By Karen Middleton
Charles Tucker said officials of Turner Machine, a company in the tool-and-die business since 1975, saw “the writing on the wall” when the economy took a dip after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
A “change or die” reality struck, but led the company to switch from tooling parts for the automotive and home appliance industries to tooling orthopedic surgical instruments and titanium spinal and limb implants.
It was a big leap, culture and knowledge as well as faith.
“The automotive and appliance businesses were going overseas or to Mexico,” said Tucker, vice president of operations.
Owner Bill Turner, son of John Turner, who founded the business, was out of town Friday.
“We contacted medical companies about doing tooling for them,” said Tucker. “They liked what we did and asked us if we would consider tooling medical instruments. We went to trade shows and on plant tours and we started thinking, ‘Hey, we can do this.’
“We dabbled a little and got our feet wet, but then we knew we had a big hill to climb.”
Tucker said it took a major shift in thinking to go from serving automotive and appliance vendors to the medical field.
“They are just very different clientele,” he said. “They’re a lot more professional.”
Tucker said the company had to upgrade all of its equipment and procedures, get approval from the Food and Drug Administration and earn medical ISO 13485 certification, the Quality Management Standard for medical devices.
“We’ve always been a business to do things in the best way we can and in the most professional way,” said Tucker. “We’ve become one of the highest in demand by our vendors. We went from 30 employees to 80 in less than two years — and that’s a big jump.”
Tucker said the medical implant and orthopedic surgical instruments and appliance business is “growing exponentially.”
“Some of our products have experienced a 15-to-20-percent growth in a month,” he said. “It’s because of the baby boomers. They get to that age and they need this support. We hit the timing just right.”
Tucker said that even with as much growth as the company has experienced, it has really only just begun.
“From what we hear, there is a lot of work for quality shops,” he said. “But the paperwork is immense. We must keep records for 30 years on everything we build. It’s all documented, all the way back to where the ore comes from the ground so it can be traced back.”
Tucker said Turner Medical strives to stay on “the cutting edge” both in equipment and recordkeeping technology.
He said young people choosing a career should explore tooling, especially for the medical fields.
“When everyone else is suffering, we’re begging for help,” said Tucker. “We actually have to turn work down, there’s so much of it out there.”
Tucker said the company works closely with Calhoun Community College.
“Calhoun has an excellent machine shop training program,” he said. “We also offer co-ops to their students.
Tucker said ideal job candidates would have had tooling experience.
“Those with auto and appliance tooling experience are very skilled,” he said. “If they have four or five years of experience, with a year of training (in the medical tooling field) they can pretty well do what we do.”
He recommends that students both in high school and college take as many science and math courses as they can to prepare. “That is very valuable to this industry.”
Tucker said the company has always been very family oriented.
“If someone has to come in an hour or two late because of having to take care of some family matter, then it’s no problem,” he said. “We’re a lot more lenient in that regard than other places. And our employees tell us they appreciate the way we treat them.”
Tucker said there are three factors that guide the company philosophy: quality of products, delivery and profitability.
“Number three is important, but we can’t do it without one and two, and vice-versa.”
