U.S. Based Manufacturer is primed to compete with offshore competitors
NEW HOPE, Minn., June 28, 2024 – VitalPath designs and manufactures custom, highly complex catheter solutions for medical device OEMs. The company specializes in meeting customers’ most challenging requirements, such as single or multidirectional deflection, pushability, kink resistance and torque response. Serving customers in the electrophysiology, structural heart, neurovascular, peripheral vascular, left ventricular assist, intracoronary, intravascular lithotripsy and renal denervation, VitalPath is the culmination of three distinct catheter manufacturing companies formerly known as VitalDyne Medical, Catheter & Medical Design, and Modern Catheter Technologies.
In December of 2023, VitalPath welcomed Max Weis as Chief Operating Officer. Max brings more than 20 years of medical device manufacturing experience from previous roles at Heraeus Medevio and Molex as a global operations leader with a track record of continuous improvement and consistently
demonstrating year over year improvements. Max’s breadth of Medical Device manufacturing leadership expertise includes lean and 6 sigma, production planning, scheduling, and floor control. His dedication to meeting vital customers’ expectations is evident in how he inspires his team to provide rapid response and prompt delivery.
Finalizing the integration of the three legacy companies into One VitalPath and centralizing functions has been one of the top priorities of the Operations team since Max joined. By centralizing planning, procurement, facilities, and EHS across the four sites, the organization has been able to improve decision making, reduce costs, enhance quality of work, and amplify their agility and productivity.
In addition to the improvements achieved through centralization, within his first 7 months of joining the organization, Max and his team have also been driving efficiencies through continuous improvement to lower the cost of manufacturing. “We have a strong team here at VitalPath with a lot of passion for improving patient lives through the products we build for our OEM customers. By bringing in some lean principles and best practices, the team has been able to balance the lines, improve product flow, and increase yield, ultimately ensuring we are delivering for our customers on time with a continued focus on quality. All the hard work that the team has been doing at our sites has been to provide a local U.S. based design, development, and manufacturing option for our customers that is competitive with offshore and low-cost manufacturing countries,” states Max Weis, Chief Operating Officer.
“With Max’s leadership in operations and his attention to our customers’ needs, we have been able to consistently deliver for them on time and with a high level of quality. Our Mission is to partner with our customers, to help dramatically improve quality of life for patients around the world. We do this by delivering exceptional, high-quality complex catheter solutions through impassioned customer relationships, innovative engineering, and operational excellence. Max and his team have truly brought the excellence to our operations with the many improvements they have made to be more efficient and productive. With Scott Larson leading our design and development and Max Weis at the helm of our manufacturing, I am thrilled for the future of VitalPath and the solutions we will make in partnership with our customers,” says Andrew Holman, Chief Engineering Officer.
VitalPath has more than 350 employees at four Minneapolis area locations. Featuring ISO 7 & 8 cleanrooms, the company has FDA registered sites and is ISO 13485:2016 certified. In addition to speeding customers’ time to market through design and development, the catheter manufacturer is also uniquely positioned to consolidate supply chains with vertically integrated capabilities to bring complete complex catheters to market for vital customers. Their comprehensive suite of capabilities support complex component manufacturing with laser cutting, welding, ablation, forming and bending, catheter development and assembly with extrusion, braiding, and coiling as well as finishing and value add with tipping, flaring, swaging, laser drilling, skiving, machining, and marking
