Its technology can map out a manufacturing process in the same way that a heart monitor shows your heartbeat; using proprietary software, its signature analysis shows whether the assembly line is doing well or starting to fade.
Now celebrating its 30th anniversary, the company – which serves automotive giants such as Ford – is on a new track, adding medical clients to its roster, including large names such as Johnson & Johnson and Boston Scientific.
“What we find in the medical industry is a lot of the customers look to the automotive industry as to how to make high-volume products,” said Nathan Sheaff, the chief executive officer of Sciemetric.
“The devices are rapidly shifting to high-volume manufacturing, and the automotive companies know how to do that.”
The company supervises the manufacturing process for items such as stents, catheters and pacemakers – things that must work correctly as soon as they are activated inside a person’s body, and remain operational for many years lest the person must undergo surgery again.
All those things that are important in cars, such as leak testing and pipe crimping, are therefore even more timely and important when it comes to human medicine, Mr. Sheaff added.
He said his private company is profitable and growing, a practice made possible with a number of blue-chip customers coming back with repeat business.
“We have found a great appetite for the technology because the quality is imperative,” he said.
Other Ontario firms have picked up on the same theme; Octane Medical Group, a 15-employee medical company in Kingston, brought on an automotive quality assurance employee two years ago and says the hire was quite beneficial.
BMV Optical, which is based in Ottawa, takes a slightly different tack; the company manufactures precision optical components for uses ranging from semiconductors to outer space.
The 17-person firm has around 30 to 40 customers and says its business is very customer-driven in that the company usually only investigates new product directions at the request of a client.
“It is a bit of a newer line,” said Terry Vineham, BMV’s vice-president. “We’ve been in business for 10 years. Maybe over the past two years we’ve been approached by a couple of customers that ... asked us to make products for the medical industry.”
These optical products for medicine, which can include mirrors and lenses, represent just a small portion of BMV’s line. However, the manufacturing firm acknowledges there is the potential for growth.
“I think it is a huge market to tap into,” Mr. Vineham said. “The health-care industry will be around forever, and anyone who can get involved in that industry can have a great business model.”
