Many people come to the Upper Peninsula to hunt and fish, helping the local economies by frequenting area eateries and pubs and staying in motels. Greg May, originally from Indiana, is an outdoorsman who did much more than frequent area businesses when he visited the area. He started a company that would eventually employ close to 200 people and pump tens of thousands of dollars into Sault Ste. Marie’s economy.
Precision Edge, Surgical Products Company, LLC, is a manufacturer of surgical tools for the orthopedic industry. Now in its 22nd year of operation, the company started humbly enough nestled in a wooded area in the tiny town of Barbeau, south of Sault Ste. Marie. The original company employed only a handful of people working out of an 1,100-square foot-facility.
Today, a glistening 37,000-square-foot facility is situated not far from the municipal airport in Sault Ste. Marie. It employs 190 people, including engineers, computer programmers and dozens of machinists. They have a part list for 4,000 different tools, including burs, drills and grinders. At any given time they have more than 600 work orders, keeping three shifts working five days a week, plus overtime on Saturdays.
The biggest problem the company has these days is keeping up with demand, says John Truckey, president of the company and a graduate of
Lake Superior State University. He says demand for their specialty product is so great they need a lead time of four to 16 weeks on equipment orders, making it impossible to fill any rush orders by hospitals in need of their specialty tools.
"Our customers are extremely picky," Truckey says, which requires Precision Edge’s employees to take their time and stick to high quality control standards.
Sophisticated equipment, ranging from $38,000 to $400,000 in price, is used by machinists to churn out the precision instruments used to do things we all hope we never need, such as a knee replacement, repair of a damaged femur or other bones in our bodies. Despite all the high tech gadgetry, Truckey says fashioning these tools is as much art as science; some of the finishing touches to the surgical instruments are done by hand.
Because demand for their specialized products is so strong, they’ve recently decided to open a similar facility in Boyne City, in the northern Lower Peninsula. Plans are underway to invest $5 million in a company to be located in an industrial park there.
"The 25 percent growth this year pushed us over the edge," says Truckey, who worked in the automotive industry for 22 years, as an engineer, then as a VP and general manager. "We couldn’t take on any more business," he says.
The new facility will help the company meet demand while maintaining their objective of operating out of small facilities with a family atmosphere, says Truckey.
Maintaining an adequate work force for the Sault Ste. Marie facility is a challenge for Precision Edge, says Truckey. Due to the nature of the work, much of the training has to be done in-house, though he does draw upon the Sault Area Career Center.
"We’ve drawn some darn good kids out of that program," says Truckey, who acknowledges a good worker needs to possess good work habits as well as the acumen to be a machinist.
Still, as Gwen Worley, Executive Director of
EUP Michigan Works! says, the eastern U.P. lacks a "manufacturing culture" that other parts of the state have, which helps to draw a steady supply of workers to support an additional facility, like the one being built in Boyne City. She says ongoing efforts with LSSU, Michigan Works!, and the Sault Area Career Center will help maintain a workforce for the U.P. facility.
"We’d like to help grow more appreciation for manufacturing in the eastern Upper Peninsula. Many people are surprised when they visit a facility like Precision Edge, to find it bright and clean, not smoky and dirty like factories we’ve seen in the movies. Plus, they offer a dependable, year-round income with benefits," Worley says.
"People who live here, want to be here," says Truckey of the local workforce. He says they have an "extremely loyal" workforce of people, some who have been here since their humble beginnings in Barbeau. Truckey says the company rewards their workers with annual Christmas parties for the workers and their families; this summer they treated their employees and families to a trip to Thunder Falls in Mackinaw City.
Due to the nature of the work and materials they use (stainless steel), they don’t purchase much locally, beyond office and janitorial supplies. Truckey says shipping is a simple matter of sending off orders on a UPS or FedEx truck. Customers fly in and out of the
Chippewa County Airport, 20 miles to the south of Sault Ste. Marie and the company.
As for May, he still hunts and fishes in the U.P.,but no longer owns the business. He has stayed on as a consultant.
"Greg is still the go-to guy," says Truckey. "He understands the medical device industry."
Neil Moran is a freelance copywriter living in Sault Ste. Marie.
Photos by Shawn Malone, who can be reached via email.