Innovation drives Integer’s success in New Ross
INSIDE WEXFORD BUSINESS | PAGE 12
Deputy CEO Emma Dunphy spoke to Pauline Oakes, Senior Director of Operations at Integer, a medical device manufacturing company that employs 950 people in New Ross. Q: Tell us about Integer, its history, the products you manufacture, and about your team?
Can you brief us on your journey to becoming Senior Director of Operations at Integer?
A: Integer is one of the largest medical device outsource manufacturers in the world, serving the cardiac, neuromodulation, vascular, and portable medical device markets. Integer provides high-quality medical device design and manufacturing to medical device original equipment manufacturers.
I started out my career in IT. I had studied Computers and Economics in UCC and my first job was as a computer programmer in a small software development company. From there, I joined a start-up medical device company in Enniscorthy to set up their IT systems. As I worked to get the IT systems set up, I started to learn a lot about the operation of the business and, over time, broadened my responsibilities and took on roles to include customer service, supply chain, and eventually Operations and Quality.
We have been in New Ross for 25 years, manufacturing medical devices called guidewires. These are minimally invasive devices used in cardiac, vascular, and neurology procedures. We are one of the largest guidewire manufacturers in the world, manufacturing more than 35 million devices annually. Each week in New Ross, we manufacture up to 800,000 products and ship them to more than 30 countries worldwide. This means that a guidewire manufactured in New Ross is used every second in a patient. Integer has a team of almost 9,000 people worldwide, with more than 20 locations spread across the globe. Here in New Ross, we employ approximately 950 people, split between production and support staff. We have a very diverse team with 14 nationalities on site. Our employees generally are located in the South-East region, incorporating Wexford, Waterford, Carlow, Kilkenny, and Wicklow.
In 2011, what was then ClearStream Technologies was acquired by C.R. Bard and, at that point, I took over as Director of Operations for the site. I continued to run the site in Enniscorthy until 2019 when I decided to make the move to Integer as Senior Director of Operations for the New Ross site. I decided to join Integer as it was the largest employer in Wexford and had a strong history in the area with more than 25 years in business. Also, Integer was a young, newly formed organisation and its size particularly attracted me. It has a global footprint and the New Ross site was and still is a key contributor to the success of the organisation overall. The site in New Ross also had a very strong reputation locally for its work in lean and was the first medical device site in Europe to be awarded the Shingo prize. I have been here now for almost three years and I am very proud to have had the chance to lead such an influential site both locally and within Integer globally.
