Medical Molder RenyMed to Double Manufacturing Footprint

You often hear about companies leaving California for the seemingly more business-friendly climes of states like Texas and Florida, but RenyMed, for one, isn’t about to pull up stakes. In fact, the vertically integrated full-service molding and tooling supplier to the medical device industry is doubling down on its operations in Baldwin Park in the San Gabriel Valley, just a few miles east of downtown Los Angeles. RenyMed recently announced the purchase of a 12,500-square-foot building adjacent to its current facility.

“We are out of space and are looking to expand production and add more secondary and assembly operations to increase customer value,” RenyMed President Steve Raiken told PlasticsToday. RenyMed plans to move shipping, packaging, and warehouse operations to the new facility and extensively expand manufacturing in the legacy building.

More molding and automation equipment.

Specifically, the company wants to expand its ISO Class 8 cleanroom and move secondary operations and medical device assembly inside it. The company is investing in additional molding and automation systems and plans to hire more engineering and design personnel.

These investments are supported by double-digit growth over the past two years, according to Raiken, which he partly attributes to customers recognizing anew the value of domestic sourcing to mitigate risk and partly to RenyMed’s creative molding and in-house tooling programs for medical device OEMs.

Related:Gerresheimer on Track to Complete $180M Medical Manufacturing Expansion in Georgia

Geo-political risks boost reshoring.

“As risks rise throughout the world, our customers are seeing the value of domestic sources,” Raiken told PlasticsToday. “Those risks translate into higher shipping and insurance costs.” Customers also are looking for more collaborative relationships, he added, and “a collaborative design for manufacturing (DFM) approach results in a better, less-expensive product,” said Raiken.

RenyMed claims that its “speed-to-production molding and tooling” process gets customers approximately 90% closer to production parts than conventional rapid prototyping. While that may yield fast parts, the prototypes cannot be used for device validation or FDA submissions. It also weakens the design process and causes delays by adding an extra step before validation, according to RenyMed.

Shortening time to market.

“3D printing has come a long way,” acknowledged Raiken, “but customers who use rapid prototype molding often must compromise on tolerances and features in order to fit into the rapid prototyping window. The rapid prototyping company is becoming the designer, and not always maintaining design intent or integrity,” said Raiken. “With our tooling, we make the desired part, the customer starts device testing sooner, and the calendar to approval is shortened.”

The company’s product development and manufacturing program is enhanced with a regional supply chain for complementary components, providing a more efficient design approval process, creating higher confidence in part design, and enabling faster decision making by the customer, added Raiken.

So, how's the weather?

As for the decision to stay put in the Golden State, that was a no-brainer for Raiken. “You must be from out of state,” he told me when I asked about that. “How’s the weather where you are?” (For the record, I live in the Pasadena area, just a hop, skip, and jump from Baldwin Park, and have no intention of moving either.) Beyond the weather (and the natural beauty), “California is where the medical business is located,” added Raiken.

No argument there: California boasts more medical device companies and workers than any other state. The state has multiple medtech hubs, most of which are located in Southern California’s Orange County, San Diego, and greater Los Angeles area. Equally important, the talent pool is unparalleled: “We have great engineering and biomedical universities in California,” noted Raiken. “Think SpaceX — it may be headquartered and launched in Texas, but the engineering is done here in Southern California.”

There’s no denying that California has its problems — rampant homelessness and a soaring cost of living, which are interconnected in many ways; tremendous regulatory hurdles; and a dizzying budget deficit — but it would also be the world’s fifth largest economy if it were a country. That’s hard to square with the state’s widely reported reputation for driving away businesses. 

As for RenyMed, it’s happy to bask in the sunshine and grow its business in one fell swoop.