May 1—Editor's note: This article was published in the Record-Eagle's "Momentum '23" special publication. For more stories from northern Michigan's economic engine, click here to read Momentum in its entirety online.

TRAVERSE CITY — A hypothetical patient is rushed into surgery.

Doctors use a table-mounted retractor to get a good look at the imaginary broken leg on the operating table. A drill is needed to attach a plate to the fracture, allowing it to heal.

There is a very real possibility all three medical instruments — the retractor, the cannulated drill and the plate — were manufactured in northern Michigan.

Several northern Michigan companies manufacture products for the medical field as part of their operations.

Some like Thompson Surgical Instruments in Traverse City and Precision Edge in Boyne City only make products for the medical field and are growing rapidly to supply vital equipment around the world.

Both Thompson Surgical and Precision Edge essentially began as one-man operations, emerged over the last decade, ramped up operations over the last several years and have grown into multimillion-dollar companies.

"It started as a real grass-roots kind of thing," said Thompson Surgical Instruments vice president of operations Josh Delickta said of the Elmwood Township business the celebrated its 40th year of producing retractors on April 1.

Precision Edge began with Greg May resharpening tools in 1989 before evolving into producing drills, burs, instrumentation and implants for the medical field. May is still with the company as chief technical officer.

Headquartered in Sault Ste. Marie, Precision Edge is part of Colson Medical, a Marmon Holdings Inc. company under Birkshire Hathaway. The sharpening of tools is a thing of the past.

"We are 100 percent medical," said Brian Eckerle, operations manager of the Boyne City plant for Precision Edge.

Dr. Richard C. Thompson developed the idea for a table-mounted retractor for use by surgical colleagues and patented it in 1965, according to the company website. He began manufacturing the retractor in his garage and selling it to surgeons in California. Assisting his was college friend Bill Harvey, who joined company 10 years ago in sales.

Dr. Albert W. Farley Jr., who practiced in Saginaw, saw the value of a table-fixed retractor for neurosurgery and used one in the early 1970s "to improve exposure in carotid artery surgery and anterior cervical spine surgery," according to the company history. Dr. Farley discussed his idea for a retractor modification with his son, Dan, an industrial design major in college.

Dan Farley developed a new prototype in 1980 and wanted Thompson to manufacture it. Looking to retire instead, Thompson sold the company to Dan Farley and the outdoors enthusiast opened Thompson Surgical April 1, 1983 at 10170 East Cherry Bend Road.

"We let the surgeon see what they need to see to have a safe surgery," said Delickta, simplifying the process of manufacturing what he called the Mercedes of retractors. "Exposure is our thing. It could be a liver transplant, that's our No. 1 seller and has been for years."

"We have retractors for any type of surgery. We have different styles and sizes of retractors, depending on the surgeries."

Dan Farley still leads the company, which handled all company functions in that one building. That 6,200 square foot building is now the sales department while engineering moved into a 4,500-square-foot building the company bought three years ago.

Thompson Surgical Instruments opened another building on East Cherry Bend Road for shipping in early 2008, opened its quality control building next door and connected the two in the middle of the 2010s to create a 15,000 square foot complex east of the curve toward M-22.

Thompson hopes to break ground on two parcels to the west of the U-shaped building this spring, which would add another 10,000 square feet of space. The newest building to the Thompson Surgical Instruments campus will allow the company to do some more manufacturing in-house, but will also allow the business some breathing room for its 82 total employees.

"We bought them knowing we would expand out that way, hopefully this spring," said Delickta, who said the company had a staff of around a dozen when he started 17 years ago. "It's been a nice, steady growth. The last couple of years have really taken off.

"Even in 2008, we had a slightly down year, but it wasn't terrible. We came out of it pretty good."

Thompson Surgical Instruments now has more than 70 international distributors for all kinds of retractors.

"That's our little niche," Delickta said of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) company, which gives the staff control of the business over time. "Not a lot of people do it. We work with a lot of larger companies to fulfill their retractor orders. We have a handful and looking to add other ones."

Precision Edge also showed tremendous growth from its humble beginnings in 1989. The company opened a 37,000-square-foot plant in Sault Ste. Marie in 2000, a similar-sized one in Boyne City in 2012 at 1448 Lexamar Drive and a third in Angola, Indiana in 2022, a massive 63,000-square-foot facility with 58,000 square feet of manufacturing space when it bought a plant out of bankruptcy.

The company has 340 total employees, 190 in the Upper Peninsula, 105 in Boyne and 45 in Indiana. Eckerle, a 1990 Suttons Bay High School graduate, said the company will need more manufacturing space by 2025.

"Our biggest challenge we're having is keeping up with growth," said Eckerle, citing a lack of skilled machinists and supply chain equipment delays of 18 months from the normal six to nine months. "Especially in the medical field where approval of customer products can take years and to grow you have to be constantly working on that."

The Precision Edge sales chart shows a line that started at about $15 million in 2006 rise steadily with one exception.

"This year we are projecting revenue of $56 million," Ecklere said. "Our company as a whole is seeing 10-12 percent growth year over year if you take out the COVID blip years."

