PRECISION ADM
SUPPLY CHAIN REACTION Local innovators produce medical swabs and masks
BY WENDY KING
W innipeg’s Precision ADM and its local partners have a fix for weak links in the medical supply chain. Instead of seeking more outside suppliers, the company is designing and producing essential equipment right here in Manitoba. Early in the pandemic, officials across the country scrambled to secure personal protective equipment (PPE). Then there was a shortage of the naso-pharyngeal swabs that are needed to collect samples for accurate COVID-19 testing. Enter Precision ADM, an advanced digital manufacturing contract company. Using 3D printing technology, it services multiple sectors, including medical, energy and aerospace. It is unique in the supply chain because it has high-level certification in a variety of fields, allowing it to work on highly regulated components with a great deal of complexity. “The local health authorities asked if we had any contacts in our supply chain that could help with procuring medical supplies,” says CEO Martin Petrak.
“Some supplies were lacking, some were just poor quality, shipments were being stopped at the border — there were all these problems.” Since Precision ADM was already servicing the medical sector with component production, it was a logical idea to tap into the company’s network. A better idea? Tap into its internal expertise. “We’ve moved from being a supplier of someone else’s product to designing and manufacturing our own, which has spawned our new subsidiary, Precision ADM Medical,” says Petrak.
Using a polymer prototyping process
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WINTER 2020
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