Innovation Center for Wound Dressings and Surgical Sets opened with festive ceremony

Medical Innovation Center der PAUL HARTMANN AG: Blick vom Schau-Operationssaal in die Reinraumfertigung für kundenindividuelle OP-Komplettsets (Foto: KD Busch, Fellbach)

The HARTMANN GROUP opened the Medical Innovation Center at its corporate headquarters in Heidenheim in the presence of Federal Minister of Health Hermann Gröhe. The advanced wound care products and customized surgical sets are manufactured here in accordance with international quality standards in stringent clean room conditions under a single roof. This is a key element of the company's strategy, because Germany is an important location for manufacturing and international distribution of innovative medical products.

“With the Medical Innovation Center, HARTMANN provides the manufacturing capacity needed to drive continued growth in the future even more successfully in two principal business segments of the Group," said Andreas Joehle, CEO of the HARTMANN GROUP, at the opening ceremony on July 7, 2014, attended by government officials, business representatives and customers. “Medical stands for medical products and the medical competence of HARTMANN. Innovation means the development and manufacturing of new products strictly in line with customer requirements. And Center means that we provide a forum for dialogue with our customers here."

In the Medical Innovation Center, products are manufactured under clean room conditions. And lean manufacturing and logistics ensure a smooth flow of materials. The concept offers transparency and flexibility, which are shown locally in both the internal processes and in dialogue with customers and visitors. Dr. Felix Fremerey, Chief Process Officer and Board Member responsible for the Medical Innovation Center project: "In this building, we make processes transparent by showing the efficient interaction between manufacturing and logistics. Here, together with our customers, innovative product ideas are created and then incorporated into the local production process."

HARTMANN invested a double-digit million-euro sum in the Medical Innovation Center. About 250 employees produce approximately 93 million wound dressings and 700,000 customized surgical sets a year at the Medical Innovation Center. The comprehensive hygiene concept includes, among others, a multistage changing system for manufacturing employees as well as production processes in low particle environment. A tugger train ensures continuous flow of material by transporting raw materials and semi-finished products to manufacturing facilities and by picking up the finished goods. Training for customers on the proper use of surgical sets is conducted in a real operating room.