Different approaches

As impressive as the sales figures are for Precision Edge, it's the lack of something in that department that is somewhat surprising.

"Up until late 2021, we didn't have a single sales person in the company," Eckerle said. "It was all word of mouth. We had sales representatives that took orders, but we didn't have an outside sales person calling on customers.

"It was all through reputation for quality and our service for our customers that we're growing the company."

Precision Edge is a contract manufacturer, meaning it doesn't design products. The company manufactures products to customer specifications.

"They bring a drawing and say, 'Can you make this?'" Eckerle said.

Eckerle estimates Precision Edge has about 80 active customers, led by medical equipment heavyweights like Stryker Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, Arthrex and Medtronic.

"Our top 10 customers make up three-quarters of our business," Eckerle said. Some second- and third-party medical companies also buy a portion of Precision Edge products and modify it, giving what Eckerle called "a pretty diverse customer base in that regard."

Precision Edge has products in five different divisions or groups: Drills (about 45%), burs or 'shavers' (25%), instruments (10%), blades (5-10%) and implants (5-10%). Eckerle said the company is phasing out blades used for cutting bone or skin the next 5 to 10 years while implants for fixation surgeries, which the company started three years ago, will likely become the third largest in 3 to 5 years.

Eckerle said Precision Edge will manufacture about 80,000 of its top selling drill annually. Some others will only see about 15-20 made a year.

"We have 4,000 product that make up that mix," he said.

While Precision Edge manufactures thousands of different medical products, Thompson Surgical Instruments will manufacture a lot of one product for several different uses and functions. Thompson also doesn't make the implants for total knee, hip and shoulder replacements, but the devices used for those surgeries.

Research and development are also a huge part of the operation at Thompson. The company website is filled with testimonials from surgeons.

"Thompson Surgical provides the most hassle-free, versatile retractor," says one from Dr. Michael Nizzi of Munson Medical Center. "For those complex, difficult procedures, as well as the routine, its ease of setup, strength and use, as well as lack of constant readjustment, always provides me reliable and safe exposure. Hands down, this should be every surgeon's go-to retractor."

"The three most important aspects of mitral valve surgery are: Exposure, exposure and exposure," said another from Dr. Steven F. Bolling of University of Michigan. "Set it and forget it."

Bolling should know because he worked with Thompson Surgical Instruments on a retractor for surgery. Delickta said the company often hosts surgeons in Traverse City to refine its retractors.

"That's how we develop all our stuff is working with surgeons," he said. "It's a first-hand experience.

"We're heavy into research and design, making changes and upgrades. We're constantly working with surgeons. It's a cool collaboration. We're solving all the pain points."

One time a vacationing doctor stopped at Thompson to get a look at the operation, impressed at how much came from the company.

Thompson Surgical Instruments also sends its retractors out into the world.

"We do a lot of trials, which is unique with any kind of company," Delickta said. "It's a try before you buy.

"They get to try it. If they like it, they keep it. It's been a good model for us. You don't feel what it's like until it's in your hand."

Delickta said Thompson puts its used retractors to good use. He said some devices are 30 years old, refurbished and sent to countries in need through the Thompson Retractor Foundation, which participates with several mission organizations.

A retractor sent to Guatemala was used to perform 96 surgeries in five days. Delickta said nearly 200 photos of gallbladders, cleft lips and other abdominal surgeries showed up at Thompson later.

"They can't do the surgeries without the proper equipment," he said. "We try to do one (donation) a month. That's my goal. The feedback I get every time is amazing."

While Thompson Surgical Instruments does a lot of manufacturing of retractors and other medical devices, it uses a lot of machined components from local companies such as Clark Manufacturing, United Engineering Technologies and TC Mirror.

Formerly United Engineered Tooling, the company founded in 1978 changed its name a handful of years ago when it received aerospace certification.

"We made medical components for different companies," said United Engineered Technologies owner Dietrich Heyde, who bought the company 16 years ago with wife Linda. "With current open orders, (medical) is right at about 20 percent. I like to be diverse."

The diversity at UET includes products for SpaceX and Blue Origin rockets among several other different industries. Heyde said the 22 employees at United Engineered Technologies produce 38 parts for the GE engines used in Boeing 737 and Airbus 320 airplanes.

Traverse City's World Magnetics is also a company that manufactures products for the medical industry. During the pandemic, World Magnetics cranked out a rush order of 16,000 pressure switches to fill an order for a European-based producer of ventilators.

"We've done 25 to 30 projects for medical applications," World Magnetics Marketing and Sales Manager Rob Livingston said of the company, which began in 1962. "Obviously the ventilators, but other breathing applications, oxygen detection, respiratory therapy, assisted breathing, anesthesia delivery.

"We're involved in a new venture involving blood cycling and testing."

World Magnetics main industry is HVAC, but Livingston said medical is in the top five along with appliance manufacturing, robotics and military/aerospace. The company does devices for hospital bed controls and other sip and puff applications.

"Some of the medical applications are ones that have come on the last 5 to 10 years," Livingston said. "Medical projects have taken on a bigger portion of our product base the last few years."