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WHY INDIANA?
When Micropulse was founded more than 35 years ago just outside Columbia City in northeast Indiana, the new contract manufacturer’s mission was simple: find customers. It didn’t matter if those customers were from the automotive industry, aerospace, or another sector. But time and circumstances eventually led Micropulse to focus entirely on orthopedics. It doesn’t hurt that northeast Indiana is known as the “Orthopedics Capital of the World.”
More than 20 years later, the orthopedics industry has treated Micropulse well, fueling its growth from a two-person operation in its founder’s garage to what is today a major manufacturer with more than 500 employees.
The majority of the company’s customers are located outside Indiana, but northeast Indiana is the perfect central location for Micropulse, and the region’s orthopedics cluster has provided the perfect ecosystem for the company’s growth.
“I think Indiana is the best place to do business of all the 50 states,” said Brian Emerick, who founded the company and still runs it today.
Emerick cites the state’s low cost of doing business and the support of state and local economic development officials—and even the Indiana Department of Transportation, which has helped Micropulse navigate some road issues in the vicinity of its 262,000-square-foot office and production facility in rural Whitley County.
For all the support Micropulse has received from government officials, the biggest benefit the area offers is its people.
“We don’t have much turnover,” Emerick said. “Once people start, they usually stick.” He said the company draws its employees from a 30-mile radius of its facility. “There are a lot of very loyal people here.”
COMMITMENT TO COMMUNITY
Micropulse draws more than 90 percent of its business from customers located outside Indiana, but the company is all in when it comes to supporting the northeast Indiana orthopedics cluster and the community at large.
Micropulse and its leaders have literally grown the area’s orthopedics cluster by investing in or taking a lead role in the creation of about 15 companies that serve the orthopedics industry. Two of the most promising companies, Restoration Medical Polymers and Nanovis, are poised to grow and add to the area’s renown.
Emerick estimates that about 25 percent of Micropulse’s business comes from companies that he or his associates played a role in starting.
The Micropulse team is also actively involved in making sure young people in northeast Indiana are exposed to and ready for careers in orthopedics if they choose to be. Company employees make presentations about advanced manufacturing in local schools and sit on the board of the Northeast Indiana Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education. NEINFAME connects students with employer partners who provide select students with mentoring and paid work experience.
Emerick himself sits on local school and economic development boards and is committed to seeing young people in his home county and beyond succeed.
Micropulse also supports the community by encouraging its employees to do the same. The company’s gain-sharing program for employees distributes to them money, a portion of which employees use to support an area not-for-profit of their choosing.
Bob Vitoux, president and CEO of OrthoWorx:
“Micropulse’s commitment to the community is what makes them special,” said Bob Vitoux, president and CEO of OrthoWorx, a group that advocates for the northeast Indiana orthopedics cluster. “They have a high degree of engagement with their workforce and their customer base.”
“Born here, raised here, grown here.” That describes Micropulse from top to bottom, Vitoux said, adding that the company’s approach to growing the business and the local economy draws on the area’s agricultural roots. “You work hard and play hard, but you also plant seeds and water and nurture them.”
Northeast Indiana continues to benefit from the seeds Micropulse has planted.
FAST FACTS
WHO: Micropulse
FOUNDED: 1988 in the garage of founder Brian Emerick
PRIMARY BUSINESS: Contract manufacturer supporting the orthopedic industry by providing instruments, implants, cases and trays, and sterile packaging
WHERE: 262,000 square feet of production and office space near Columbia City, Indiana
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 525, all in Indiana