made for another customer. In addition, new automated solutions were ordered.

When growing out of the shed, the business moved into an old barn in Dalvik, at the outskirts of Lundsbrunn. There was no running water and the barn needed some restoration, including a new floor, a new door, and windows. At this time, the company had produced several injection-moulding tools, and was producing plastic parts in the self-made moulding machine. For example a threaded plastic plug to a manufacturer of industrial tools and equipment.

Microplast was put on the map – nobody could imagine the future scope

In the late seventies, the name was changed to Microplast. It was now time to move the business into the newly built premises Bagarebo in Hangelösa, outside of Skara. The workforce had now increased to twelve people. Microplast had a complete workshop of injection-moulding tools and also the possibility to provide injection-moulding of plastic parts.

In the beginning of the eighties, Microplast closed its first deal with a medtech company. It included the manufacturing of plastic parts for a system used for separating molecules by gel filtration, also called chromatography. At this time, Microplast had already designed and manufactured nearly 100 different injection-moulding tools when another 16 were ordered. Getting the opportunity to produce plastic parts for biotechnology was a significant milestone for the company. Today, Microplast still has an extensive cooperation with that company´s new owner.

In 1984, the same medtech company placed a new order of injection-moulding tools and prototypes for the socket of an allergy blood test. At that moment, nobody could imagine the future scope! Today, the product is distributed by worldwide. It is part of an allergy portfolio detecting sensitizations to more than 600 allergens.

Moving to Skara – development continues

In 1993, Microplast made its last stop when moving to the existing premises in Skara. Since then, the number of medtech parts has increased along with a large number of automated solutions. Since 1997, everything is designed in 3D CAD. The production plant in Skara does everything from total technical solutions including the design of moulding tools, choice of material, design of components and production equipment, to the adaptation of a product to a customer’s production and equipment.

In 2011, Microplast was acquired by Elos Medtech Group. The year after, a new warehouse was built and some year later investments were made in injection-moulding technique in clean room cells, and injection-moulding tools employed by industrial robots. Today, there are twenty injection-moulding machines in operation in total. In the beginning of 2015, Microplast started the expansion of the production plant in Skara, which was completed in 2016. With an additional 1,500 square meters, Microplast managed to double its capacity. The extended production plant has clean rooms for assembly, packaging and production in a clean room environment. The production is largely automated and the operation is certified according to ISO 13485.

Still going strong after decades in the injection-moulding business

It is very rewarding to announce that 30 years after designing and developing the prototypes for the first plastic socket for the blood test, Microplast is now developing a joint plan together with customers to increase cooperation in the years ahead. This has resulted in several major projects, including more production lines and automated solutions, which will constitute a key aspect of the company’s growth in the next coming years.

In spring 2016, the company projects a large purchase including injection-moulding machines, high-tech robots, and equipment for clean room manufacturing to increase the production even more, with focus on standards, quality and traceability for medtech components.

The future of Microplast looks nothing else but promising. Today, Microplast has 900 registered injection-moulded plastic parts, and the guess is that the number will only increase as time goes by!

We hope you enjoyed reading about the Microplast story. Would you like to know more about our extended production plant? Keep an eye out for upcoming articles! Until next time, see you in the social networks!