Pauline Oakes, Senior Director of Operations at Integer

Innovation drives Integer’s success in New Ross

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.

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Q: Tell us about Integer, its history, the products you manufacture, and about your team?

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.

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.

Can you brief us on your journey to becoming Senior Director of Operations at Integer?

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.

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.

As one of the largest medical device manufacturers, how has the Covid-19 pandemic impacted Integer, and does it continue to do so?

Yes, Covid has certainly has an impact on the business in the last two years in a number of ways. First and foremost, our primary focus is the safety onsite of all of our associates. So, initially, our big challenge was to make the operational changes necessary to ensure we could continue to operate as an essential business but with the necessary measures in place to confirm we could do this safely.

This required measures such as shift staggering, installation of the necessary social distancing protocols, remote working where possible, limiting in-person meetings, implementing partitions/ screens, wearing of masks, etc. This required a lot of detailed planning but the team onsite rose to the challenge and did an admirable job in ensuring the safety of all of our associates. Covid also brought the challenge of managing attendance through a lot of uncertainty, with Covid numbers peaking and falling at various points through the past two years.

In addition, we saw a reduction in demand for our products due to the postponement of clinical procedures in hospitals. This required us to manage our cost base and ensure we adjusted our labour costs in line with this reduction in demand. We had to take some difficult decisions as a result but I am happy to report that we protected employment onsite at all times here in New Ross throughout the past two years, despite the fall in demand for our products. Thankfully, the reduction was temporary and our demand levels have now returned and are exceeding pre- Covid levels.

The third challenge Covid has presented is supply chain interruptions. We are seeing the ongoing impact of this, particularly this year. We have global shortages of particular components and a lot of variability in transit times for sea and air freight. This is making it very difficult to ensure we meet customer demand. In addition, we have experienced significant price pressures as a result – where components are scarce, prices rise inevitably, and this has impacted the cost base for the site as a result.

Does Integer provide careers and opportunities onsite in New Ross and what impact does Integer have on the local economy?

Integer, as a fully integrated manufacturing site, offers a wide variety of career opportunities. We have had a very busy year hiring new associates and expect that to continue in the coming year. There are careers opportunities not just in production but also in areas such as Engineering, HR, Finance, Quality, Customer Service, Supply Chain, Environmental Health and Safety, IT, and Continuous Improvement. We have a careers page on the Integer website (integer.net) where you can see all current open opportunities, not just in New Ross but globally across the organisation.

We offer very competitive rates with benefits including healthcare, bonus, and pension and we support ongoing education to develop talent internally. We have many examples of people internally using these programmes to gain further qualifications and then, as a result, progressing in their career within the site and in some cases to management level.

Integer contributes more than €40 million annually to the local economy through employment and support of local suppliers. We have also worked tirelessly to support local charities through our Charity Committee. It is made up of associates from the site who organise fundraising activities. Each year, all associates get the chance to vote on the charity to support – this year, the chosen charities are the Solas Cancer Support Centre and Waterford Animal Welfare. Generally, we raise in the region of €40,000 from our fundraising activities, including a company contribution once the fundraising reaches a certain threshold.

In the last 10 years, we have raised more than €200,000 for local charities, which is a huge testament to the generosity and community spirit of our team members.

As environmental issues are becoming more important in how companies operate, what steps does Integer take to combat these environmental issues?

Environmental issues are high on the agenda for everybody presently. It is certainly a focus area for business. Integer has an active CSR programme with one of the focus areas being how we impact positively on the environment.

Here in New Ross, we have several projects underway to make our contribution to this initiative. These include projects to move to a more environmentally friendly sterilisation process and reduce our waste. We also have a large-scale project underway where New Ross is the pilot site for Integer to move to a paperless site.

Do you believe gender equality has come a long way and what are the steps that Integer takes to ensure that it is an inclusive working environment?

I do believe gender equality is moving in the right direction, certainly in the past few years. I am not a believer in creating roles for women but I do believe in measures to ensure there are no barriers to women progressing. I also believe women benefit greatly from working with mentors who help to instil confidence in them to put themselves forward and believe in their own ability. Often, in my experience, women are their own biggest critics and tend to focus on what they cannot do rather than what they can.

At Integer, we have a very active Diversity and Inclusion programme. The site at New Ross again is actively involved and we have made real progress, not just from a gender equality perspective but also in terms of being inclusive and allowing a person to bring their whole self to work. Two focus areas we have had this year are mental health awareness and celebrating our diverse nationalities. We have trained 17 mental health first aiders to support our associates if they need it and we have a calendar of events to celebrate one nationality per month. I genuinely believe this has helped people feel more comfortable to acknowledge if they need support and to help educate their colleagues on where they come from.

In addition to the onsite activities, Integer has employee resource groups to focus on things like gender equality, sexual orientation, race, and so on. In fact, I am one of the workstream leaders for the Athena Alliance resource group which focuses on gender equality. I lead the connect workstream which aims to highlight and connect our female team members across Integer globally and highlight their many achievements both in work and outside.

What can we expect to see from Integer in the next five years?

Well, we have been here in New Ross for the last 25 years and we hope that that will continue in to the future. We are optimistic about the future and we expect to continue the need to expand our team and offer exciting career opportunities for the next generation of talent.

www.integer.net

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