Medtronic Recovers From Recall With Quick Shipping by UPS

When Medtronic recalled its entire line of Sprint Fidelis implantable cardioverter defibrillator leads, UPS established operations at the firm’s Puerto Rico manufacturing facility while the devicemaker aggressively transitioned production lines to its older Sprint Quattro leads.

During the company’s earnings call last month, Medtronic CEO Bill Hawkins said the UPS office helped expedite shipments by delivering directly to customers, enabling the firm to meet product demand after the recall was initiated last October.

Medtronic worked with its suppliers and manufacturing operations in Puerto Rico to ramp up and transition manufacturing back to Quattro, Hawkins said. The company also re-engineered its distribution platform, moving it from a build-to-forecast model to a build-to-order model.

The firm previously said it was able to meet nearly all demand for implantable cardioverter defibrillator leads following the recall and market withdrawal of Fidelis, initiated because of higher than expected fracture rates. The company reached more typical manufacturing and inventory levels by early January.

Medtronic is on track to launch a single-coil Quattro lead, similar to Fidelis, in the first quarter of fiscal 2009. The firm said the lack of a single coil lead hurt sales, particularly in some western European markets.