The Wall Street Journal published an alternative view of the ramifications of the auto industry meltdown today with a look at suppliers diversifying into new markets in the hopes of maintaining revenue. And in some cases, this means medical devices. We’ve had the opportunity to get our hands on a few different research reports and industry economic analyses over the past few months, and medical devices and instrumentation are a consistent fixture on the small list of industries poised for continued growth (or at least steady survival) even though the current recession.
The WSJ highlights a few specific examples of these companies, most notably Michigan-based plastics company WJG Enterprise Co., which recently moved into making plastics for medical devices, including pieces used on X-ray machines and MRI equipment; and Abbott Workholding Products Inc., previous developer of industrial tools for the auto industry which now makes tools used to craft artificial knees and bone reinforcements.
To be sure, the WSJ notes that not all companies will be able to make the switch to a new market, and even fewer will have the infrastructure and agility to survive if they do. The medical device sector certainly isn’t immune to the economic downturn, even if it is one of the markets better insulated from recent events. But given both our expertise in high-tech and our increasing experience in the medical device industry, it seems like a really cool opportunity to have the chance to work for one of these reinventors at work. Re-branding an assembly line-efficiency as a “cost-saving quality measure” presents an interesting challenge, no?