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The opening in 1 7 of a factory for surgical
instrument manufacture was the origin of a trade that
has since become a key component of Tuttlingen’s
economy. Today, the town calls itself the “world centre of
medical technology,” and with some justification: Local
companies produce millions of surgical instruments
annually for the global medical sector.
Markus Heckmann is from Tuttlingen. He studied
Surgical Engineering at the local university, gaining a
master’s degree in the subject by the age of . Although
his father ran a successful industrial tooling company,
the newly qualified Heckmann wanted to make his
own way in the world – to establish and grow his own
business, and be responsible for his own destiny. In
1990, he did just that, launching Mahe Medizintechnik
GmbH from a 5-square-meter garage.
Early growth meant Heckmann was almost
immediately able to recruit three employees at the
fledgling company, a fact that allowed the ambitious
youngster to set off on a three-year “business trip,”
which would later prove to be the foundation of Mahe’s
global outlook.
Clearly, Heckmann wasn’t your average itinerant
year old. For the first two years of his travels he
settled in India, where he established a repair centre
for medical instruments and endoscopes. On the way
back to Europe, he sojourned for a year in the U.S.,
ostensibly researching other business opportunities,
and generally broadening his understanding of industry
and manufacturing.
“My travels were important to me,” he says. “It was
research, but it was also an opportunity to understand
how people think in other countries. Sometimes it’s
too easy to be focused straight ahead, not looking
left or right. I wanted to make sure I had a view in all
directions.”
His self-education has certainly paid dividends:
The company has grown steadily under his leadership,
to the point that it now has 0 employees, and has
incorporated his father’s industrial tooling business,
which is run these days by his brother, Jochen.
Subsequently, Mahe has become a world leader in the
manufacture of instruments for endoscopic surgery, with
product lines in laparoscopy, sinuscopy, arthroscopy,
gynaecology, urology, micro laryngoscopy and broncho
esophagoscopy.
“It’s not all about hard work,” Heckmann claims,
modestly. “I’ve had some luck, too. It’s also about being
in the right place at the right time, and being open to
opportunities.”
Heckmann highlights a particular business decision
three years ago as one of the turning points in Mahe’s
development. He decided to buy the CNC machine
tools of a local, defunct turning company, allowing the
company to bring design and manufacturing operations
in-house.
“After this, everything really picked up,”
he acknowledges. “We were no longer relying on
external suppliers, and had a lot more control over the
manufacturing process.”
Around this time – at the beginning of 001 –
Thomas Weber, local distributor of Haas CNC machine
tools and rotary tables, dropped in to see Heckmann,
15 www.HaasCNC.com